The Most Hated Family in America

[proud2BlibKansan]

The Most Hated Family in America is a TV documentary written and presented by the BBC’s Louis Theroux about the family at the heart of the Westboro Baptist Church. At the heart of the documentary is the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), headed by Fred Phelps and based in Topeka, Kansas. It runs the website GodHatesFags.com, and GodHatesAmerica.com, and other websites expressing condemnation of LGBT, Roman Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Sweden, Ireland, Canada, The Netherlands, and other groups.

The organization is monitored by the Anti-Defamation League, and classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The group has achieved national notice because of its picketing of funeral processions of U.S. soldiers killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The church bases its work around the belief expressed by its best known slogan and the address of its primary website, “God hates fags”, and expresses the opinion, based on its Biblical interpretation, that nearly every tragedy in the world is God’s punishment for homosexuality – specifically society’s increasing tolerance and acceptance of gay, lesbian, and bisexual people. It maintains that God hates homosexuals above all other kinds of “sinners” and that homosexuality should be a capital crime. Louis Theroux stated that the Phelpses are the most extreme people he has ever met.

http://www.filmsforaction.org/film/?Film=575&Title=The_Most_Hated_Family_in_America

This is a very accurate and creepy documentary. You can watch the entire film at this link.

[barbtries]

1. i watched a movie on netflix

about gay bars in the south. it had a few clips of phelps. i don't want to see more.

when i saw the headline though, the first name that sprang to my mind: BUSH

[rurallib]

7. my mind went to Cheney because the daughter has joined the family business

but the Bushes are by far more repugnant.

[driver8]

10. I immediately thought of Bush.

For me, there is no family that I hate more -- not even the Cheneys.

[AndyA]

2. Oh...I was thinking of another family.

The Bush Crime Family™.

But I've got to agree, the Westboro bunch is horrid. I haven't heard that they've killed anyone, though, and the Bush Family certainly has. Tie, perhaps? :shrug:

[WildClarySage]

3. The most hated? I'd have called them "The Most Hateful"

[FSogol]

4. Same here. They are doing more of the hate than the rest of us.

Portraying them as hated, makes them the victim.

[jtrockville]

9. I thought the same thing.

[gratuitous]

14. Yep, title amendment suggested

As hateful as the Phelps brood is, they haven't succeeded in making me hate them back, which I gather is their ultimate goal. I encountered them in Kansas City and DeKalb and dealt with their minions-by-proxy more times than I care to remember in Portland. I've bought them water and sodas on a hot day, offered them warm smiles and peace signs, and even sang for them once or twice. Maybe they'll come around one of these times. Even if not, I still have my orders.

[crim son]

5. I thought of Bush too but

The Phelpses may not have killed as many people as the shrub has, but probably only because they haven't been free to do so.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. No doubt in my mind Fred would kill if he had the means to do so

[theHandpuppet]

8. I've always wondered about their little kids

The children in this clan are going to be so screwed up, being raised in an environment so saturated with hate.

[Brickbat]

13. One of his sons, Nate Phelps, got out with his mind intact and decries his father's work:

http://natephelps.com/

[barbtries]

16. went and surfed a bit over there.

he seems very intelligent and rational a person. good on him.

[proud2BlibKansan]

28. Wow. Read this

The Uncomfortable Grayness of Life
by Nathan Phelps
American Atheists Convention
April 11, 2009
Atlanta, GA

(recite the books of the bible)

At the age of 7, I could recite all 66 books of the Bible in 19 seconds. My father insisted on this because he was frustrated at waiting as his children flipped back and forth trying to find the verses he was preaching from. Afterwards, if one of us took to long my father would stop in the middle of his preaching, cast a gimlet eye on the offender and demand that, “Somebody smack that kid!”

I would like to take a minute to thank a few people for their efforts in making this opportunity possible for me today. David Silverman for inviting me here to speak. Arlene Marie for all her effort and support in slogging through the logistics. John Lombard for his time and invaluable support in helping me get my thoughts down on paper. And finally, my fiancé Angela for her unflagging love throughout this process. And thank you all for being here today.

For me, the story of Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church is a very long and painful one. But the first time that the wider community became aware of them was in 1991, when my father led his church in Topeka, Kansas to stage a protest against gays at a local city park. (Almost the entire membership of the church consists of 9 of my 12 siblings and members of their immediate families.)

The community reacted with outrage at the mean-spirited and hateful nature of the protest, and sentiments on both sides escalated quickly. However, far from discouraging my father, this incited him to much greater efforts at publicly protesting all that he decided was wrong. The church was soon staging dozens of protests every week, against local politicians, businesses, and citizens who dared to speak out against him and his church.

more . . . http://natephelps.com/10801.html#top

[Ghost in the Machine]

29. PSYCHOTIC FRED PHELPS FAMILY EXPOSED"

PSYCHOTIC FRED PHELPS FAMILY EXPOSED"



Snippets:

When her father was beating someone and screaming at the top of his lungs, frequently Margie would take her terrified younger brothers and sisters away for several hours. When they thought it was over, they'd come back like cautious house cats, sneaking in softly, Margie on point, to see if the coast was clear. The boys tell how one day their father was in a barbershop and noticed the leather strap used to sharpen razors. It struck his fancy as a backup to the mattock handle, so he had one custom-made at a leatherworker's shop near Lane and Huntoon.

"It was about two feet long and four inches wide. It left oval circles- red, yellow, and blue," says Mark. "Usually the circles would be where it would snap the tip-on the outside of your right leg and hip...because he was righthanded." According to Mark and Nate, their father wore out several of the leathermaker's straps while they were growing up. As Mark Phelps became the angel-appointed in Fred's family cult, Nate was assigned the role of sinner. For Mark, his brother was the needed scapegoat. For the rest of the family, Nate was a problem child, the delinquent of the brood. Brilliant like his dad (Nate's IQ has been measured at 150), the middle son followed another drummer from the time he was a toddler. When he was five, he remembers his father telling him, 'I'm going to keep a special eye on you'. The regular beatings started shortly thereafter.

Nate endured literally hundreds of such brutalities before walking out at one minute after midnight on his eighteenth birthday. His siblings both inside and outside the church agree that Nate got the lion's share of the 'discipline'. "Nate was a very tough kid," says Mark. "I don't know how he endured it, but he did. He'd get 40 blows at a time from the mattock handle. He was just tougher than the rest of us and my father adjusted for that."

Today, raising his family in California, Nate is a devout Christian and a warm, friendly, considerate, mountain of a man. But at 6'4" and 280 pounds, it would be...instructive...to see father and son in the same room today with one mattock stick between them. "I sensed early on this man had no love for us," says Nate. "He was using us. I knew it. And I always made sure he knew I did."

http://www.congressunderfire.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=109&topic_id=54&mesg_id=54&page=2

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. Several of his kids have broken away from the family

One is now an atheist.

[ellenfl]

11. kick for later. eom

[BanzaiBonnie]

12. It's their schtick and that's all they have

These are zombies bereft of love and not allowed any other emotion. They are led by a cruel and dictatorial little man.

This is an amazing film.

[Greyhound]

15. They're just a freak-show distraction, vile though they are.

I hate the Bushes far more than these idiots.

[WhiteTara]

17. PHelps must be a self loathing gay.n/t

[callous taoboy]

18. Someone needs to slip Phelps and Co. a big dose of LSD and

then have them watch "Life of Brian."

[Stand and Fight]

19. Awesome! I'll watch this when I dine tonight! n/t

[hootinholler]

24. You on a diet?

:shrug:

-Hoot

[Stand and Fight]

26. No! LOL

I am, however, at work. ;)

[lame54]

20. Here is how to deal with these fools...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra_fAYl4Th4

[dmr]

22. Love Michael Moore

I forgot about Moore doing that. After watching Moore's video, I watched the one with the Nevadan bikers who alongside a road blocked Felp's people from exhibiting their hate against a fallen war hero.

Good on them!

[proud2BlibKansan]

27. One of my faves!

:rofl:

[la_chupa]

21. they were picketing a Panthers game I went to once

I have no idea what they have against the NFL, but considering how the team is playing these days I'm surprised there aren't more pitchforks and torches outside the stadium.

They were mostly viewed with sad, drunken, amusement.

[mrbarber]

23. You know what would be amazing?

If the whole Westboro church group were performance artists pointing out the sheer insanity of Right Wingers.

Seriously, these guys are real life Internet trolls.

[Sisaruus]

30. We just watched it on tv in Finland

while on vacation there. Hope the Finns know that we're not all like the WBC crazies.