“God Hates Fags” Son Speaks [VIDEO]

A member of the Phelps family church in her natural habitat. Flickr/<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/26806952@N08/3641968507/">K763</a>.

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


If you know Mother Jones, you know the Reverend Fred “God Hates Fags” Phelps. In just the past week, we’ve carried two stories touching on the Kansas hatemonger and the extended family that comprise his Westboro Baptist Church—a “crew of sign-carrying flat-earthers, whose shtick involves loudly thanking God for smiting gay-loving, libertine America and its sworn defenders.” They crisscross the nation, spreading their “God is hate” gospel at the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan; at grade schools; and anywhere else they can score a permit and a TV crew.

Never let it be said that Phelps doesn’t practice what he preaches. He’s had 13 children, and a few of them—the ones who rubbed a few extraneous brain cells together and found Daddy’s command of theology wanting—have found themselves on the outs with the family. After copious beatings, that is.

One of those children, Nate Phelps, quietly slipped into the ether, working as a cabbie in Cranbrook, British Columbia. But a chance encounter with a journalism student in his taxi led to a riveting news article…which led to a speaking engagement at an American Atheists convention…which led to this. Last week, Phelps sat down for an extended TV interview with reporter Peter Klein of The Standard, Canada’s 60 Minutes. This is no prodigal son; he ain’t ever going back. But the story of where he’s been and what he’s seen is absolutely amazing, from the stories of abuse to his father’s drug dependency. Watch the full video and read selected quotes after the jump.

On how Fred Phelps hates everyone:
“I think ultimately it’s that he hates everybody. I think, ultimately, it comes back to what’s happening going on inside of him, and that it manifests itself in all these ways that we see in the signs and their activities.”

On Fred Phelps beating his wife and kids:
PHELPS: “Part of his belief system was that he was to administer corporal punishment on not only the kids, but to his wife…”
KLEIN: “Corporal punishment—like beatings?”
PHELPS: “Yeah, there was a lot of that…He was a very angry person. So, when he was administering it, it was extremely violent at times, lasting for hours…there would be some of the violence, then he would just go on these hour-long rants about how our behaviour was violating God’s law.”

On Fred Phelps taking drugs and forcing his kids to run marathons:
“He had gained a lot of weight because he was taking drugs—amphetamines, and then he needed barbiturates at night. He was going to law school and he really got himself in trouble healthwise, and ended up in the hospital and came out of that with this determination and rather than just going out and developing an exercise program for himself and getting himself fit, it turned into this obsession of running 5 or 10 miles every day, and then eventually it turned into, we’re running 15 and 20 miles, and we’re going out and running marathons. Which, okay, that’s not the end of the world—but we’re talking about 7- and 8-year-old kids running 25 miles at a time. It points to this extreme behaviour.”

Thanks to The Standard senior producer Jonathan Roth for the video. MJ

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate