Nightmares about his father?s “brainwashing” tormented him years after leaving his family and their anti-gay church behind.
“If a God was so hurtful and destructive and evil as [my father] portrays, I?ll take my chances with hell,” Nate Phelps, the estranged son of the Rev. Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church, told The Examiner. He criticized the Topeka, Kan., church?s military funeral protests, where his relatives hold inflammatory signs, such as “Thank God for Dead Soldiers,” to demonstrate their belief that God is killing service members as punishment for America?s tolerance of homosexuality.
Nate Phelps, 47, described himself as a victim of a violent childhood, where he alleges his father beat him and his 12 siblings so much that, at one point, they lived in the garage to escape his rage.
“I got most of the beatings because I was the black sheep of the family for as long as I can remember,” Nate Phelps said.
So he left in 1980.
Now living in Cranbrook, British Columbia, Canada, Nate Phelps said his research for a book he?s writing about his family has made him more outspoken against their homophobic message.
“I couldn?t disagree more with it. It?s hateful. What human being has theright to judge another human being?” he said. Joining a dozen other states, Gov. Robert Ehrlich in May signed into law a ban on protests that are likely to incite a fight after Westboro picketed the March funeral of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, of Westminster.
Nate Phelps said he supports the defamation lawsuit Snyder?s father filed in June against the church and legislation limiting their protests.
His sister and the church?s spokeswoman, Shirley Phelps-Roper, dismissed Nate Phelps? criticism as a publicity ploy for his book.
She also refuted the abuse allegations, saying she and her siblings were spanked as the “Scripture requires.”
“Don?t call him my brother. I haven?t seen him 30 years,” she said. “He?s almost 50 years old. He needs to get over it.”
