Role Lawyer Religion Fundamentalist Baptist Parents Fred Phelps | Spouse(s) Brent Roper Siblings Nathan Phelps Name Shirley Phelps-Roper Aunts Martha Jean Capron | |
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Full Name Shirley Lynn Phelps Children Megan Phelps-Roper, Noah Phelps-Roper Grandparents Fred Wade Phelps, Catherine Idalette Johnston Similar People Fred Phelps, Nathan Phelps, Lauren Drain | ||
Shirley phelps roper interview
Shirley Lynn Phelps-Roper (born Shirley Lynn Phelps, October 31, 1957) is an American lawyer and political activist. She is best known as the former spokesperson of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, an organization known for its highly publicized homophobic public protests conducted under the slogan "God Hates Fags."
Contents
- Shirley phelps roper interview
- Shirley phelps roper on fox news
- Early life
- Career
- Legal issues
- Personal life
- References
Shirley phelps roper on fox news
Early life
Shirley Phelps was born October 31, 1957 in Topeka, Kansas. She is the daughter of Margie Marie (Simms) and pastor Fred Phelps, minister of the Westboro Baptist Church, an independent church characterized as a hate group by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Career
Phelps-Roper practices law for Phelps-Chartered Co., the Phelps family's law firm established by her father in 1964, and is currently licensed to practice before all Kansas courts up through the United States Supreme Court.
Besides her father Fred, Shirley Phelps-Roper has been the most active spokesperson of the Westboro Baptist Church and answers many of the e-mails sent to the church in a column called "Dear Shirley."
Phelps-Roper and the church have received media coverage for the group's aggressive preaching and controversial campaigns such as the picketing the funerals of AIDS victims with signs such as "God hates fags" and funeral processions for American soldiers killed in combat.
In 2014 it was reported that Phelps-Roper's duties as spokesperson for the Westboro Church had been reduced, and her authority transferred to an all-male board of elders.
Legal issues
Phelps-Roper was arrested on June 5, 2007, on suspicion of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Police alleged that she allowed her son to trample an American flag while protesting the funeral of a soldier in Bellevue, Nebraska, which is a misdemeanor in the state. Phelps-Roper announced her intent to challenge the constitutionality of the Nebraska statute. The charges against her were subsequently dropped when she agreed to dismiss pending lawsuits filed against Sarpy County in state and federal court.
Phelps-Roper was a named a defendant in the Supreme Court case Snyder v. Phelps. She is currently on the list of individuals banned from entering the United Kingdom for "fostering extremism or hatred."
Personal life
Phelps-Roper is married to Brent D. Roper and they have 11 children. Four of them, Joshua, Megan, Grace, and Zacharias, have left the church and family. In a 2007 Channel 4 documentary featuring Welsh personality Keith Allen, Phelps-Roper said on camera that her oldest son Samuel was born out of wedlock. When asked if she would go to hell for her actions, Phelps-Roper explained that "I know better" and had "put away" such behavior. According to Kansas City's The Pitch, Phelps-Roper does not deny that (one son), who was later adopted by Brent Roper, was born out of wedlock but declines to identify the father.