the Phelps Family / God hates everyone except them
 

im just watching Louis Theroux spending some time with the family of Reverend Phelps - the most hated family in America.
During one of their absurd roadside demonstrations, a passing car threw an object at them - understandable, but it hit one of the kids. then my thoughs were "what kind of person would knowingly indoctrinate their kids into a family whose faith was so full of bigotry, ignorance and hate, and expose them to the venom which they willingly endure?
i dont know enough to comment any further, but being labelled "the most hated family in America", some of you in the cellar must know something about this?

I just finished watching that programme. I love Theroux, I love the way he finds the humanity in people. I also think he's incredibly ballsy to put himself in those situations, with people who absolutely despise everything he is. Like when he spent time with those neo-nazis and the KKK.

I was struck most of all by how unimpressive (intellectually) the patriarch was. We'd got this whole lead up where we'd been led to believe that Gramps was this scripture expert who was only refusing to answer because Theroux's questions were not scripture based and then when he did ask scripture based questions the guy just closed it down; refused to debate. His sermon as well, was really poor. I kind anticipated some sort of charismatic impressive personality. Instead it just seems to be an aggressive domineering man who's brainwashed his kids.

People who have been watching the guy for a while now believe that he may be systematically trolling for lawsuits.

I can believe that. Very strange man. Uttery filled up with anger. Actually he reminded me a little of Ian Paisley, in his responses to Theroux's questions.

Fuck Fred Phelps and his whole hate mongering family !!!
I feel sorry for the kids .

I don't know verry much about him , but protesting at fallen vets funerals is WAY out of line , I don't give a Fuck what you beleve !!!!!

He was up here a few years ago , I found out AFTER the fact , good thing , I probley would have ended up in jail for Woop'n him !!!

People who have been watching the guy for a while now believe he should be suffering a painful death.

Yeah, and Ann Coulter is supposed to be a 'constitutional scholar'. The interesting thing about demagogues is how many of them will seem to deflate with only a little overexposure. Unless they possess truly strong and compelling personalities, many of these figures thrive because they manage to avoid the hard questions. Their skill lies in shuffling their lies like a stage magician switching a coin from one hand to the other.

Never heard of him. (Turns out I've heard of his campaigns). Wikipedia (yeah, I know, shoot me now) said "President Bush recently signed the Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act in response to Phelps' protests at military funerals." So now he has official recognition in law :rolleyes:

If there ever was an argument for gun control -this is it. Why? because y'all have guns yet no-one has popped him. And you call yourselves responsible? Pah. In the UK, he'd be dead by now for sure. :lol:

If it wasn't just a family cult than I wouldn't believe that he was uncharismatic but since it is mostly family, you could pretty easily brainwash kids if you start from birth and segregate them from society.

Fred and his psychotic brood are sort of locals around my neck of the woods. There's a very special room in Hell for Fred and anyone who follows his hateful spew.

The best thing for attention whores is to ignore them.

Absolute Bastard!

Fred Ph. should Ph.... Off

I really enjoyed the programme (love Louis).

Did anyone else think that Fred Phelps protests too much? Why is his whole "campaign" based on something that is barely mentioned in the Bible and on which scripture is not clear? Do we assume - as I think Louis did - that there is some personal experience Phelps had behind all this?

It was all just so odd. America as a nation is doomed simply because it has fag-enabling laws? What? So if you are an American, God hates you, regardless of how you live your life. And the Phelps family are.... Americans. Oh but they're saved because they speak out against it? Nope, don't seem to remember ever reading about that get-out clause before - even the children in Sodom & Gomorrah were killed - Lot had to leave the area in order not to be smited.

Sorry Phelps, you're Americans therefore God hates you and you are doomed to hell with all the rest.

Never mind, they'll all die out soon - the younger generation have been brought up to believe any attention from the opposite sex is an evil path to fornication rather than marriage and family. And when Gramps dies they'll no longer have a leader. His daughter can't be a leader, she's a woman and if they are scriptural literalists they won't be able to follow her direction.

A forum where I used to post eventually banned any mention of Phelps because talking about him just made people belligerent. The consensus was that Phelps wasn't useful to talk about because he doesn't represent Christians (nothing in his website or other materials really relates to Christian doctrine, and no Christian outside of his family would describe him as one) or Republicans/Conservatives (since he doesn't really support most of their agenda either, plus the whole anti-military thing), or any other group that's actually important in American culture.

The Phelps family aren't like the Minute Men, who are worth talking about because they have attracted several members, have supporters in the mainstream media, and represent a sizable chunk of public opinion -- they're more like a cult. Gay bashing is a serious problem, and the extreme cases of violence and harassment are rooted in a deep cultural bias that exists on many levels. Focusing too much on these attention-grabbing crazies detracts from the real issues that they exploit for face-time on TV.

On YouTube there is a concert by some kids from Orlando (my neck of the woods) at a protest next to the Phelps compound.
The girls were outside for a time... you could tell that they were very excited about the attention, especially seeing the young secular men.
The Phelps phenom is not long for this world IMO.
Fred was disbarred some time ago.