http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2014/03/16/dying-wbc-pastor-ex-communicated.html

"excommunicated" is a rather grand term to use for a fringe, lunatic denomination of low-church protestantism.

i believe the generally accepted term among evangelicals is "de-fellowshipped."

Hum noticing some high levels of hypocrisy here by some. Phelps certainly deserves the condemnation he gets, but I guess it is ok to be mean to people when you do it, but not when others do it. And I am sure his religion had nothing to do with what made him such a bigot. Naw, religion is not poison.

Yes it is a posion just like a volcano exists. It can be harmless when you know how it works and avoid the danger, but you are the unfortunate well intended cover that gives religion the cover it does not deserve but not accepting it's danger, THAT is the poison you don't want to accept.

When you look at human evolution you know all religion is is a comic book reflection of our evolutionary grouping. Your refusal to see it as such is the poison that allows humans to be divided. You also stupidly think my RIGHTFULLY calling it a poison is some sort of demand to get rid of it by force.

Religion exists like a sugar pill the poison is that we don't see it as such. That allows humans to set up tribes and allows us to ignore that we are centering our grouping on bullshit, not reality. You are part of the problem and your good intent doesn't solve a damned thing. Religion only deserves protection from a human rights stanpoint, but the contructs and claims it makes and the fans of such have to be challenged at every turn otherwise that dormant volcano will explode.

Your good intent is like a parent assuming the safety cap on the bottle of bleach will never be compromised by the kid who has access to the cabinets at ground level. Unless you treat religion like a poison you will not reduce the harm it can and will do.

 "Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with their surrounding environment, but you humans do not.  You move to another area, and you multiply, and you multiply, until every natural resource is consumed.  The only way you can survive is to spread to another area.  There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern.  Do you know what it is ?  A virus.  Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet..."  Agent Smith.

   Dear Brian37, it's pathetic how a fictional character from the Matrix movie speaks with more insight and wisdom than a real world idiot like yourself.    Self righteous atheists who think like you are poison.

A protest/demo at this guy's funeral would have been rather amusing. What a Class A dick he was. Perhaps big signs saying "Fred Phelps is Not Burning in Hell". 

And where did he get his ideas from? A BOOK, and on top of that he was reading it correctly unfortunately. Our western pluralism is not because of religion, but in spite of religion. READ the entire motif of ALL THOSE BOOKS. The centeral figure(God/s of Abrham), is set up to lead the reader to follow him, and and anyone outside that particular club is a threat to this head figure.

It makes sense that this character was written that way BACK THEN, because back then in a very real life sense you were duty bound to protect your tribe, so the motifes in antiquity would bleed into the religions of antiquity.

And even liberal theists in my state of NC voted overhwelmingly against gay marriage, they got their justification from the same god as Abrahm as Phelps did even if they were not foaming at the mouth like he did. 

If one is willing to accept that holy books are not science textbooks, and they are not, then part of our modern pshychology which is rooted litterally in evolution cannot be replaced with the placebo crutch of religion anymore than a kaliedoscope can replace a telescope.

Your evolutionary sense of empathy, which is understandable, but missguided, allows believers to cling to the past. It allows us to make the group the pataint holder on morality when science says that our morality is evolutionary. You coddle their myths and you merely give them cover to keep using a kalidieoscope and thus give them excuses to set up social pecking orders based on their crutches.

Dakwins an evolutionary biologist EXPLAINS why this delusion exists. Harris explains why it is important for modarates and liberals NOT to ignore the cover they give people like Phelps. And Hitchen's book is dead on in aptly discribing the destructive nature of religon. You want less people like Phelps? You want Jews not to be targets of oppression? You want women to have more rights? You want less homophobia in worldwide? You will not get it with well intened PC tatics.

 I wonder now that he is out of the way if the remaining members are going to scatter to the winds ? 

I am not saying that Phelps himself was the sole motivator, as his daughter and other kids helped keep it going but it makes me wonder.

I remember back in the 1990s Idaho was a stronghold for Aryan Nations (also called themselves the Church of Jesus Christ Christian) and although it was a series of infighting and lawsuits against them for hate crimes that brought them down, I remember reading that only within a year after the death of their "leader" (can not remember his name) that the whole organization which was once some sort of White Supremacist stronghold, had crumbled away and was all but forgotten. 

Perhaps the same thing will happen to the obnoxious entity known as Westboro. 

I agree with economic uncertainty and many other social factors that is a fuel for the extremist religions. Take the above post about the Aryan Nations. During the early 90s I do remember a bad recession at the beginning, skyrocketing unemployment, the gay march on Washington, the Million Man march etc. In such a climate it is of little wonder that angry people, desiring an enemy, could flock to the upsurge of both right wing extremists like Aryan Nations. After all, not only did they offer people bigotry, they offered people bigotry and racism that was sponsored by god himself. 

But extremism, religious fanaticism, and whatever, will remain as always a factor and force in the world. 

I recently attended a lecture by this professor Alan Lightman that was trying to promote his new book, in which he claims that he has "proof" for the existence of a spiritual realm. What was interesting is after an hour long lecture that stated that we are pretty much just biological animals and that there is zero evidence for any sort of god, he switches tactics, shares some horseshit drama story about birds in flight, and concludes their is a spiritual universe. 

I looked around at all the people vigorously nodding their heads and it hit me, people do not want logical arguments, evidence, etc. They want to be able to "feel" special in the empty universe and religion/spirituality offers that. 

And in times of really bad insecurity, how easy it is to flock to the more fanatical of causes and how easy it is to believe in them. While Westboro may be seeing the beginning of an end and others, there is always going to be another group to take its place I agree.