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Monday, August 4, 2008

Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church Catches Fire

posted by on August 4 at 10:57 AM

The Kansas City FOX affiliate has the basics:

The home of Fred Phelps, the leader of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, caught fire [early Saturday morning].

[F]irefighters put out the flames and began their investigation.

No one got hurt in the fire.

Firefighters have not said yet if it was arson. But, church members believe it was arson because of their controversial stances.

The church is known for it’s anti-homosexual picketing at the funerals of soldiers.

As Towleroad notes, “A neighbor of the church says she believes it was an elaborate attempt by the Church itself to scare her into selling her property, which she says they’ve been trying to do for years.”

Leona McQueen is 91 years old. Her garage is about 30 feet away from the site of the fire. McQueen says she has been butting heads with church members for decades. She says the fire may have be an elaborate attempt to scare her into selling her house. McQueen said, “They keep claiming that this property is theirs, and it is not theirs. They keep wanting to buy me, but I don’t want to sell it. I don’t know if whether they are trying to push me out. I don’t know.”

Westboro Baptist Church Member Shirley Phelps-Roper said, “It’s a ridiculous accusation. The fire was started by someone as we slept. Thankfully the lord our god keeps us in all our ways. The noise that they made the fire was so big and voluminous the popping and cracking woke people up.”

Meanwhile, head loony Fred Phelps is blaming the fire on “judges,” those black-robed devils whose evil has necessitated the expansion of Hell:

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: God should sue Fred Phelps.

RSS icon Comments

1

i vote for the phelpses doing it. pity it wasn't set by someone else and that it wasn't bigger. i though ol' man phelps was on his deathbed! guess not.

Posted by scary tyler moore | August 4, 2008 11:14 AM
2

I'm not sure where he got this, but Joe.My.God. included this juicy tidbit:

Oh, and while the fire department put out the fire, church members picketed them.

Posted by UNPAID BLOGGER | August 4, 2008 11:17 AM
3

Leona McQueen sounds like a bad-ass little old lady.

Posted by laterite | August 4, 2008 11:20 AM
4

Now who does God hate?

Posted by Joe M | August 4, 2008 11:23 AM
5

I hope the neighbor has arranged to will her property to someone trusted who will never sell to the church.

Posted by lostboy | August 4, 2008 11:28 AM
6

I want Phelps to die in the same way as the scary ass bishop in Fanny & Alexander. That would be a fitting end.

Posted by keshmeshi | August 4, 2008 11:56 AM
7

if america is doomed and there is no freedom why don't they MOVE somewhere else, make their own new world, they could squat a fucking island or some shit...like the pilgrims! you'd think that shit was obvious.

Posted by nipper | August 4, 2008 12:01 PM
8

I love that "fag court" graphic. Can I be tried there???

Posted by Jubilation T. Cornball | August 4, 2008 12:08 PM
9

@7, but then they'd have no one around to antagonize.

Posted by lostboy | August 4, 2008 12:08 PM
10

the graphic for "fag court" looks vaguely like a gay phelps, bending over the pulpit, so to speak...

Posted by mike | August 4, 2008 12:23 PM
11

the graphic for "fag court" looks vaguely like a gay phelps, bending over the pulpit, so to speak...

Posted by mike | August 4, 2008 12:24 PM
12

as a proud fag sympathizer, i must say that this guy is off his fucking rocker, and i hope he gets what's coming to him.

Posted by suzanne Riley | August 4, 2008 12:29 PM
13

I don't let that kind of trash bother me.
Violence will only make martyrs of them and we don't want that, now do we? They will destroy themselves. That kind always does.

Posted by Vince | August 4, 2008 12:31 PM
14

Lost in all this is the phrase "No one got hurt in the fire". How 'bout we try "was", instead of "got"? Or is this the week they're letting the junior high kids write the reports?

Posted by Journalism 101 | August 4, 2008 12:40 PM
15

I grew up in Kansas and had numerous run-ins (and one attempted run-over) with the Phelps clan. I even had an honest-to-goodness conversation with Fred about South Africa. Funny story. The Phelps' were picketing Archbishop Desmund Tutu when some kids with kerosene filled squirtguns doused Fred and his signs. Sadly, the kids didn't have the balls to light him on fire. It was fun to watch the nutballs scatter and furiously call everyone around them "violent rapists."

Posted by DENVEROLOPIS | August 4, 2008 12:43 PM
16

Sounds to me like a garden-variety "Act of God".

Posted by RonK, Seattle | August 4, 2008 1:00 PM
17

I've never actually heard him speak before. He doesn't seen like all that charismatic or persuasive a speaker. Is it just the fact that he's willing to go there on the crazy-hate scale that gets him followers?

Scary.

Posted by Al | August 4, 2008 1:36 PM
18

Who ever lit the molotov must be really dumb; you aim for the most populated building then throw! I'm surprised the attempts to actively harm them in the past yeilded very little results, maybe we are learning from this?

Posted by Will | August 4, 2008 1:46 PM

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