"I have nightmares about me seeing my naked body on the Internet," Maricopa's vice mayor said, by way of explaining why he'd posted "We need more Fred Phelps in this world... May you rest in peace sir" on his Facebook wall.

Following the death of founder Fred Phelps last week, the Westboro Baptist Church's first target of mob protest since Phelps' demise was our dear Lorde, at a concert in Kansas City. Her fans came prepared.

God is love, right? It's sort of a cornerstone of the Christian faith: He "so loved the world" that He gave his son Jesus up to save us all. And if God is love, then a sociopath who pickets dead soldiers with a "God Hates Fags" sign can't really be Christian, right? Well, the answer is complicated.

Dead former leader of the Westboro Baptist Church Fred Phelps doesn't only leave behind a Vine channel and a legacy of absurd hate — he also leaves behind a few generations of kids (many of them his relatives) to whom he imparted his specific brand of bigotry.

Unstable cult leader Fred Phelps, the man behind the "GOD HATES FAGS" "protests," has died. Go make a donation to Human Rights Watch in his memory.

Fred Phelps, the one-time leader of the infamous "GOD HATES FAGS" church, is on his deathbed in Kansas. Hopefully, you can carry on with your day having learned of this terrible news.

A New York-based temple devoted to encouraging "benevolence and empathy among all people" through the teachings of Satan traveled over the weekend to the Mississippi gravesite of Catherine Idalette Johnston, late mother of Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps Jr., in order to perform a same-sex ceremony aimed at turning Johnston's spirit gay.

(UPDATE: We've swapped the original in-progress photo for one with a more complete paint job.)

Could the reason for Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps' hyperbolic hatred of homosexuals be the result of an ongoing battle with his own repressed homosexuality?

On the day of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, two new petitions were added to the Obama administration's home-brewed "We the People" petitioning system.

Members of the truculent Westboro Baptist Church remained defiant yesterday in the face of a newly signed law restricting their ability to protest military funerals.

When the news broke yesterday that Fred Phelps and his infamous "God Hates Fags" Westboro Baptist Church would be protesting the funeral of Penn State football coach Joe Paterno for his role in the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse cases, some of Paterno's harshest critics approved. They think the disruptive presence of Fred Phelps' evil minions, shouting nonsensical passages from Leviticus as some sort of posthumous justice for Paterno's complicity with Sandusky sexually molesting young boys. But there's a difference between the evil that's perceived and real, diabolical evil, and he's not the one being put in the ground.

Members of the delightfully quirky Westboro Baptist Church showed up at Arlington Cemetery on Memorial Day just to remind everyone, through the use of excessive signage, that God loves dead soldiers. But luckily for people who were hoped to visit the cemetery without encountering hateful bigotry, brave members of the Ku Klux Klan showed up to counter-protest.

In a lopsided 8-to-1 decision, the Supreme Court has ruled that the Westboro Baptist Church can't be sued for disrupting a soldier's funeral with vile and stupid protests.

Here's Fred Phelps, head of "God Hates (Everyone)" Westboro Baptist Church, vowing to protest the funerals of those killed in Saturday's Tucson shootings. Including nine-year-old Christina Green. What a powerful demonstration of America's unparalleled Constitutional freedoms. God bless you, psychos.

Next week, the Supreme Court will decide whether the Westboro Baptist Church can picket the funerals of US soldiers with signs like "God Hates Fags." Last night, Bill Maher compared homophobic Senator Jim DeMint to the church's pastor. Video inside.

There's almost universal agreement that the tactics and message used by parishioners of the small, fringe Westboro Baptist Church are despicable. Does that make their provocative protests near the funerals of dead U.S. soldiers — under the theory that God is punishing the country because it tolerates gay and lesbian Americans — unconstitutional?

Last month, the Westboro Baptist Church—aka the "God Hates Fags" crazies—released a statement condemning Lady Gaga and her "whore's forehead." On January 5th, Ryan Tate posted audio of the church's Poker Face parody. Now, there's a music video.

Once in a great while, ideological opponents find themselves on the same side of a debate. And, though both parties find one another repulsive, that's what's happening, however tenuously, with Andrew Sullivan and those "God Hates Fags" crazies.

Wow. NY Times heir A.G. "The Future" Sulzberger is really having to earn his stripes. Last weekend he was dispatched to cover the Puerto Rican Day parade, and this weekend he covered the Jew/gay-haters from Westboro Baptist Church.