There are several different sections to the site including; Home, FAQ, Fag Facts, Fliers, Photos, Sound, Pickets, Gospel, and Fag Churches. The most defamatory and immoral are the “Fag Facts” and the “Pickets.” “Fag Facts” lays out frightening and disgusting lies about the lifestyle of gay individuals. Some of these ideas are that “17% of fags eat and or rub feces of their partner on themselves, the average fag fellates somewhere between 20 and 106 men, swallows 50 seminal discharges, has 72 penile penetration of the anus, and ingests feces of 23 different men every year, [and] homosexuals account for half the murders in large cities.” These salacious lies are offered as facts, which many ignorant individuals will believe to be true helping to essentialize the church’s claim of the unnaturalness of homosexuality. In the picket section of the website, details are given of the various pickets the church has sponsored throughout the United States. Events such as funeral’s of gays, rallies, court proceedings and even the funeral of President Clinton’s mother were all subjected to signs that read “God Hates Fags,” … “Thank God for AIDS”… and “AIDS Cures FAGS.” Rev. Phelps claims that protests and his website administered by his grandson are the only way to end the demoralization of the country.
In an interview of Rev. Phelps posted on the site he answers questions about the seeming hatred that his group espouses. Rev. Phelps states that the group “preaches to homosexuals…hoping that they will repent and abandon their self-destructive life style.” He goes on to say “the highest and noblest form of love on this earth is to tell people the truth.” The truth that Rev. Phelps is talking about is that “God hates fags” and that God is sovereign and does not love everyone. Rev. Phelps further claims that he’s “never seen a homosexual assaulted and battered, but [his] church members have been the victims of homosexuals assault and battery and spitting and throwing rocks and set off bombs over at the church…” To make the claim that homosexuals are not the victims of hate crimes, and that it is his church members that are the true victims is truly inflammatory given that it was his church that picketed Mathew Shepards funeral.
The objective of the church, which is to “preach the Gospel truth about the soul-damning, nation-destroying notion it is OK to be gay” can be both positive and negative to the gay community. The negative aspects of the site and its ramifications are obvious. The inflammatory lies about God and the Bible regarding hatred as well as the disgusting “fag facts” that Rev. Phelps publishes on his website can be extremely influential to devote Conservative Christians. Many individuals who might be tolerant of gays, after being exposed to Rev. Phelps subjective analysis of the Bible and Gods word might be confused into believing that God really does hate. These individuals who often live in small towns do not come into contact with a lot of gay individuals, therefore they are unable to relate and can only rely on what someone tells them. The influences that church leaders have over their constituents and in this case web visitors is quit high given that they are “men of god.” The danger of this site is that it can easily influence uneducated people and this could lead to increased incidences of hate crimes against gays as well as possible rollbacks in civil rights.
On the positive side, this site is so inflammatory that the majority of people who look at this site see that it is only about spreading hate. The use of so many derogatory words and phrases only takes away from influencing more people. I believe that most people can see right through Rev. Phelps attempt to classify gays as purely evil sinners who deserve to go to hell. Christianity does not teach hate like Rev. Phelps seems to think, but instead teaches forgiveness and love. Rev. Phelps will pay in the end for the choices he made while he was alive, his decisions to preach hate, I believe will bar him from God’s eternal love.