Estranged from family:

Fred Waldron Phelps, Sr. (born November 13, 1929) is an American pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), an independent Baptist church based in Topeka, Kansas. His church is monitored as a hate group by the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center. He is a disbarred lawyer, founder of the Phelps Chartered law firm and previous candidate for political office and was a civil rights activist in Kansas. He and his daughter, Shirley Phelps-Roper, are banned from entering the United Kingdom. He and his family are currently notorious for their anti-gay protests, claiming that most natural disasters and terrorist attacks are God's punishment for a society that tolerates homosexuality.

He is known for the slogans that he and his ministry use against people he deems sinful, including "God Hates Fags", "Thank God for Dead Soldiers", "America Is Doomed" and "Priests Rape Boys." He claims that God will punish homosexuals as well as various public figures such as Bill O'Reilly, Coretta Scott King, Ronald Reagan, Howard Dean, and anyone else whom his church considers "fag-enablers".