Nate Phelps has posted his comments about the convention, including his entire speech, on Atheist-Nexus.
Nate Phelps has posted his comments about the convention, including his entire speech, on Atheist-Nexus.
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a great story thanks for posting it dave.
I would also like to mention that Nate has his own website up and running and has posted not only the speech but also an excerpt from his upcoming book. please feel free to check out http://www.natephelps.com.
That’s what I’m doing right now.
While his story is one of the most extreme I have ever read, it is not remotely alien to the philosophy of Christianity or any other religion.
I spent years in the Bible belt as a child, I had the “word” fed to me in so many different forms as to make your head spin, and yet each one was inspired by and the very thoughts of God. I was told that when Cain killed Able he went to the land of Nod and there took a wife, but if it were only Adam and Eve and himself on earth, who did he take as a wife? Why an ape of course, hence the start of the non white races.
I was taught not to associate with non Christians, so my poor mom was left out in the cold for about a year as I had written her off as damned.
My minister helped me set up my mom for salvation when I was about 10 by inviting her to the weekly spaghetti feed (southern Baptists love their spaghetti) She arrived after 8 hours of working in a Christmas tree factory on a conveyer belt, only to be turned away because she was wearing pants, and I like the good little Jesus youth, bid her farewell and joined the church triumphant for pasta.
Often we are asked about our hostility towards religion, stories like Mr. Phelps punctuate my loathing for the sky talkers and their vile beliefs.
I dont believe in the devil but when I see fred phelps it makes the myth seem more plausible. I cant begin to imagine what it must have been like to have been raised in that family (especially as a gay man myself).
A disturbing tale – even more so because Fred Phelps isn’t behind bars. Good for Nathan for speaking out so eloquently.
Tarma
I was thinking the same thing. The beatings the Phelps children received were nothing short of torture.
I learned nothing new about the Phelps cult from the new footage, having watched several documentaries and having read several articles, other than, that he was a disgraced attorney.
For every Phelps, Jim Jones, Ted Haggard, Jimmy Swaggert, etc. clear thinking individuals are reminded of the corrosive influence of religion on society. The preaching of hate, the devisive plan, and eventually, the exposure of the ultimate hypocrisy.
But, what’s sad is that the majority of practicing christian look at them as fringe elements that don’t represent the teaching of christianity. Even after the pediphile priests, they persist in that mindset. It’s just like Phreedumb, and JCCoff, they want to preach creationism according to the Bible, but, will not answer questions nor, for a second, examine the proof contained in what they call the word of god, that they worship a homocidal, sociopathic monster. It’s that dark chamber of their minds that they fear to peer into, even though they preach that the truth will set us free. That’s one of the few truths they speak, but they just don’t understand what it means, that we must dissect these things we believe and determine if they stand the test of truth.
I guess the mental price is too high. They’d have to give up the comfort of that Bernie Madoff investment in the sky.
None so blind as he who will not see.
NeoWolfe
If Phelps believes the damnation/salvation question a fait accompli in the Calvinistic sense, why does he feel the need to taunt and be vile at funerals? But then I have often wondered why phreedm feels the need to taunt, insult, be smugly self-congratulatory to a bunch of people he thinks are going to be tortured forever and ever and ever. If *I* really thought that way, the way phreedm does, I would be filled with compassion and sadness for the condemned.
[...] Nate Phelps Story in His Own Words « No God Blog [...]
Im curious as to how old fred himself was brought up. Was it an angry and abusive upbringing or did he pick up his firey beliefs and temper later in life? that level of crazy has got to be inherited through nature and nurture.
thx said,
“If *I* really thought that way, the way phreedm does, I would be filled with compassion and sadness for the condemned.”
Response: I believe I can answer that question. It’s the same dillemma that all Christians face. While they desire to believe in a loving, compassionate, forgiving god as a father image, to do so, they must also believe in Yahweh of Armies in the old testament, an angry, jealous, viscious mass murderer. To hate the sin and love the sinner is to deny the nature of the origin of his god, Yahweh the slayer.
NeoWolfe
There is some new information hinting that westboro baptist church might be planning a mass suicide. Fred has control over several children who are victims of his hate and I just hope that he doesnt do anything to harm them. Nate perhaps you should get the authorities involved.
http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid80486.asp#Receipt