Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Fred Phelps

2009-02-21T21:00:16Z

Conservapeer: /* Recent Activities */

[[Image:Phelps.jpg|right|thumb|Fred Phelps giving an interview in 2000]]'''Fred Phelps''' is [[pastor]] of the independent [[Westboro Baptist Church]], an extremist organization not affiliated with mainstream [[Baptist]] churches, and is a controversial activist against [[homosexual]] behavior. Phelps is noted for rallies displaying signs with highly inflammatory and [[extremist]] statements. He is said to hold a "[[Hyper-Calvinism|hyper-Calvinistic]] viewpoint" generally regarded as far outside of mainstream Christianity by most Christian scholars. Most of the congregants of the Westboro Baptist Church, which is located in [[Topeka]], [[Kansas]], are related to Phelps either by blood or marriage.

Phelps has openly denounced the [[Catholic Church]] and [[Episcopal Church]] and has made claims these religious organizations tolerate and harbor homosexuals and pedophiles. He has also referred to a variety of political figures as "fag-enablers", ranging from Republican Presidents [[Ronald Reagan]] and [[George W. Bush]] to Democrats such as [[Howard Dean]]. His views are rejected by the majority of [[conservative]] [[Christian]]s; [[evangelical]] leader [[Jerry Falwell]] referred to him as a "first-class nut"<ref>http://cjonline.com/webindepth/phelps/stories/102498_protests.shtml</ref>.

Phelps has led protests at military funerals based on his belief that America is a country that harbors homosexuals and is thus evil. As a result, President [[George W. Bush]] signed the Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act, which places limitations on protests at military funerals. These demonstrations led to the formation of the [[Patriot Guard]], an organization of motorcyclists who attend military funerals in order to shield the families of the deceased from the protests by members of Phelps's Westboro Baptist Church.<ref>[http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-09-13-funeral-protests_x.htm Funeral protesters say laws can't silence them], By Charlie Riedel, Associated Press, July 2006. Retrieved from USA Today October 14, 2007.</ref> Phelps is being represented by the [[ACLU]].<ref>[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/22/AR2006072200643.html ACLU Sues for Anti-Gay Group That Pickets at Troops' Burials], By Garance Burke, Associated Press, July 23, 2006; Page A02. Retrieved from the ''[[Washington Post]]'' October 14, 2007.</ref>

Phelps has been an active contributor to the [[Democratic Party]] and was enthusiastic supporter of [[Al Gore]] for President in 1988.<ref>http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/1999/03/lauerman.html</ref> Phelps's son, Fred Phelps, Jr., also served as a delegate for Gore. <ref>http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=15559</ref>

Phelps has since changed his opinion about Gore when he joined [[Bill Clinton]] on the 1992 presidential ticket. Phelps turned on him and claimed Gore was a conservative icon of the Democratic Party that sold out on some critical social issues. Phelps also demonstrated against Clinton and Gore during the 1997 inaugural. <ref> http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID={91058469-F6DE-4615-8B2A-73CDF3E8FCAC} </ref>
<ref> http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4179/is_20001104/ai_n11753681 </ref>

== Phelps' Criticism of Religious Leaders ==

Phelps runs several websites on the Internet which preach against [[homosexuality]] and immoral living. Phelps espouses a skewed version of his own "literal" interpretation of the [[Bible]] and the holy scriptures, and speaks against mainstream religious and Christian leaders who in his view, distort or twist the literal interpretation of the Bible. Phelps also speaks for greater accountability for religious organizations, such as the Catholic Church, and has been vocal in the press and media concerning the abuse of young boys by Catholic Priests and Church Leaders, and practicing homosexuals in the Episcopal Church.

== Phelps and the politics ==

Phelps ran for governor of [[Kansas]] as a [[Democrat]] in 1990, 1994, and 1998.<ref name="ref4">[http://edition.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/08/05/kansas.results/ 1998 Kansas Primary Results. Compiled by Congressional Quarterly.]</ref> Phelps received 31% of the vote in Kansas's 1992 Democratic Party primary for [[U.S. Senate]].<ref>[http://www.kssos.org/elections/elections_statistics.html State of Kansas Secretary of State Website]</ref> In 1993 Phelps ran for mayor of [[Topeka]]. and 1997. <ref>[http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=21229 The "God Hates Fags" [[Left]]], By Mark D. Tooley, FrontPageMagazine.com, February 09, 2006.</ref><ref>[http://www.religionnewsblog.com/1128/kansas-anti-gay-church-embarrasses-topekans Kansas anti-gay church embarrasses Topekans], November 7, 2002. Retrieved from ReligionNewsBlog.com, October 11, 2007.</ref> He supported [[Al Gore]] in the 1988 primaries, but turned on him in the 1992 election where he staunchly opposed Gore, [[Bill Clinton|Bill]], and [[Hillary Rodham Clinton]].

== Phelps and Saddam Hussein ==

In 1997, upset about [[United States]] sanctions on [[Iraq]], Phelps wrote a letter to [[Saddam Hussein]] that read, in part, ''We understand that Iraq is the only Muslim state that allows the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to be freely and openly preached on the streets without fear of arrest and prosecution. Alas, the United States no longer allows the Gospel to be freely and openly preached on the streets, because militant sodomites now control our government, and they violently object to the Bible message.'' <ref>http://www.adl.org/special_reports/wbc/wbc_on_america.asp</ref> He requested, and received, permission from Hussein to protest in Iraq. <ref>http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID={91058469-F6DE-4615-8B2A-73CDF3E8FCAC}</ref>

== Lawsuits and Litigation ==

*Phelps and his congregation were recently sued by Albert Snyder, the father of a soldier killed in Iraq. Phelps and his congregation protested the Iraq War at his son's funeral. The father sued for defamation over Phelps' statement: "Mr. Snyder raised his son for the devil and hell," during the funeral protest and in statements on his website. A federal jury in Baltimore awarded him nearly $11 million in a verdict against the church; Mr. Snyder won on every count of his complaint, receiving $2.9 million for compensatory damages and $8 million for punitive damages.

*Phelps has also been threatened with prosecution by the Canadian Government for alleged hate speech in Canada for preaching what he has stated are the literal teachings of the Bible against homosexuality.<ref>[http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=15559 Gore sought help from anti-homosexual group], 'God hates fags' creator preaches 'hate because the Bible preaches hate', By Jon E. Dougherty, ''WorldNetDaily.com'', October 25, 2000.</ref>
*Already picketing daily in Topeka, the Phelpses began to shower faxes on the community, targeting business and political leaders they disagreed with. After Topeka councilwoman Beth Mechler publicly doubted Phelps' claims that wild [[gay sex]] was occurring in Gage Park, Phelps responded with an insulting fax.

==Criticism of Phelps==
Phelps has been criticized by a great number of individuals, both conservative and liberal. For example, [[Jerry Falwell]] referred to Phelps as "a first class nut". <ref>http://cjonline.com/webindepth/phelps/stories/102498_protests.shtml</ref>

Illinois Family Institute Executive Director Peter LaBarbera said "Fred Phelps' curious message is hardly Christian, and only fuels societal bigotry toward those who espouse genuine Biblical views on social issues like homosexuality and abortion," <ref>http://www.eleventh-avenue-south.com/archives/2005/08/fred_phelps_a_p.html</ref>

Phelps was also cited during Canadian deliberations<ref>http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/dec/07121806.html</ref> about declaring anti-gay sentiments to be a hate crime.

== Pickets ==

Phelps announced that he and his group would picket the funeral service of actor [[Heath Ledger]].

In February 2009, Phelps' group announced that they would travel to the [[United Kingdom]] to protest in [[Basingstoke]] against a gay-themed play called [[The Laramie Project]], based on the murder of [[Matthew Shepard]].
However, the British Foreign Secretary [[Jacqui Smith]] later announced on February 19th that they would be barred from entering the country as the group "engaged in unacceptable behaviour by inciting hatred against a number of communities". Phelps' group later responded with a message on their website GodHatesFags.com stating:

"You British Bastards will not have Jesus Christ to rule over you, and think you can issue bans and pass laws to remove God’s word from the landscape. You do greatly err, not knowing the power of God; and, you do that against your own interests. It is a great kindness to have God’s prophets in your land. But, you ungrateful brutes despise knowledge. It is too late for the UK. God Hates You! God’s wrath and destruction is all that’s left for you, thanks to Secretary Smith."<ref>http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-11226.html</ref>

== Outside links ==
* [http://blank.org/addict/ Addicted to Hate: the story of Fred Phelps]
*[http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4413388146858417528&q=Westboro+Baptist+Church+BBC&total=2&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0]The Most Hated Family In America
*[http://toiletpaperonline.typepad.com/the_blog/2006/03/how_much_do_you.html Oh yeah, and he used to be tight with Al Gore]
*[http://rodonline.typepad.com/rodonline/2007/05/rev_fred_phelps.htmlRev. Fred Phelps' Unhinged Video Message to the Cheneys]
*[http://www.adl.org/poisoning_web/homophobia.asp Poisoning the Web: Hatred Online], Anti-Defamation League (2001). Retrieved 05/23/07.
*[http://www.godhatesfredphelps.com/ God Hates Fred Phelps], Retrieved from http://www.godhatesfredphelps.com/ October 25, 2007.

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

[[Category:Religious People|Phelps, Fred]]
[[Category:Activists]]
[[Category:Anti-war Movements]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Phelps, Fred}}

User:Iduan

2009-02-02T00:22:59Z

Conservapeer:

{{Paroled|Iduan}}

__NOEDITSECTION__

Can you please have some dignity and answer the comment I left on your talk page... --[[User:Conservapeer|Conservapeer]] 19:22, 1 February 2009 (EST)

'''I''' am Issac Duan of [[Arlington, Virginia]] - a [[suburb]] right next to the [[District of Columbia]].<br/>
{| width="100%"
|
<div class="horizontal">
__TOC__
</div>
|
{|class="wikitable" style="float:right; width:500px"
|+<big>Favorite Users</big>
|-
!colspan="2"|<small>(not ordered)</small>
|-
|style="text-align:center"|<div class="horizontal">
*[[User:Philip J. Rayment]]
*[[User:CPAdmin1]]
*[[User:Karajou]]
*[[User:Joaquín Martínez]]
*[[User:DanH]]
*[[User:Geo.plrd]]
*[[User:Aschlafly]]
*[[User:Crocoite]]
*[[User:BethanyS]]
</div>
|}
|}
==Tidbits==
===Favorite Quote===
“Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid...for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.” Deuteronomy 31:6
===My Most Despised List===
I wanted to pick from three categories: global affairs, U.S. politics and ... well I tacked Fred Phelps on at the end simply because I can't imagine anything more hurtful than seeing a protest at the funeral of one of my family members.

*Omar al-Bashir, President of Sudan
**Second place: Robert Mugabe
**Third place: pretty much China's entire government
*Nancy Pelosi
*Fred Phelps
==Conservapedia==
I joined Conservapedia in late April 2007 and started seriously editing in August.

====Contest====
In four contest, I have compiled 2336 points. My record is in the ongoing [[Conservapedia:Contest5]] - where I compiled 1131.
====Pages====
A few of the many articles I've really worked on are [[Cuba]], [[Marquis de Lafayette]], [[Waves]], [[Eddystone Lighthouse]], [[XYZ Affair]], [[Congressional Page]], [[O.J. Simpson]] and [[HTML table formatting]]. I've also done many universities, including [[University of Maryland|UMD]], [[Syracuse University|Syracuse]], [[University of Arizona|Arizona]], [[University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill|UNC]], [[University of Connecticut|UConn]], [[Pennsylvania State University|Penn St.]], [[Johns Hopkins University|Johns Hopkins]], [[Howard University|Howard]] and [[Northern Illinois University|NIU]]. Beyond that I like to spread my edits around - and I also vary it. Sometimes I'll be watching the recent changes and I'll do drastic clean up to a low quality article I see, a lot of other times I'll be clicking "Random page" - and fixing up simple aspects like spelling or wikilinks.

While I have created or radically changed a few pages - as you can see on the right, many of my page edits are minor. I go through each random page and make small changes to encourage consistency - but primarily because if we just create a bunch of articles and then have a lot of crappy ones that are completely out of wack - then we'll turn into Wikipedia. To some extent, this is also why I work in the template space.

====Templates====
I have created a few templates, the ones I'm most prod of are: [[Template:Template]], [[Template:Baseball|Baseball]], [[Template:USState]], [[Template:NBA]], [[Template:NFLDraft]] and [[Template:University|University]] (which I put on about a bunch of articles so far. I also reworded the long, much-hated [[Template:Stub]] and then created with TK a larger redesign towards the goal of standardization. Most of those templates were relatively minor, but the one I'd like to talk about is Citations missing. The goal of that template was to provide a more clean/elegant version of the uncited templates, which in my opinion were over the top. Key differences are viewable through the color scheme - as citations missing keeps the background color of articles, and is separated merely by a border. Also, as far as technical aspects go, Citations missing has a few more links, some of which depend on what page it's put on.

===Goals===
My current goal is to become a sysop. I patrol for vandalism and therefore I need to delete articles fairly frequently, and I also edit templates - most of which are protected - so therefore, without rights, the question is what use am I here? You can vote for me at ((Conservapedia:Sysop contest/Nominations/Iduan)) - I appreciate all and any support.

User:Iduan

2009-02-02T00:22:47Z

Conservapeer:

{{Paroled|Iduan}}

__NOEDITSECTION__

Can you please have some dignity and answer the comment I left on your talk page...

'''I''' am Issac Duan of [[Arlington, Virginia]] - a [[suburb]] right next to the [[District of Columbia]].<br/>
{| width="100%"
|
<div class="horizontal">
__TOC__
</div>
|
{|class="wikitable" style="float:right; width:500px"
|+<big>Favorite Users</big>
|-
!colspan="2"|<small>(not ordered)</small>
|-
|style="text-align:center"|<div class="horizontal">
*[[User:Philip J. Rayment]]
*[[User:CPAdmin1]]
*[[User:Karajou]]
*[[User:Joaquín Martínez]]
*[[User:DanH]]
*[[User:Geo.plrd]]
*[[User:Aschlafly]]
*[[User:Crocoite]]
*[[User:BethanyS]]
</div>
|}
|}
==Tidbits==
===Favorite Quote===
“Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid...for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.” Deuteronomy 31:6
===My Most Despised List===
I wanted to pick from three categories: global affairs, U.S. politics and ... well I tacked Fred Phelps on at the end simply because I can't imagine anything more hurtful than seeing a protest at the funeral of one of my family members.

*Omar al-Bashir, President of Sudan
**Second place: Robert Mugabe
**Third place: pretty much China's entire government
*Nancy Pelosi
*Fred Phelps
==Conservapedia==
I joined Conservapedia in late April 2007 and started seriously editing in August.

====Contest====
In four contest, I have compiled 2336 points. My record is in the ongoing [[Conservapedia:Contest5]] - where I compiled 1131.
====Pages====
A few of the many articles I've really worked on are [[Cuba]], [[Marquis de Lafayette]], [[Waves]], [[Eddystone Lighthouse]], [[XYZ Affair]], [[Congressional Page]], [[O.J. Simpson]] and [[HTML table formatting]]. I've also done many universities, including [[University of Maryland|UMD]], [[Syracuse University|Syracuse]], [[University of Arizona|Arizona]], [[University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill|UNC]], [[University of Connecticut|UConn]], [[Pennsylvania State University|Penn St.]], [[Johns Hopkins University|Johns Hopkins]], [[Howard University|Howard]] and [[Northern Illinois University|NIU]]. Beyond that I like to spread my edits around - and I also vary it. Sometimes I'll be watching the recent changes and I'll do drastic clean up to a low quality article I see, a lot of other times I'll be clicking "Random page" - and fixing up simple aspects like spelling or wikilinks.

While I have created or radically changed a few pages - as you can see on the right, many of my page edits are minor. I go through each random page and make small changes to encourage consistency - but primarily because if we just create a bunch of articles and then have a lot of crappy ones that are completely out of wack - then we'll turn into Wikipedia. To some extent, this is also why I work in the template space.

====Templates====
I have created a few templates, the ones I'm most prod of are: [[Template:Template]], [[Template:Baseball|Baseball]], [[Template:USState]], [[Template:NBA]], [[Template:NFLDraft]] and [[Template:University|University]] (which I put on about a bunch of articles so far. I also reworded the long, much-hated [[Template:Stub]] and then created with TK a larger redesign towards the goal of standardization. Most of those templates were relatively minor, but the one I'd like to talk about is Citations missing. The goal of that template was to provide a more clean/elegant version of the uncited templates, which in my opinion were over the top. Key differences are viewable through the color scheme - as citations missing keeps the background color of articles, and is separated merely by a border. Also, as far as technical aspects go, Citations missing has a few more links, some of which depend on what page it's put on.

===Goals===
My current goal is to become a sysop. I patrol for vandalism and therefore I need to delete articles fairly frequently, and I also edit templates - most of which are protected - so therefore, without rights, the question is what use am I here? You can vote for me at ((Conservapedia:Sysop contest/Nominations/Iduan)) - I appreciate all and any support.

Matthew Shepard

2009-02-02T00:07:47Z

Conservapeer: reply to my comment on your talk page mate

'''Matthew Shepard''' (1976-1998) was an American college student from [[Wyoming]]. On October 7th, 1998, he was savagely beaten and robbed by two men, and died on October 12th. The killers were heavily involved in drugs and had met Shepard in a bar, giving him a ride afterwards.

Many people believed that the drug-related killing <ref>Ben Fritzen, a former police detective, said, "Matthew Shepard's sexual preference or sexual orientation certainly wasn't the motive in the homicide... What it came down to, really, is drugs and money." [http://www.washingtontimes.com/article/20070810/EDITORIAL/108100014/1013/editorial Washington Times Editorial] 8/10/2007 </ref> was in fact a [[hate crime]], although the prosecution never described the killing as a hate crime.<ref name="courttv">http://www.courttv.com/archive/trials/mckinney/110399_verdict_ctv.html</ref> Some gay activists caused controversy when they claimed, even before the details of the crime were known, that the murder was due to anti-gay bias. Once the crime was discovered, Shepard's friends "were calling the County Attorney's office, they were calling the media and indicating Matthew Shepard is gay and we don't want the fact that he is gay to go unnoticed."<ref name="20/20" />

A misguided defense of one of the killers tried to make an issue of Shepard's [[homosexuality]] in order to employ a ""gay panic defense" based upon the defendant's alleged prior homosexual experiences, but this was rejected by the judge.<ref name="courttv"/> In fact, at least one of Shepard's killers claimed in an interview on ABC's "20/20" that money and drugs motivated their actions that night, not hatred of gays.<ref name="20/20">[http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=277685&page=1 20/20 News Story on Matthew Shepard]</ref> One of the girlfriends of the accused testified that they had planned to pretend to be homosexuals so that they could rob Shepard and one of the killers even claimed during the trial that he was [[bisexual]], a claim that was later rubbished by his girlfriend.<ref name="courttv"/>

Ever since Shepard's death it has been cited by gay rights activists to promote legislation to classify attacks against homosexuals as a [[hate crime]] that would be punished more severely than a crime against a heterosexual. All legislation, both in Wyoming and on the national level, has failed, but under [[Democratic]] leadership the [[U.S. House of Representatives]] passed a hate crimes bill in 2007.<ref>http://www.reason.com/news/show/31008.html</ref> President [[George W. Bush]] vowed to veto it at the time.

== External links ==
*[http://homes.thedailycamera.com/extra/shepard/ Matthew Shepard Murder] The Daily Camera.

==References==

<references/>

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shepard, Matthew}}

[[category:Americans]]

Matthew Shepard

2009-02-01T23:57:27Z

Conservapeer:

User talk:Iduan

2009-02-01T23:56:50Z

Conservapeer: /* User - Joaquin Martinez */

{{User talk:Iduan/header}}
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|style="background:white; border: 2px solid maroon; font-weight:bold; font-variant:small-caps"|<div class="horizontal">
*[[/Archive1|(August)]]
*[[/Archive2|(September)]]
*[[/Archive3|(October)]]
*[[/Archive4|(November)]]
*[[/Archive5|(December)]]<br/>
*[[/Archive6|(January)]]
*[[/Archive7|(February)]]
</div>
|}

== [[Template:USState]] ==

Hi, I noticed that you are the main contributor to the above template. It struck me that the template doesn't include the Postal Code abbreviation - I thought this might be a useful addition, what do you think? I can only speak for someone who lives outside the States, but they are certainly seen over here, and quite often I have no clue to which state they refer! Might be something people look for. [[User:ChrisSmith|ChrisSmith]] 18:17, 23 August 2008 (EDT)
:Although I see you haven't edited since February for whatever reason, so this probably won't be answered. [[User:ChrisSmith|ChrisSmith]] 18:19, 23 August 2008 (EDT)

== User - Joaquin Martinez ==

You're correct. Something didn't carry over from the restore with the accent marks. It can be fixed with a simple refresh though. His username is fixed now. Let me know on my talk page if there are any other pages that need to be moved. Thanks! [[User:CPWebmaster|CPWebmaster]] 23:34, 29 January 2009 (EST)
: No problem. If this is the least of our worries after the crash then I'm a happy camper! [[User:CPWebmaster|CPWebmaster]] 23:40, 29 January 2009 (EST)

I'm not even going to bother with you... you didn't take my edit to the discussion page in a respectable manner. You're right I was trying to water it down and yes it wasn't ruled as a hate crime by the court... BECAUSE Wyoming did not have any such "hate crime" laws at the time so it was irrelevant in terms to the murder at the time. However, anybody with half a brain can see it was a hate crime... the two killers used a gay panic defense.. and if you don't know what that means look it up.--[[User:Conservapeer|Conservapeer]] 18:56, 1 February 2009 (EST)

User talk:Iduan

2009-02-01T23:56:28Z

Conservapeer:

Matthew Shepard

2009-02-01T23:43:37Z

Conservapeer: it wasn't just gay rights activists that claimed it was a hate crime, it was the media, politicians, much of the general public