Phelps is a minister cut from the same cloth as Pete Peters. In fact, he and Pete are good friends and soul brothers as Pete hawks Fred's anti-homosexual audiotapes. His 'church' consists entirely of family members who live in close proximity to the church and to one another. A 12-foot high privacy fence surrounds their compound, and 'church' membership is of course closed to the general public.
To the rest of the world, Phelps is best-known for his local and national picketing which he misnames his "street ministry". He cranks out from 3-10 obscene, slanderous fliers each week and faxes them to media, businesses and government agencies throughout the city whether they want them or not. He mislabels this endeavor "his fax ministry".
Phelps is in reality an embittered 65 year old former lawyer and convicted criminal who was disbarred several years ago in both state and federal courts because he lied to and about judges, cheated his clients, abused every facet of the legal profession and its powers in and out of court and otherwise behaved boorishly in and out of court. Four of his 13 children have left him and say he beat them and his wife unmercifully for many years, forced them as children to sell candy door to door to support him while he attended law school, cheated the IRS out of thousands of dollars for years. Three other 'church' members have also been convicted of crimes and Fred and his 300 lb. lawyer son, Jonathan, will be going on trial later this year on still more criminal charges. All of his children still attached to him are angry, grossly obese, obsessive-compulsive freaks with law degrees who misuse their law degrees to bully and intimidate the local populace into tolerating their illegal conduct. There is NOTHING they won't do to further their goals: vandalism, covert surveillance, harassing phone calls, anonymous threats, etc. and they indeed have intimidated many in Topeka. They have bought off a few politicians who were able to keep them from being arrested for three years until the scheme was investigated by the sheriff and exposed. The chief of police resigned in disgrace because he's order Topeka police not to arrest the Phelpses even if they observed illegal conduct. Most of the time, the police wouldn't even take complaints of Phelps illegal conduct from citizens. But that's changed.
They file dozens of frivolous lawsuits against public officials and private citizens every year clogging and have kept state and federal courts clogged up with these lawsuits for the last three years. (This is just a continuation of one of the patterns of conduct that got Phelps disbarred and 3 of his lawyer children severely disciplined in the late 1980's.) He's lost just about every one of them and will soon be ordered to pay the state hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees. I expect he'll declare bankruptcy.
Phelps has a national radio show which can be heard on about two dozen Amerinet network affiliates, by the Amerinet shortwave station and on the Amerinet downlink satellite site (Galaxy 6, Transponder 23, Audio 8.1 wide 8 pm CDT Sundays). Amerinet is owned and operated by Jeff Baker, a radical Florida anti-abortionist and militia leader. Phelps makes many anti-Semitic statements on his show (something new since he took up with Baker), rails against abortion, and in general spouts the Christian Identity line. He requires all the women in his 'church' to wear their hair past their considerable waists in 'subjection' to him.
Phelps is also a close friend of Greg Dixon, 'pastor' of the Indianapolis Baptist Temple which actually is no longer a church the IRS having taken away their church status. Phelps often refers to Dixon in his faxes and radio show, and last October during the nationwide Christian Identity gatherings, Phelps addressed Dixon's assemly in Indianapolis. Dixon is the founder of the American Coalition of Unregistered Churches, a front group for tax protestors/Posse Comitatus.
Phelps is nose-deep in the Posse Comitatus himself. Four of his close associates, whom he occasionally lists on the 'church' roster when advantageous in his lawsuits, are self-confessed members of the Posse, various local militias, and the Freemen. One of the Freemen arrested in Montana, Jon Barry Nelson, is/was a member of our local Freemen group that included several WBC members.
Phelps claims that he is fighting a battle on First Amendment grounds of freedom of speech and religion. He uses the homosexual theme merely as a diversionary vehicle to draw our attention away from what he's really up to which is the fulfillment of the Christian Identity agenda. For three years, he's picketed mainline church services and funerals and unfortunately has succeeded through violence and intimidation in driving away good people from these churches. He has a distinctly political rather than a religious message. He is a political action committee, not a church! He attempts to influence every political issue in this community, covertly gives money under the table to unethical politicians and carries political messages disguised in and wrapped in pseudo-Biblical terminology.
Some Fun Phelpsisms:
1. According to Phelps Topeka, Kansas is "the most evil spot on the face of the earth, where Satan's seat is - whose zipcodes bear the Mark of the Beast; where bloody, state-sponsored religious persecution on a scale not seen since the days of the Spanish Inquisition rages against humble Baptist preachers - whose monicker (nickname) is The Golden City as in ancient Babylon, city of whores and harlots and whose mascot, The Ichabod, means 'the glory of God has departed.'"
2. He picketed President Clinton's mother's funeral. Many people acquainted with Phelps mistakenly believe he pickets only the funerals of homosexuals and/or AIDS victims. Not true. He pickets anyone, anywhere whose funeral is likely to draw media attention and/or large crowds. Crowds and publicity are the two magnets that attract this pile of human filings.
3. ANYONE who disagrees with him or challenges him regardless of sexual preference is a "fag", "bull dyke", "whore" and/or "bastard" on billboard-sized signs painted with bright neon letters and all referenced by Biblical chapters and verses. Again people acquainted Phelps believe he only pickets homosexuals and businesses owned by homosexuals. Wrong. 99% of his local picketing is against heterosexuals who've opposed his neo-nazi, gestapo style. He pickets the local daily newspaper, government and law enforcement buildings, courthouses, the Jehovah's Witnesses Convention, Boy Scout meetings, day care centers, pediatricians' offices, traveling entertainment, theater and concert productions (he even picketed 'Frosty the Snowman' and the 'Ice Capades'), high schools, school board meetings, cultural exhibits, other lawyers' offices, restaurants - the list is nearly endless. Fred could really care less about homosexuals - they're simply a vehicle for him to abuse and harass people of all sexual orientations.
4. Last year one of his grandsons, Sam Phelps-Roper then aged 17, petitioned the school board to have his picketing activities counted as an 'extra credit' project.
5. A few months ago he tried to get a new pickup truck that has two large plywood rear panels that read "Dole heart (for loves) Fags" off the tax rolls claiming that the truck is used solely and exclusively for religious purposes. The state Board of Tax Appeals denied his request. Phelps is suing.
6. His adult children (most of them lawyers) frequently chase people in their cars leaning out of their car windows, gesturing with their middle fingers, yelling obscenities and writing obscenities on notebook paper and holding it against car windows.
7. Phelps or the designated adult child collect the paychecks of his adult children and sons and daughters in law, removes their 'tithes' and allocates the remainder of their money as he sees fit.