Fred Phelps Sr, leader of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church widely known for its protests at military funerals and anti-gay protest, is reportedly in a care facility on the brink of death.

Phelps is being cared for in a Shawnee County facility, Westboro Baptist Church spokesman Steve Drain disclosed on Sunday to politico.com. Drain wouldn't identify the facility.

"I can tell you that Fred Phelps is having some health problems," Drain said. "He's an old man, and old people get health problems."

Nate Phelps, an estranged son of Phelps, affirmed that his father has been admitted to a facility and is "on the edge of death," the NY Daily News reports.

Nate told The Associated Press in a phone interview Sunday night that his ailing father was actually voted out of leadership by members of Westboro church last summer, apparently "after some kind of falling out."

Nate Phelps broke away from the church 37 years ago and he went on to say, church members became concerned after the vote because they thought that his father might harm himself so they moved him out of the church, where he and his wife had lived for years. The contentious Reverend was moved into a house, stopped eating and since has been moved into hospice care, Nate Phelps said.

Drain declined to comment Sunday on whether Fred Phelps had been voted out of the church. Drain said Westboro Baptist Church doesn't have a designated leader.

The 84-year-old minister founded the small church in Kansas, 1955. It was not until they began picketing funerals, public events and businesses with intolerant signs criticizing gay people, Jews and others that it became well known throughout America.

Members of the Westboro church, based in Topeka, would frequently protest funerals of soldiers with signs containing messages such as "Thank God for dead soldiers," and "Thank God for 9/11," claiming the deaths are God's punishment for American immorality and tolerance of homosexuality and abortion.

The radical church inspired a federal law and laws in numerous states limiting protesting at funerals. But in a major free-speech ruling in 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the church and its members couldn't be sued for monetary damages for inflicting pain on grieving families under the First Amendment.

Nate Phelps said he has no doubt some people would want to protest his father's funeral but added, "I wish they wouldn't."

(Photo : REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni)