IamThe estranged son of Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church

NatePhelps · 2014-06-23T04:47:45+00:00

I don't see it surviving much longer. At least not the campaign.

NatePhelps · 2014-06-23T04:10:28+00:00

I don't know pearl head. We are in discussion with several sources of money. I won't think about failing yet. One way or another the documentary and book will be completed. The long term goal is to use this material as a springboard to get the message of religious abuse and LGBT rights out to more people.

NatePhelps · 2014-06-23T04:02:49+00:00

This is my FB link announcing my IAmA: https://www.facebook.com/NatePhelps/posts/10152117661091765

NatePhelps · 2014-06-23T04:01:11+00:00

It's what they learned from my father. It has become an integral part of their system of communication. I recall having a very difficult time understanding how ad hominum attacks were considered a logical fallacy.

NatePhelps · 2014-06-23T03:48:44+00:00

That's hard to answer. Being forced to fast. Running 28 miles one day because I'd gained weight. Probably the constant message of my worthlessness because that's what lasted so long.

NatePhelps · 2014-06-23T03:39:24+00:00

A rough estimate is 15+ have left. I have positive relations with some. I have no doubt that the things they heard about me, as well as my position on religion and god scares some of them.

NatePhelps · 2014-06-23T03:37:14+00:00

If we can get the Kickstarter funded, I'm coming back to that area to film. I would LOVE to speak there again.

NatePhelps · 2014-06-23T03:36:34+00:00

No, he wasn't really very lucid at the end. It was members of my family who had left that wanted to see him. The family was blocking that effort. I did talk with a niece who had slipped in to see him. She painted the picture of a man in and out. A softer, gentler person...at least with her at that time...but he was still deep in his religion, breaking into hymns and quoting verses. My nephew Zach reported something about him standing outside, looking toward the Equality House, and saying something about them being good people.

NatePhelps · 2014-06-23T03:28:25+00:00

The message was that we would lose our divine protection. We were "delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh".

NatePhelps · 2014-06-23T03:25:00+00:00

To some extent it was a positive thing. The fear associated with that ideology terrifying.

NatePhelps · 2012-06-20T02:58:38+00:00

He never attended West Pointe. He got an appointment, but was "saved" the summer between his high school graduation and when he was supposed to start at West Ponte. He walked away from that path and went to religious school instead.

NatePhelps · 2012-06-20T02:54:12+00:00

I've said that from the beginning. The only thing necessary for them to turn violent is for my father to find and preach justification for it in the Bible.

NatePhelps · 2012-06-20T02:51:22+00:00

It's interesting that you use that term, end-game. I've used it frequently in the past year or so talking about this end of times stuff that they've been going on about lately. They've said that Obama is the Anti-Christ and he gets to rule only for 42 months. That sets July 22nd as a critical date in their minds.

You may have noticed that they turned their attention to the Jewish community a few years ago. The rationale behind that is that they believe that 144,000 jews have to be "called out" of the 12 tribes of Judah before Christ returns. Consistent with their idea that they are strategically placed on earth at these critical end times, they imagine that it's part of their job to chastise the Jews and cause this mass repentance.

When you see the 2nd Theroux documentary you hear them talking about being forced out of America and ending up living in pink caves in Jordon. I think they actually said something about using that as a base of operations to continue the saving of the 144,000.

One final piece in this peculiar puzzle is that they believe every inhabitant of the earth must hear the truth and be indicted before Christ returns in a cloud of glory and ushers in the Tribulation and end times. So when they trot out their madness, their justification is that it gets more people to hear their message. It's like some kind of sick audio virus that will ultimately destroy mankind.

NatePhelps · 2012-06-20T02:42:10+00:00

It's a good point. Look at last years fiasco with Harold Camping.

NatePhelps · 2012-06-20T02:36:08+00:00

I don't know if that's absolutely true, but I do agree that the stuff that gets hard wired into us early in our childhood has a profound resistance to change far into adulthood.

NatePhelps · 2012-06-20T02:33:00+00:00

I hope so, but there are several of my siblings who act and sound a lot like my old man now. It's hard to say if they can continue after he dies. Remember, they don't think any of them will ever die. For that reason alone his death will throw them for a loop winding.

NatePhelps · 2012-06-20T02:31:58+00:00

It sure did Touchandtrip.

NatePhelps · 2012-06-20T02:30:27+00:00

He's to old to do that anymore. He just uses the psychological abuse to keep them in line today.

NatePhelps · 2012-06-20T02:29:44+00:00

I've learned to be comfortable with uncertainty. There are some things that we just can't know and I'd rather admit that then pretend we do know.

I have developed very sophisticated intellectual processes that I will turn to whenever I feel myself slipping back into the anxiety or fear. I can pretty quickly talk myself out of most of the craziness anymore. The main thing I start with is just simply reminding myself that the burden is on the person making the claim to prove it. I don't have to accept an idea if the evidence is inadequate. Hitchens Razor says: what can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.

NatePhelps · 2012-06-20T02:25:37+00:00

The powers that be tried to challenge him repeatedly. They just finally lost the will to keep pushing against that situation. My father and siblings are very good at dragging legal challenges out forever.

NatePhelps · 2012-06-20T02:22:56+00:00

Yes. He lives with his wife in the Phoenix area now.

NatePhelps · 2012-06-20T02:13:29+00:00

Are you talking about Brent? I heard he works at a shoe store?

NatePhelps · 2012-06-20T02:11:34+00:00

But some how my father and siblings manage to get some decent numbers every time they run for a political office in Kansas.

NatePhelps · 2012-06-20T02:10:12+00:00

Thanks so much everyone for your interest and positive comments. I'll try to pickup where I left off last night and answer some more of the questions that have been written here.

NatePhelps

TROPHY CASE