Son of Fred Phelps Says Enough Hate

In case you missed it, here's last night's exclusive interview with Nate Phelps, the sixth of thirteen children who fled his family and its fundamentalist church the moment he turned 18. Now, more than 30 years later, he is publicly denouncing the Westboro Baptist Church and their cruel funeral protests — and sharing details about what he says were frequent beatings from his controversial preacher father as a child. The church, based in Topeka, Kansas, is known for preaching intolerance against just about everyone, most acutely homosexuals, during funerals — often those for soldiers, sometimes after high-profile crimes. The type of protest will be argued before the Supreme Court this fall. You can see their signage above. Fred Phelps, now 80, declined to be interviewed. Chris Bury and producer Claire Pedersen did find some family at a protest and asked Nate's sister, Shirley, the church spokesperson, about the beating allegations.  As Shirley, pictured below, made clear, it was a strap and a paddle.