WBC consists primarily of members of Fred Phelps's extended family. According to "Forbes", it has roughly 70 members as of 2016, having previously had 80 members in 2011. Rebecca Barrett-Fox, a professor at Arkansas State University, who completed a dissertation on Westboro Baptist, has labelled it as "hyper-Calvinist". Members attend a weekly service and believe in a theology of predestination which includes believing all disasters and catastrophes come from the hand of God. Members follow the organization's 'literal' interpretation of the Bible which informs their attitudes towards homosexuality and towards Judaism. The religious justification for active political hate speech has led to much controversy.