Fred Phelps of "God Hates America" to Picket Jerry Falwell's Funeral

Westboro Baptist Preacher Claims Falwell in "Hell"

Fred Phelps, the head of the Westboro Baptist Church, plans to picket and protest at the funeral of televangelist and Liberty University founder Jerry Falwell, who died Tuesday at age 73. Falwell, the leader of the political organization the Moral Majority and frequent political spokesperson for the religious right on political matters, was found unconscious in his office at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia this morning. He was pronounced dead after transport to a local hospital according to the Associated Press.

The Reverend Fred Phelps of Westboro Baptist Church developed the website "God Hates America," which chronicles Phelps' perceptions of sin and evil in the United States. He posits that the reason for such events as the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the protracted war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Amish schoolhouse shootings in Pennsylvania stems from the United States' tolerance of homosexuality.

Phelps and his followers frequently stage protests and pickets at funerals of fallen soldiers, protesting with megaphones and large signs, claiming that "God Hates Fags" and "God Hates America" and so forth. On his website, GodHatesAmerica.com, he lists flyers that can be downloaded and prints, which detail Biblical explanations for various events such as September 11. His website also details why such celebrities and political figures as Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II, Coretta Scott King, and Reggie White are in, as Phelps states, "hell."

Phelps is no fan of the recently deceased televangelist, Jerry Falwell. In a press release on Phelps' website, he states:

"WBC will preach at the memorial service of the corpulent false prophet Jerry Falwell, who spent his entire life prophesying lies and false doctrines like 'God loves everyone'.

There is little doubt that Falwell split Hell wide open the instant he died. The evidence is compelling, overwhelming, and irrefragable. To wit: