ADDICTED TO HATE

When Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church brings his family to town it usually creates a scene much like this. As they picket the funerals of our fallen soldiers in an attempt to send their convoluted message of hate to the rest of the world we look on, shake our heads, feel utter disgust and sometimes shout back. But, what do we know about these people?

The children who travel with them are Phelps' grandchildren and the young of some of his followers. We often gasp as an eight or nine year old waves up a sign that we know he cannot begin to understand. How is it that anyone could allow their children to be permeated with such hate and such vitriol?

Unfortunately, the Phelps' clan has been engaged in such reprehensible acts for decades. The inner-workings of this cult are hair-raising and chilling beyond belief. In 1994, a reporter, working for Stauffer Communications filed a lawsuit against his employer for the rights to publish a book about the Phelps' that he had been working on. Stauffer Communications claimed that the work belonged to them. In the court filings, Michael Bell, included a copy of his work making it public record. Eventually, the document was sealed but not before thousands of copies were circulated.

Below is a link to the work as well as the court document. Before the reader begins, however, I must warn you that this is not for the squeamish. It's not for the faint of heart. It is a look into the sickness that has plagued generations of Phelps' and the graphic nature of the story causes the stomach to turn. Please keep that in mind...

TO ADDICTED TO HATE