A few years ago the Westboro Baptist Church came to the town I lived in to protest at a soldier's funeral. I found a lengthy, in-depth article about them and stayed up all night reading it. The basics are (as I remember them):
-Fred Phelps (founder of the Church) is an extremely angry man. Abused as a child, he learned to dominate his "enemies" (i.e. "everyone") physically through boxing. He went to a seminary (forget which one) and then law school to become a lawyer. Since then, he's forced every one of his kids to become lawyers.
-Every member of his church is part of his family- either born into or married into. Most of his children don't leave because he abused them terribly when they were children (if I remember, only 3 out of his 10+ children left his church) and they're brainwashed into believing that if they leave his church they're going to hell (the ones who did leave even got nifty letters from Phelps sentencing them to hell).
-They know their rights- the reason they're all lawyers is so they can band together and sue anyone who infringes upon those rights and win.
-Before settling in Kansas, Phelps moved to Utah for a brief stint of Mormon-bashing. However, he left when he couldn't rile up the Mormons enough for his liking.
-Fred Phelps is the mastermind. His poor children and grandchildren are the victims of lives of physical and emotional abuse.
Those are the basics, as I remember them. I'll try to find the article I read and link it.
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2 Nephi 2:25: Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.
2 Nephi 25:23, 26: For we labor diligently... to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do... And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.
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