Founder of church that declared Mandela to be in hell now on deathbed

Fred Phelps, the founder of the Westboro Baptist Church, is near death according to his son, Nathan "Nate" Phelps' Facebook page.

The Westboro Baptist church is noted for protesting military funerals with anti-gay signs and declaring various figures to be in hell, including former South African president Nelson Mandela.

Fred Phelps, the church's founder, was excommunicated last year.

According to Nate his father is currently at the edge of death at Midland Hospice house in Topeka, Kansas, and the church is stopping family members who left it from seeing him.

"I'm not sure how I feel about this. Terribly ironic that his devotion to his god ends this way. Destroyed by the monster he made," Nate said.

Nathan Phelps left the church in 1980, became an atheist and took up a career as an author, gay rights activist and public speaker on the topics of religion and child abuse.