According to Secular Students Alliance, Nate Phelps is the son of Fred Phelps, infamous pastor of Kansas' Westboro Baptist Church, an entity which asserts that "God Hates Fags," that President Obama is the AntiChrist, and that the terrorist attacks of 9/11 were God's punishment upon the United States. Westboro Baptist Church also gained infamy from their protests at soldiers’ funerals around the United States.
He is the sixth of thirteen children, and was taught his father’s extreme version of Calvinism from an early age. Nate ultimately broke away from his father's extreme Calvinist teaching (and the emotional and physical abuse he asserts was prevalent in the Phelps home).
Nate left home at midnight on his eighteenth birthday, and moved to California where he built a new life away from his family.
He later moved to Canada, and began sharing his story after a chance encounter with a reporter while driving a cab in Cranbrook, British Columbia.
Nate has now shares his story to many groups around North America, and even returned home to Topeka in 2010 to tell his story to the people in his hometown. To book him for an occasion the fee is 500.00.
He built a new life, declared himself an atheist and is now on the front lines against Westboro, religion, child abuse, and is a strong supporter of the LGBT( lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community.
He is currently working on a book which covers his exceptional story, and is the subject of an upcoming documentary film.
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