Posted by Helen on: 04.06.2007 /
This is the first segment of a BBC documentary which gives a fascinating and detailed look at the Phelps (”God hates fags”) family. Louis Theroux , a BBC reporter, spent three weeks with them, observing them and talking to them at home, at church and out picketing. The rest of the program is also on youtube (double-click on the video to open the youtube page - then look in the right sidebar to find the other six segments).
Here you can read some of Louis’s post-documentary thoughts.
Comment by: julie marie
1 04/6/07 7:04 AM | Comment Link |oh my.
I started watching this and my son came in so I clicked it off; I didn’t want him to see such obscenity - he’s too young to understand hate, I think.
That mom is completely sold on her message, and so are her kids. What an awful family legacy.
Comment by: Helen
2 04/6/07 8:44 AM | Comment Link |I’m sorry your son came in - maybe I should have put a warning on it.
In a later segment Louis, the reporter, asks one of the children if he understands what his picket sign means. He’s not as young as your son but, quite young nevertheless.
Maybe this is just my twisted thinking, but somehow it seemed appropriate to post it on Good Friday - the day above all days in the Christian calendar on which evil and hatred seemed to have the upper hand. Yet Christians don’t believe that is the end of the story. Except maybe this family, who seems to take rather a “Jonah” approach i.e. they are happy to tell people they are going to be destroyed and they seem to have no interest in bringing any sort of message of hope or love or redemption. According to the Bible story about Jonah, he was that way too and God remonstrated with him about his lack of compassion.
Comment by: julie marie
3 04/6/07 9:00 AM | Comment Link |nah, I knew about how it would go - my little guy just woke up too early!
yeah, I saw that :( I can sorta relate to Dawkins assertion of child abuse when I see that hate has been drilled into those children. How sad. That is a time of life when you actually can believe everyone is kind and loving and the world is a good place.
I didn’t think of that… thanks for connecting the dots :)
Comment by: trissa
4 04/6/07 11:58 AM | Comment Link |I can’t even imagine feeling that much hate. The family is so consumed with it they don’t even make any sense. In my opinion, it is child abuse.
Comment by: benjamin ady
5 04/6/07 5:20 PM | Comment Link |I find it an … intriguing viewpoint. It would be fascinating to know the … “secret” history of the pastor/patriarch. I’d lay a lot of money and give you fairly crazy odds that he was sexually abused as a child. The self hatred must be at really really gargantuan levels in him. One almost hopes he never actually has to face that and work through it, it would be so … terrifying–perhaps could almost kill him, the very stress of such a journey, especially initially. On the other hand, the relief afterwards would be out of this world enormous.
Comment by: Rob
6 04/7/07 6:03 AM | Comment Link |Quite possibly the most disturbing thing I have seen. Those poor kids. Hopefully a few of them will break free someday and experience God’s grace.
wow
Comment by: Helen
7 04/7/07 11:49 AM | Comment Link |Benjamin, I would guess that the pastor didn’t have the happiest of upbringings, but who knows what that means specifically… I can’t imagine him changing at this stage of his life. I was blown away by how rude he was to Louis. Compared to him everyone else seemed decent even though they also came across as having zero compassion. (Except in that one scene where one of the children was hit in the face by a drink thrown at them from a moving car, where his parents paid attention to him and looked to see if he was hurt much)
Rob, they said four of Fred Phelp’s children have left the church. I didn’t catch that any of his grandchildren have left but then many of them are still children. The young adult women they interviewed certainly seemed adamant they were going to stay but they are just beginning their adult lives, so who knows what they might decide down the road.
Comment by: Doreen
8 04/7/07 3:52 PM | Comment Link |From the BBC reporter’s post-documentary Q&A:
This is SO not true.
Comment by: Helen
9 04/7/07 4:34 PM | Comment Link |This is the part of the post-documentary comments that came from:
So he didn’t witness this friendly welcome himself.
I couldn’t imagine Fred Phelps being friendly to anyone, given how rude he was to Louis.
Some of the others - one-on-one they were quite friendly to Louis in demeanor even though their message was what it was. After three weeks it seems like he found himself liking them in spite of their message.
I also got the impression that they have a low view of just about everyone else, not just gays - so it’s conceivable to me that they don’t necessarily single them out.
So putting those things together I can see how he came up with that statement.
But I can’t see a stranger hearing the message and feeling welcomed at all - gay or not.