Nate Phelps is the son of Pastor Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church, which gained infamy from their protests at soldiers’ funerals around the United States. He is the seventh of thirteen children, and was taught his father’s extreme version of Calvinism from an early age. This was accompanied by extreme physical punishments and abuse, extreme dietary and health requirements, and other extreme expectations. Nate left home at midnight on his eighteenth birthday, and moved to California where he built a new life away from his family. He later moved to Canada, and only recently began speaking out about his story after a chance encounter with a reporter while driving a cab in Cranbrook, British Columbia. Nate has now spoken about his story to many groups around North America, and even returned home to Topeka in 2010 to tell his story to the people in his hometown. Today Nate lives in Calgary, Alberta and works for the Center For Inquiry. He is a vocal
LGBT advocate, and speaks out against the dangers of religion and child abuse.
He is currently working on a book which covers his exceptional story, and is the subject of an upcoming documentary film.( excerpt from his website)
I hope you caught Nate on the Joy Behar show today!
http://joybehar.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/24/robin-meade-a-country-star/
An excerpt from Nate's book about the night he left Fred Phelp's abusive home:
http://natephelps.com/story
If you're in the area, Nate is speaking here:
Saturday, May 7, 2011 @ 1:30 PM
Imagine No Religion
Kamloops Center for Rational Thought
Kamloops Convention Centre
www.natephelps.com
Nate Phelp's blog referencing the Supreme Court decision about WBC and freedom of speech:
http://n8rphelps.blogspot.com/
~Kate
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