Westboro Baptist Church ‘Thanks God’ For Fred Phelps’ Death

After the Rev. Fred Phelps Sr. died Wednesday night, Westboro Baptist Church, the Topeka, Kan.-based group he founded, issued a lengthy public statement. The “religious” organization thanked God on their apparent Twitter account, which has 18,500 followers, for his passing. In a blog post titled “Your Dashed Hopes,” the group issued a “commentary” on how Phelps had “gone away from the flesh.”

Many people across the country were glad to hear that their 84-year-old homophobic founder had died, and WBC referred to their glee as a hypocritical “vitriolic explosion.” Through Twitter posts, it almost seemed WBC was taken aback by the number of people who were happy to hear Phelps had died.

“You made a new “don’t say anything mean” standard that you judged Westboro by,” the group tweeted. “Now you’re all FAILING!”

In another tweet sent their "thanks" to God for Phelps dying.

Earlier in the week, Phelps' estranged son Nathan wrote on Facebook that his father was near death and had been expelled from the group he founded. In the blog post after his death, the WBC seemed to address Phelps reportedly being excommunicated from the organization. “Listen carefully; there are no power struggles in the Westboro Baptist Church, and there is no human intercessor – we serve no man, and no hierarchy, only the Lord Jesus Christ."

“No red shoes, no goofy hat, and no white smoke for us; thank you very much.” Referring to the attention over Phelps' death and his supposed excommunication, they added: “You’re like a bunch of little girls on the playground waiting for some gossip!”

For seemingly the first time, the WBC said they would pray for their enemies. “There is only one hope for any human – inside or outside of this little church – that God gives you repentance unto salvation,” the group said. “We pray that the Lord will do just that for any of our enemies whom he has predestined to eternal life.”

Many have wondered when, where and if a funeral for Phelps will be held, but the WBC has said they do not "believe" in worshiping the dead so it's unlikely they will hold a service for their founder.

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