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Louis Theroux: The most hated family in America

  • 02-04-2007 10:17AM
    #1
    Glowing
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,851 ✭✭✭


    Did anyone see this last night? I was amazed at Louis' ability to stay calm and not deck the head off that Minister.

    It made my blood boil watching these people.


«1345

Comments

  • #2
    county
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,800 ✭✭✭county


    i knew there was something i was meant to watch last night:mad:

    will it be repeated anytime soon?


  • #3
    Femelade
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,820 ✭✭✭Femelade


    enlighten us, who know not of what you speak of ,my friend.


  • #4
    Ponster
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 10,912 Mod ✭✭✭✭Ponster


    Louis Theroux: The Most Hated Family in America
    BBC 2 Sun 1 Apr, 9:00 pm - 10:00 pm 60mins

    "God is your enemy." 'You will eat your babies." "God hates fags."

    These are not typical Christian messages, but the fire and brimstone preachings of
    the Phelps family who make up almost all of the 71 members of the Westboro Baptist
    Church of Topeka, Kansas.

    Probably the most controversial church in America, it is where Louis Theroux spent
    three weeks trying to fathom why they have created such a strange ministry.

    Since the Iraq war, this Church has become increasingly infamous for picketing the
    funerals of dead soldiers as their protest against an America that "tolerates
    homosexuality". The Phelps family believes that these soldiers were struck down by
    God's wrath for fighting for a depraved and doomed nation.

    Shirley, daughter of the leader – Pastor Fred Phelps – takes Louis into the bosom
    of her family. Her 11 children go to school, watch movies and play sport, but they
    have no friends and no spare time is allowed. Their life must be given over to
    preaching against homosexuality and spent in preparation for, they believe, the
    fast-approaching judgement day.

    As Louis becomes a fixture around their home compound, he begins to witness the
    buried emotional toll this life has taken on the younger members. Jael (21) says
    she will never marry, never have a boyfriend and never have sex. Instead, she'll
    attend five pickets a week across the country, shouting out the Phelps's message
    of hate.

    A group of toddlers hangs in her wake, holding picket signs they clearly don't
    understand: six-year-old Noah has a banner emblazoned with the message "Thank God
    for 9/11".

    Louis also meets Steve Drain, the last documentary maker to film the members. So
    touched was Drain by their message that, halfway through filming, he moved his
    whole family down from Florida and is now Pastor Fred Phelps's right-hand man.

    Louis locks horns with the leaders of the ministry and lays bear their inner
    workings as they doggedly pursue their mission. But he also tries to find out if
    there's any chance of the younger members escaping the influence of the elders.


  • #5
    xzanti
    Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 10,464 Mod ✭✭✭✭xzanti


    I saw that, it was crazy, little kids calling people "fags" and "dykes" :eek: complete hillbillies..


  • #6
    ekevosu
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 987 ✭✭✭ekevosu


    That was one messed up family....the pastor was just dodgy beyond belief - "next question". I did feel the older daughter despite what she was saying was harbouring doubts and not as militant as the mother who was basically forcing her children to take this isoated cultish lifestyle and brainwashing them to a large degree.


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  • #7
    Glowing
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,851 ✭✭✭Glowing


    "God is your enemy." "You will eat your babies." "God hates fags." These are just a few of the extremist views held by the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas. Louis Theroux spent three weeks in their company, locking horns with its leaders and talking to the younger members of the family to find out if there's any chance of them escaping the influence of their elders"

    This church group were a very tight knit community, who pretty much disowned any member of the family who went against the teachings of the bible. They were convinced that they were the only group teaching and following the 'true word' and that everyone else was going to hell. At one stage, they flew especially to Chicago to picket an Army funeral with signs such as 'Fag Troups' and so on ... convinced that they were doing the family a service by preaching the truth to them.

    It was sad however to see the younger kids out every day on the path holding pickets and not actually understanding what they stood for.

    Unbelievable.


  • #8
    dr.bollocko
    Moderators, Music Moderators Posts: 35,948 Mod ✭✭✭✭dr.bollocko


    It was a documentary that would really test your interpretation of freedom of expression.
    As said above, getting a 6 year old to picket a soldier's funeral with signs saying "Soldiers are fags" "God hates fags" etc. If you believe that that freedom is absolute as I do, watching this documentary will really test your restraint.
    It essentially focused on a cult community blinded by hate, brainwashed and thought that they were literally living out a biblical end of days.

    What made my blood boil the most was the restraint that Louis always shows. He is an intelligent man, and very adept at getting great footage in hostile situations, but there were a few times, particularly when members resolve was weakening, that he could have really gone for the jugular with these people.


  • #9
    robinph
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 24,146 ✭✭✭✭robinph


    Completely crazy bunch of people who had been brainwashed by their even crazier grandfather, and he didn't even seem slightly interested in justifying himself to Louis when he was asking him some relatively sensible questions.


  • #10
    Glowing
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,851 ✭✭✭Glowing


    The pastor had to have been the most arrogant man I have ever had the pleasure of watching! You couldn't write the stuff ......


  • #11
    tmalmb
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 134 ✭✭tmalmb


    I found it interesting how all the so called bible bashing was focused around Gays i.e. if you were one or supported the rights of Gays or just tolerated it then you were destined for Hell. I must admit I felt really sorry for the kids, one of the 6 years old had something thrown at him from a moving car because of their HATE slogans. This family should be investigated by social affairs (or the equivalent in the US)


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  • #12
    Sam Vimes
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,611 ✭✭✭✭Sam Vimes


    fred phelps has hate crime legislation named after him in canada apparently.

    a reporter once came onto fred phelps to annoy him and michael moore followed the family around to their protests with a winnebago full of gay people and then had them do stuff to each other from across the road while they were protesting


  • #13
    dr.bollocko
    Moderators, Music Moderators Posts: 35,948 Mod ✭✭✭✭dr.bollocko


    Just saw another thread on this in humanities too.
    Its here

    Look at me go.
    Being helpful.
    You never know what might happen next.
    Might start taking some of these posts seriously... responding non-sarcastically.
    And where would we be then?
    Iran probably.


  • #14
    eth0_
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,846 ✭✭✭✭eth0_


    I have to say, i'm pretty disgusted with Louis Theroux. The way he flirted with one of the young girls to try and test out her 'no sex before marriage' beliefs was NOT what I would call journalistic integrity. It was great when she gave him a piece of her mind when she realised what he was up to.

    He also showed nothing of their lives outside the church, even when a "rival" church in their locale burnt down, it simply got a mention, there was no investigation of this.

    Louis Theroux makes biased reports that poke fun at washed-out famous people, vulnerable or uneducated people, and (although the family last night were pretty horrifiying in their beliefs) disrespecting a young girl because she has different morals to him.


  • #15
    besty
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,010 ✭✭✭besty


    Easily one of the most bizarre hours of television I've ever seen. The Reverend Phelps was unbelievable. I mean, his dismissal of valid questions from Louis was pathetic. It was so obvious that he has never been challenged within his "family" and any external rationale put to him was just an alien concept which threatened his patriarchal status at the head of what was essentially a cult.

    Unlike Dr. Bollocko, I don't think he could really have forced the issue much further and gotten anything worthwhile out of it. You could see the growing anamocity towards him by the end of his time there. A scary example of blind indoctrination.


  • #16
    Sam Vimes
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,611 ✭✭✭✭Sam Vimes


    i love the wiki entry for fred phelps


    from wiki:
    Fred Waldron Phelps, Sr. (born November 13, 1929) is a waste of blood and organs and a lawyer and founder of the Phelps Chartered law firm and the pastor and leader of the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), an independent Baptist church in Topeka, Kansas.


  • #17
    besty
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,010 ✭✭✭besty


    www.godhatesamerica.com


  • #18
    Drax
    Closed Accounts Posts: 511 ✭✭✭Drax


    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_phelps

    Interesting opening line in this article !


  • #19
    robinph
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 24,146 ✭✭✭✭robinph


    eth0_ wrote:
    I have to say, i'm pretty disgusted with Louis Theroux. The way he flirted with one of the young girls to try and test out her 'no sex before marriage' beliefs was NOT what I would call journalistic integrity. It was great when she gave him a piece of her mind when she realised what he was up to.
    I didn't see it as that at all. He was trying to show how daft it was that a 21 year old had to ask permission before leaving her own house to go out for a cup of coffee though and she didn't quite get it.

    I thought that he could have discovered some of the family that had left the "church" though and found out something about how they managed to develop their own views though. The "documentary" chap who ended up joining the cult though was clearly not completely comfortable with being quizzed by Louis though at the end as he just started walking away though.


  • #20
    dr.bollocko
    Moderators, Music Moderators Posts: 35,948 Mod ✭✭✭✭dr.bollocko


    eth0_ wrote:
    I have to say, i'm pretty disgusted with Louis Theroux. The way he flirted with one of the young girls to try and test out her 'no sex before marriage' beliefs was NOT what I would call journalistic integrity. It was great when she gave him a piece of her mind when she realised what he was up to.

    He also showed nothing of their lives outside the church, even when a "rival" church in their locale burnt down, it simply got a mention, there was no investigation of this.

    Louis Theroux makes biased reports that poke fun at washed-out famous people, vulnerable or uneducated people, and (although the family last night were pretty horrifiying in their beliefs) disrespecting a young girl because she has different morals to him.
    I must say I disagree.
    I can definitely see where you are coming from about the interview with the 21 year old woman.
    This is in the car yeah? Outside the rally? He locked eyes with the girl, and spoke in a low tone, almost a coaxing tone, and indeed it could have been seen as flirtacious. But I think this was a tactic he was deliberately employing to try and approach her as a friend looking for information, not as a hangman, judging her and twisting her words with a camera. He didnt twist her words though, which would have shown a lack of integrity.

    He is up against a girl who has been taught nothing but hate her entire life, from everyone she loves, from every family member, in every room she was in, slogans of hate. She cant separate her own human state, needs, emotions, empathy for others etc. from her twisted belief structure.
    What Louis was trying to do was to approach her on a humanistic level as a peer, as someone who is hellbound according to her beliefs, to see if she could see the hypocrisy of her belief structure. You can only do that by hoping to communicate on a more informal level than interview.


  • #21
    Owen
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,678 ✭✭✭✭Owen


    Commander Vimes wrote:
    michael moore followed the family around to their protests with a winnebago full of gay people and then had them do stuff to each other from across the road while they were protesting

    Brilliant. Best way of Dealing with nutbags like this!


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  • #22
    parasite
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,078 ✭✭✭parasite


    nah, it's just Louis shooting fish in a barrel as he's been doing for years in his own snide and smug way


  • #23
    Ghost Train
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 31,581 ✭✭✭✭Ghost Train


    was very interesting show. amazing how they say they're doing gods work and warning people that they're sinners, but are quite comfortable judging people, picketing funerals and being happy about anyone who disagrees with their beliefs suffering tragedies/death because its gods will :eek:
    they were upset when their kid had something thrown at him and was hit in the head, by their logic they should be happy, it was just god will :p


  • #24
    Sam Vimes
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,611 ✭✭✭✭Sam Vimes


    eolhc wrote:
    was very interesting show. amazing how they say they're doing gods work and warning people that they're sinners, but are quite comfortable judging people, picketing funerals and being happy about anyone who disagrees with their beliefs suffering tragedies/death because its gods will :eek:
    they were upset when their kid had something thrown at him and was hit in the head, by their logic they should be happy, it was just god will :p
    if everything is god's will, isn't it god's will that "america loves fags"? if everything is his will, why would he create a world of people he despises and only give 71 people the "true path". seems kind of odd to me


  • #25
    Kingp35
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators, Sports Moderators, Paid Member Posts: 12,411 Mod ✭✭✭✭Kingp35


    Ok first off let me say that this family are nothing short of insane in my view and the things that they are horrible.

    I want to say this though, the parents of the kids are doind nothing different than the millions of other religious families in the world, they are brainwashing their kids to believe what they believe. Take your average church going Catholic family in Ireland. The kids will be brought up to believe in the Catholic God and everything else that the family believes in because they will be told all this when they are kids. They are too young to have their own views and so they will believe everything their parents tell them at a young age.

    Again the family are totally sick but the parents are doing no different than other families throughout the world except that their beliefs are different to the norm.

    By the way I dont agree with subjecting kids to any religious dogma what so ever until they are old enough to make up their own mind.


  • #26
    daveirl
    Closed Accounts Posts: 14,483 ✭✭✭✭daveirl


    This post has been deleted.


  • #27
    besty
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,010 ✭✭✭besty


    Commander Vimes wrote:
    if everything is god's will, isn't it god's will that "america loves fags"? if everything is his will, why would he create a world of people he despises and only give 71 people the "true path". seems kind of odd to me
    I think such a profound rationale would be lost on such a narrow minded clan.


  • #28
    Jocksy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 129 ✭✭Jocksy


    I have to say I found the Phelps family far less evil and worrying than the organisers of that Jesus Camp.


  • #29
    Pigman II
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10,921 ✭✭✭✭Pigman II


    DOCUMENTARY: Louis Theroux: The Most Hated Family in America
    On: BBC 2 Northern Ireland
    Date: Wednesday 4th April 2007 (starting in 2 days)
    Time: 23:20 to 00:20 (1 hour long)

    Louis Theroux struggles to come to terms with the infamous Phelps family from Topeka, Kansas who picket the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq as a protest against an America that tolerates homosexuality. The family members wave slogans with messages such as 'God Hates Fags', 'Thank God for 9/11' and 'God Hates You' at pickets all over the States. The last documentary filmmaker to enter their world was so enamoured by the Phelps that he joined them. What does the future hold for Louis?
    (Repeat, Widescreen, Subtitles, Audio Described)


  • #30
    Stephen
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,484 ✭✭✭✭Stephen


    If anyone could do with some time in guantanamo bay, Fred Phelps could.


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  • #31
    alleepally
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,027 ✭✭✭alleepally


    Kingp35 wrote:
    Ok first off let me say that this family are nothing short of insane in my view and the things that they are horrible.

    I want to say this though, the parents of the kids are doind nothing different than the millions of other religious families in the world, they are brainwashing their kids to believe what they believe. Take your average church going Catholic family in Ireland. The kids will be brought up to believe in the Catholic God and everything else that the family believes in because they will be told all this when they are kids. They are too young to have their own views and so they will believe everything their parents tell them at a young age.

    Again the family are totally sick but the parents are doing no different than other families throughout the world except that their beliefs are different to the norm.

    By the way I dont agree with subjecting kids to any religious dogma what so ever until they are old enough to make up their own mind.


    Here we go - wondered how long it would take before someone threw in the dig at the Catholic religion. This is simply a nonsense. I grew up a Catholic and we were brought to mass on a Sunday and I'm thankful for having parents who spent the time with us on Sunday morning and made it a real family time. Ok, we were young yes and didn't understand the meaning of mass, but we weren't brainwashed and my beliefs today are quite different to my parents so your argument is complete nonsense. You cannot compare the extreme views the people in this programme took compared with (say) the Catholic religion and ordinary decent families in this country trying to bring their kids up with a religion other than consumerism....


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