The next time you hear the someone refer to Phelps as controversial demand that they give you an example of someone defending him. From a reader:

Jonah – in what sense is Fred Phelps “controversial?” (The article calls him that.) A controversy has two sides…in the case of Phelps, the sides must be “religious conservatives who despise and disown him” and “liberals who despise him, and insist that he’s typical of religious conservatives although they all claim to despise and disown him.”
Also, shouldn’t a hate “monger” be “spreading” hate? So far as I can tell he and his few score of followers simply marinate in it; he’s not successfully getting anyone else, to hate anyone else. Well, except to hate HIM, I suppose…