NatePhelps

I think my father is a hateful person first. The religious beliefs gave him a forum and permission to be cruel to the world.

Sure they do. We were taught that enmity with the world was the goal. They would be profoundly disturbed if the world embraced their message.

I never engaged in the God Hates Fags protests. I left on the night of my 18th birthday.

okay...let's see. I remember running around the track at Topeka West. A kid came on the track with his bike and was riding around the outter edge of the track while we ran around the inner edge. My old man yelled at him to get off the track. When he came around again, he ran out to the kid and knocked him off the bike. The kid ran away crying and a half hour later a truck came roaring into the parking lot. The kid's father got out, decked my father and knocked him down. We left the track and when we got home he went into a rage and took it out on our mother.

He would grab us by the arms, lift us up and drive his knee into our stomach. He would beat us with his fists on our face and body. He would kick us. He would spit in our face. He would beat us from our lower back down to behind our knees with a mattock handle, often splitting the skin and causing bleeding.