WBC,
Here are my 10 questions – plus one that I thought of at the last minute. As I said in my first email, I personally haven’t heard anyone ask you these questions before, but because I can only exercise omniscience in the stories I write, I must concede that I could be mistaken. Either way, I hope you don’t find them too redundant or completely irrelevant.
1. How did you become the church’s official spokesperson, and how has the role impacted other aspects of your life?
2. You’ve said in several interviews that the church uses the King James Version of the bible. Have you read any other translations, and if you have, what are your thoughts on them?
3. Out of these three films – The Most Hated Family in America, Keith Allen Will Burn in Hell, and Fall From Grace, which do you think was the most accurate depiction of the church?
4. Still regarding the films, overall, which one did you personally think was the best? The worst?
5. In some of your TV interviews, you’ve taken some very personal comments right on the chin, but you never lose face on camera. Has there ever been a time when a particular comment actually hurt (even in retrospect)?
6. Steve Drain and his family are the only real ‘outsiders’ I’m aware of that have joined the church in the past decade or so. Were there any others (since the Drains) that have fallen away, or any serious new candidates since then?
7. Your brother, Nathan, is one of the church’s most vocal critics. If you can set that aside for a moment, do you personally have any fond memories of times with him before his departure?
8. Was there ever a time when you considered leaving yourself?
9. [A two-part question] Near the end of the documentary The Most Hated Family in America, Louis Theroux talks to your father after his sermon, the following exchange occurs:
Theroux: “Isn’t it an act of presumption a little bit on your part that when you don’t have all the information about all the other churches to assume that you have a privileged access to grace?”
Pastor Phelps: “Oh, I know all there is to know about ‘em*.”
Theroux: “How?”
Pastor Phelps: “I’m not gonna* keep talking on…to ya.*”
[* I wanted to preserve dialect to quote the pastor verbatim.]
With that in mind, my two-part question is:
a. What kind of research has your father (or anyone else in the church for that matter) done to support the claim of knowing “all there is to know” about other churches?
b. If such research has been done, would it be unreasonable to consider any possibility of interpretive error, or is that borderline blasphemy*?
(*Just to clarify – I write stories and novels. Like anybody else who has used a word processor, I’m not beyond basic human error from time to time. I know it’s possible to miss simple things – like contextual mistakes or punctuation errors that can make the same group of words mean two different things. For example, take the sentence “Let’s eat, Grandma.” If one forgets the comma, it becomes, “Let’s eat grandma,” and Grandma goes from being a dinner guest to being the main course.)
10. In your 53 years, how many times can you recall your father say, “I love you” to his wife or children?
(Bonus Question!) Going on the assumption that your father, Pastor Fred Phelps, is the last remaining cleric in a nation full of blaspheming false prophets who could only serve to dilute and debase the word of God to someone like me (a young man who wishes to expand upon the little biblical knowledge he already has), is there any way that the Pastor would inscribe (and therefore rightly sanctify) my Bible if I brought it to him?
Thank you for taking the time to respond. I hope you have a pleasant trip to Philadelphia, and look forward to hearing about next Sunday’s service.
Let me take a run at these by number.
1. By default. One phone call at a time. My loved ones used to joke about the danger of getting between me and a ringing phone. 
2. Stick with KJV 1611 authorized. We have looked at many. Run from NIV. Get KJV 1611 and a Strong’s Concordance and read and obey.
3. None are an accurate depiction of anything except for those excellent doctrines that are spoken from the mouth of the little servants of God. Frankly, I can’t remember with clarity those details. I do recall loving them all when they first appeared. Too many images. Too many words. The only stable and staple and consistent in it all are the words of God. Focus there.
4. See #3.
5. No. It’s not about me. I know the condition of this generation is dire. I know I am guilty and but for mercy, I have NOTHING. So what is to hurt or angry about? Only thankful, thankful, thankful. Urgent comes behind thankful. Oh, and did I mention thankful?! :-)
6. No. Many, in line with the scriptures, I say now, many falling away. Amazing things now. We must say with Paul. None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto me, that I may finish my course with joy! This is the last minutes of the last days of all. His fan is in his hand. Chaff must go and with each rebel exit we run faster and lighter. Contention goes with the rebels and their pride.
7. If I was to be truthful, I cannot recall any. He was so very selfish and he had mischief on his agenda EVERY day. It was always just a question of what fool thing would he do next. I am one year older and it was my life.
8. No.
9. We have set in their pews. We read their doctrines. We talk to them. We read their published words. E.g. Priests rape children. Ergo. God hates them. There are hoops from point A to point B. But not many and they are an easy trail. No room for mistake. The body of work is HUGE.
10. Easy. Every time I talk to him, he tells me he loves me, and I him. Every sermon he ends with. “I love you. Amen”. I hear my dad’s kindness to my mom. It is so cute watching them. I get to read with them any morning I can get there. I travel much. I have nine children at home still. It is a thing I get too little of and that I cherish. But I know the time is short. We run.
Bonus question. I don’t understand it. I tell you with all seriousness. The only plan at this hour is butts in seats. The Lord is coming for his bride. She is preparing herself. You must be there to partake. I’m just sayin. The bride says COME.
Thanks.