I've had a chance to sit down with a pastor and we talked about Westboro. Fred Phelps' story is a pretty sad one. He was a pretty solid figure in the civil rights movement and was well-respected. He's even run for office as a democrat a couple times. But then he started changing. He went from a good man to a man full of hate.
Now, no other church supports Westboro and it's mostly Phelps' family who attends. Westboro is called a Baptist church, but they aren't affiliated with any Baptist organization. Why? The Baptist conventions refuse to have anything to do with him.