The Phelps family gained notoriety by picketing the funerals of aids victims and American soldiers killed in Iraq with signs saying “God hates fags.” I think most Americans experience a mixture of outrage, contempt, and embarrassment for any association we may be guilty of by living in the same country.

Ironically, in 1977 Fred Phelps started his career as a civil rights lawyer defending minorities against discrimination. After two years he was disbarred in Kansas for showing “little regard for the ethics of his profession.” Four of Phelps’ 13 children have left the family. Most of the remaining 9 are lawyers working in Phelps’ firm.

Louis Theroux spent three weeks with the Phelps family and the Westboro Baptist Church. The documentary he made about that experience is absolutely compelling. This is from a BBC interview:

What we’re trying to do in the documentary is look at an activity that is so antisocial, so strange, so futile and at its worst, so cruel, and we’re saying “Why? Why do that?”, especially when you seem to be, for the most part, kind and sensitive people. We’re exploring what is cruelty, trying to explain how something that really does very often just amount to cruelty could be perpetuated and passed down in a family. Why would nice people do such horrible things?

59 minutes. Links: Stage6 | Google Video | YouTube Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

I agree with Simon Jones that the film would be even better if it showed some history. At one point, this family was not in the news. Fifteen years ago they started quietly picketing at a local park known for homosexual gatherings. Ever since that first news story they’ve been locked in a spiral of increasing offensiveness and absurdity to keep the media’s attention. Footage showing that progression, interviews with the estranged family members, and interviews with people who knew Fred Phelps before he became so radical would be helpful. Of course, that would have doubled the length, and that may be why they didn’t do it.

Related

, ,