I think not.
No...
I know this just isn't so.
Although Fred Phelps (it pains me to use the title Rev for this bozo so I'm just not going to) is constantly labeled "extreme right-winged" or "fundamentalist Christian" by the mainstream media and those on the left (oh wait, they're one and the same) who would like very much to align him with the right and Christians in general, nothing is further from the truth. Phelps seems to spend almost as much time protesting Conservatives, Christians, and combinations of the two as he does homosexuals.
Take Dr. James Dobson's Conservative Christian organization Focus On The Family for example. Focus On The Family held a "Love Won Out" conference in 2003 in which former homosexuals talked about how they had been liberated from their sin, and were now living happy lives as heterosexuals and how some homosexuals have successfully changed not just their behavior, but their orientation (therapies both secular and religious have proven successful for some). Wacko Phelps and Company showed up to protest Focus On The Family because they teach that it is possible for homosexuals to become straight and Phelps believes that homosexuals are so evil that they should be left to die in sin and depravity, instead of becoming straight and Christian. Conservatives and Christians hardly claim Phelps as one of their own, they distance themselves from him and his message.
Fred Phelps is not a far right-wing Christian nut job, he's just a plain old nut job. One who promotes hatred, outbursts of wrath, contention, jealousy, vengefulness, misery, harshness, and selfish ambition, even according to his own son. I'd like to add spousal and child abuse to that list and I'm sure there's so much more. And all in the name of God, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. But let's back up just a moment, I should elaborate some more on what the son's thoughts on the man are as this is more telling than my own thoughts and opinions.
The eloquently perceptive description and ending of this letter from Phelps' son, even after what he has endured at the hands of his own father, serves as further proof that there is (so obviously lost on Phelps himself), forgiveness, love, and hope left in this world.
Here's a letter by one of Phelps' sons describing his father.
"What is he like? Well, it's been 19 years since I left home, but his behavior still appears to be the same. He considers his environment to be against him without admitting, acknowledging or taking responsibility for how he contributes to that. He likes to show himself as being moral, pro-family, pro-Bible, but his actions just don't add up to that. I believe in God and the Bible, and my father's behavior doesn't fit the description of behavior that would show in the life of one who loves God; behavior characteristics such as Love, Joy, Peace, Longsuffering, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-control. Instead, my father's behavior characterizes, I believe, Hate, Outbursts of Wrath, Contention, Jealousy, Vengefulness, Misery, Harshness, and Selfish ambition. He mis-states the truth about his own behavior, about others, about the Bible, with apparent ease and regularity. He behaves with a viciousness the likes of which I have never seen. He accepts no genuine accountability in his life and is subject to no one. His lifestyle betrays the sacred trust of what a pastor, husband, father and grandfather should be. I suppose if a comparison were made between the life of Jesus Christ and my father, there would not be much to compare.
I also realize that my father is a very unstable person who is determined to hurt people. And because he is so bound to be hateful and hurtful, and because he's so untrustworthy, I believe it's a good idea to respond to him with caution much like the caution used when dealing with a rattlesnake or a mad dog. You see, the causes that he crusades for, including the Bible, are not the issue here. He simply wants to hate and to have a forum for his hate. If the causes he focuses on were the issue, that is, if they really meant something to him in his heart and he meant for the things he does to be for the good, his behavior would not be what it is. He would not betray his message with his behavior. But, when he needs to, to vent his hate, he readily goes outside the bounds of any previously stated 'value' or 'cause' he may have supported. He experiences no moral dilemma when it comes to doing what he wants to do. If it weren't the homosexuals, it would be something else."
And yes, as Dr. Phat Tony correctly reports, it is something else, only madman Phelps has managed to weave his anti-homosexual theme around anti-American troop-bashing, at least in his own perverted and disturbed mind.
I simply want to be counted in the 'he needs an a**-kicking' school of thought, as many conservatives, even though it's not a very forgiving thought. I also solemnly promise to donate, as well as gather donations from others, for the legal defense of anyone who might give in to temptation and give Phelps a sound beating because wrong as that might be, I clearly understand the urge.
Or Alabamians could just take the high road finding legal ways to subvert the loon's protests as was reported by BlackFive concerning other Fallen Heros Funerals Protested by Phelps.
"On the corner of a narrow street lined with Colonial-era buildings, the Kansas contingent tried shouting its anti-homosexual message at mourners who overflowed from the church. But every time demonstrators spoke out, the 14-man Boston Police Department bagpipe band broke into thunderous sound..."
Yeah, that works too.
