New York, NY, October 4, 2000 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today issued a report on the Rev. Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church, a group whose public crusades against homosexuality have included hate pickets across the country. The ADL report says that Phelps also espouses anti-Semitism and racism, a fact that is largely obscured by the church’s highly charged attacks against homosexuals.

"Fred Phelps has made patently clear his mission of targeting gays with hateful rhetoric and public demonstrations," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "What is less widely known about Fred Phelps is that he and followers of the Westboro Baptist Church have also attacked Jews, Blacks and Christians. He and his church continue to spread vile rhetoric against many groups."

In Their Own Words: Fred Phelps & The Westboro Baptist Church examines hateful remarks the Topeka, Kansas-based church has made over the last decade. While putting a public face on its crusade against homosexuality, Phelps and the Church have issued hate literature attacking Blacks, Jews, other minorities and Christians with great force. Likewise, members of the church have staged protests at many non-gay events, in some cases targeting mainstream public officials and government entities that Phelps believes to be encouraging homosexuality.

Meanwhile, Phelps has established an Internet presence rivaling that of any extremist organization, including his "GodHatesFags" Web site, where highly offensive messages and hate literature published by the Westboro Baptist Church may be viewed or downloaded.

Founded in 1967, the church staged its first public demonstration in 1991 by targeting a park in Topeka the group claimed was frequented by gays. Hundreds of protests across the country have followed, including pickets at the funeral of gay murder victim Matthew Shepard in 1998.

In addition to speeches on picket lines, the Westboro Baptist Church spreads its hateful message using faxed fliers and "News Releases" that are often posted on the group’s Web site. The group operates a second Web site, "God Hates America," where it contends that the United States is "doomed" because it supports gays.

On the "GodHatesFags" Web site, attacks against homosexuality are mixed with virulent remarks aimed at Jews, Blacks, Christians and the United States government. The following quotations are excerpted from ADL’s In Their Own Words: Fred Phelps & The Westboro Baptist Church

-- "Fag Jew Nazis are worse than ordinary Nazis. They’ve had more experience. Jews stirred up the Romans to butcher 6 million Christians in the catacombs in the 1st century. The First Holocaust was a Jewish Holocaust against Christians. The latest Holocaust is by Topeka Jews against WBC …"

-- "The Jew lawyers and judges of Temple Beth Shalom bastardize and prostitute the legal system to maliciously prosecute and persecute innocent Westboro Baptists, just as their Jewish ancestors manipulated the Roman legal system to torture and crucify the Lord Jesus Christ and persecute His disciples."

-- "Worldwide Jewry and worldwide Fagery appear to have the same problem: They both want to criminalize Gospel preaching under misleading labels. Jews label Gospel preaching as Anti-Semitism; Fags label Gospel preaching as "Hate Crimes." Both groups – Fags and Jews – are doomed!"

-- "It’s NOT OK to be gay. It will damn the soul, destroy the life, and doom any nation that tolerates such evil. God Hates Fags is a profound theological statement, which America needs more than it needs oxygen or bread."

-- "Filthy sodomites crave legitimacy as dogs eating their own vomit & sows wallowing in their own feces crave unconditional love."

-- "Anybody babbling about "multicultural affairs and "celebrating diversity" is a propagandist for the militant sodomite agenda. … Westboro Baptists will picket this black obfuscator, in religious protest and warning. Being Black won’t get you into heaven. But promoting fags will take you to Hell."

-- "Filled with shyster lawyers and crooked judges, the Episcopal Church USA is a cesspool of sodomite sin and crime."

-- "Fag priests and dyke nuns is the order of the day for Kansas Catholics. They deserve the sick, perverted leadership that now dooms and damns them."

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.