21 March 2014 - Death of Fred Phelps
Activer le mode zen
Fred Phelps dies at 84; Westboro Baptist's preacher of hate
Steve Chawkins (The Los Angeles Times)
Fred Phelps, a publicity-hungry Kansas pastor who picketed hundreds of military funerals because he believed America was too sympathetic to gays, died early Thursday in Topeka, Kan. He was 84.
His daughter, Margie Phelps, confirmed his death to the Associated Press but did not give the cause.
With his small Topeka congregation, Phelps also demonstrated at funerals and memorials for Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, former Mormon leader Gordon B. Hinckley and heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio — any observance, regardless of any connection to gay issues, where cameras might be rolling.
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Reaction
Matt Pearce (The Chicago Tribune)
Nathan Phelps, Phelps' son and an LGBT activist: "Fred’s ideas have not died with him"
Nathan Phelps, who fled the Westboro Baptist Church to become an advocate for the very causes his father opposed, said the fight wasn't over in a statement released through Recovering from Religion:
"Unfortunately, Fred’s ideas have not died with him, but live on, not just among the members of Westboro Baptist Church, but among the many communities and small minds that refuse to recognize the equality and humanity of our brothers and sisters on this small planet we share. I will mourn his passing, not for the man he was, but for the man he could have been. I deeply mourn the grief and pain felt by my family members denied their right to visit him in his final days. They deserved the right to finally have closure to decades of rejection, and that was stolen from them."
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UK analysis
Rob Williams (The Independent)
Fred Phelps, founder of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church, and the “Gods Hate Fags” fundamentalist movement, has died, according to his son, Timothy Phelps. He was 84.
The highly controversial anti-gay extremist had in recent years been excommunicated from the church that he founded.
Phelps gained notoriety though protesting at the funerals of gay people and American soldiers by holding signs saying "God Hates Fags" and "Thank God for 9/11."
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Obituary
David Von Drehle (Time)
He was the kind of person no one wanted to be around
Fred Phelps, a colossal jerk, died Thursday in Topeka, Kansas, at 84, after a long life in which even his few admirable achievements (a series of civil rights cases that he filed as an attorney) stemmed from a deeply disagreeable personality (he loved to pick fights with his neighbors). He was the kind of person no one wanted to be around: a lawyer disbarred by his colleagues, a preacher disowned by every denomination he ever espoused, a father rejected by his children—even, in the end, the children who emulate his worst characteristics.
Ordinarily, such an unpleasant and despicable man would not make much of a stir by dying. But Phelps was different from the garden-variety grinch in one important way: He had a thirst for notoriety and a genius for getting it.
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"21 March 2014 - Death of Fred Phelps", La Clé des Langues [en ligne], Lyon, ENS de LYON/DGESCO (ISSN 2107-7029), mars 2014. Consulté le 26/04/2024. URL: https://cle.ens-lyon.fr/anglais/key-story/archives-revue-de-presse-2014/21-march-2014-death-of-fred-phelps