Ed Farrell, Arizona Vice Mayor, Shamed for Praising Fred Phelps After Being Confused by Satirical Article
Ed Farrell, Vice Mayor of the Arizona town of Maricopa, is probably wishing that he hadn’t logged onto Facebook on Monday.
The official was criticized for posting an obituary of Fred Phelps, the founder of the intolerant Westboro Baptist Church, on his Facebook page with the caption, “We need more Fred Phelps in this world. May you rest in peace sir,” according to The Maricopa Monitor. The obituary came from the satirical news website The Onion, and was titled, “Fred Phelps, Man Who Forever Stopped March Of Gay Rights, Dead At 84.”
A commenter immediately asked if he was joking, to which Farrell replied, “No, I’m not kidding! This world needs to get back to the biblical standards that our God made for us. This guy was not afraid to preach it, and I respect that.”
The Monitor reported that as the comment thread grew longer with questions, Farrell said, “I am just having a hard time with all of this (sic) gay and lesbian rights thing. It has never been an issue until these kind of people made it an issue.”
