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2011-04-01 07:30:58
By Louis Theroux BBC presenter
This time Theroux found himself on one of the Phelps family's placards
After tales of defections, Louis Theroux investigates what's up with America's
most hated family.
There are names I've been called in the course of making documentaries, but to
be described as "one of the chief workers of iniquity in the whole history of
man" takes some beating.
The man making the claim for me - which was somehow offensive and weirdly
flattering at the same time - was Steve Drain, a member of the ultra-strict and
very notorious Westboro Baptist Church. He went on to say I was on a par with
Pontius Pilate.
I'd earned my special status by filming a documentary about his unique
religious community in 2006. Entitled The Most Hated Family in America, it
followed a three-week stay I made among the Kansas-based Phelps clan.
Under the guidance of their angry pastor, the Phelpses have arrived at the idea
that the only Biblical practice for Christians in our age is to carry placards
with unbelievably offensive anti-gay slogans (Fags in Hell, Fags Eat Poop, and
so on) and turn up at high-profile funerals, especially those of soldiers
killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Zealots
In my programme I had taken issue with the Phelpses' gloss on the Bible and
with their whole interpretation of the idea of Christian charity. I'd seen
their practices as a by-product of the warped thinking of their pastor, Fred
Phelps - known as Gramps - imposed on family members from birth through a
well-orchestrated campaign of indoctrination.
According to the Phelpses' world view, my failure to recognise the only "true
Christians" anywhere in the world today made me equivalent to the man who
ordered Jesus Christ himself killed.
Protest at a soldier's funeral The church protests outside the funerals of US
military personnel
Now I was back with the Phelpses, standing with Steve in his front room,
weathering his Biblical obloquy (delivered with a smile and followed by a
rather contradictory "welcome back") having made a return trip to Kansas for a
second film about their church.
Normally I don't do follow-ups. But I'd made an exception in this case because
of an e-mail I'd received from one of the fire-breathing young zealots I'd
interviewed on my first trip, announcing she'd left the church. She cited our
conversations as one of the influences.
She had now changed her life, found a boyfriend and had zero contact with
anyone still inside the church, including her family. A little research
revealed that several others I'd met on my first visit were also now apostates.
This included Steve's own daughter, Lauren.
Further reading revealed the Phelps clan itself was going through something
strange. The father of a soldier whose funeral the Phelpses picketed had won a
massive, multi-million dollar award against the church. The judgement had been
overturned, but the case was now before the supreme court and the ensuing
controversy had put the Phelpses centre-stage in America.
Rawness and exasperation
The Phelpses thrive on publicity and the attention seemed to have pushed the
clan into a whole new level of over-excitement, with announcements that Obama
was the Beast spoken of in the book of Revelation and that Jesus would be back
in a matter of months. The departures, the case, the apocalyptic thinking - it
all seemed to add up to a return trip.
Some have asked why the Phelpses allowed us back in having seen the first film.
They were in their own weird way fans, seeing our original effort as (I think)
basically fair - and more importantly regarding it as part of their destiny to
have their message widely heard and then rejected.
Albert Snyder The Phelpses picketed the funeral of Albert Snyder's son and he
is battling them in court
For the broad mass of humanity to go to hell, they must have first been exposed
to the gospel and failed to heed it. Our programme had been seen by millions
around the world. In my own way, I had a part in the divine plan. And so I'd
made my way back to Zion, as they like to call their block of houses on a
suburban street in Topeka, for a week-long stay.
The emphasis on the end-time scenario turned out to be entirely real. Obama
"fits all the descriptors" of the Beast, apparently. The scenario of Jesus's
return, as described to me, went like this: the Phelpses would win their
Supreme Court case; the nation would rise up and force the Phelpses to leave
America; they'd go to live in Jerusalem; 144,000 Jews would convert to
Christianity (this was my favourite part of the prediction, given the Phelpses'
track record of anti-Semitism); then Jesus would come back.
The departure of several of the younger Phelpses was all part of this plan too.
The Bible describes a final winnowing of the membership in the last of the last
days. But what I hadn't expected was that the Phelpses felt obliged to pretend
to be pleased their daughters had left.
Victimising
The family regard it as their duty to "rejoice in all of God's judgements" -
murders, cancer, natural disasters, and the loss of their loved ones to the
lures of carnality and fornication (the word covers a multitude of activities
in the Phelps lexicon, including probably hand-holding and playing the
harpsichord in mixed company).
When I raised the subject of their lost membership, the Phelps parents did
their best to stick to the script and express satisfaction. But it was all
rather forced and unconvincing and a bit sad.
Another surprise was how much I had personalised the story by this time. My
role in returning to the church had changed somehow. I was no longer a
disinterested journalist. I'd seen too much. It was more like going to see
family members with whom one has fallen out, with the same sense of rawness and
exasperation. Quite quickly my encounters with the Phelpses stopped being
polite and turned barbed and impatient - on both sides.
The result of all this is the new documentary feels quite different than the
original - though still funny, a little darker and stranger. I am fair in the
film, but it is no good me pretending I don't understand the human cost of what
they are engaged in.
What emerged to me was I was seeing a family that through its own tortured
logic was involved in a long process of tearing itself apart, while denying at
every stage what it was plainly doing. Many of their activities are deeply
repellent and yet it is also possible to see the Westboro Baptist Church as
human beings who, in a weird way, are victimising themselves along with all
those they picket.