Modern Day Gadfly

A person that is well known and irritating is Fred Phelps, the leader of the Westboro Baptist Church. He thinks that all of our problems in this world have arisen because the general public does not follow the bible closely enough. The main focus of this man’s philosophy is the “problem” of gays in our society. He feels that because there are gays in society, everyone suffers and anyone in the world that isn’t a member of the WBC will all go to Hell. To get his view out into the world, he and his 39 followers go to heavily populated areas where many people will see them. He goes wherever he feels and doesn’t care about others. He has even gone to funerals to protest. One of the most significant of these funerals was for the death of Matthew Shepherd. Matthew Shepherd was a kid in high school that was beaten and left hanging dead on a fence all because he was gay. Fred has tried multiple times to get into a position of power in the government. He wants laws that aren’t made by the people but by his own interpretation of the Bible.