Fred Phelps "on the edge of death"

[CapnAwesome]

I think Esquilax was interested in why Fred Phelps was excommunicated, not Nate Phelps. The article seems to suggest that Fred was excommunicated by the church last year.

Whops, I totally misread both Esquilax's and Stimbo's post. Sorry about that.

Maybe Fred Phelps had a moment of remorse and renounced all the hate he preached? More likely, it was internal politics. I agree, I'd like to know more about that story.

Who knows. I'm super interested as to why he was excommunicated as well. Maybe he did have a change of heart. Not everything in life is so clear cut and as angry and delusional as Fred Phelps was, nobody is all bad or all good. Did you know that he was a civil rights lawyer in his earlier years?

Civil rights cases

Phelps earned a law degree from Washburn University in 1964, and founded the Phelps Chartered law firm.[17] The first notable cases were related to civil rights. "I systematically brought down the Jim Crow laws of this town," he claims.[7] Phelps' daughter was quoted as saying, "We took on the Jim Crow establishment, and Kansas did not take that sitting down. They used to shoot our car windows out, screaming we were nigger lovers," and that the Phelps law firm made up one-third of the state's federal docket of civil rights cases.[18]

Phelps took cases on behalf of African-American clients alleging racial discrimination by school systems, and a predominantly black American Legion post which had been raided by police, alleging racially based police abuse.[19] Phelps' law firm obtained settlements for some clients.[20] Phelps also sued President Ronald Reagan over Reagan's appointment of a U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, alleging this violated separation of church and state. The case was dismissed by the U.S. district court.[20][21] Phelps' law firm, staffed by himself and family members also represented non-white Kansans in discrimination actions against Kansas City Power and Light, Southwestern Bell, and the Topeka City Attorney, and represented two female professors alleging discrimination in Kansas universities.[18]

In the 1980s, Phelps received awards from the Greater Kansas City Chapter of Blacks in Government and the Bonner Springs branch of the NAACP, for his work on behalf of black clients.[20]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Phelps...ghts_cases