Hate that Family

In 2007, Louis Theroux produced The Most Hated Family in America about the Westboro Church and the Phelps family in particular. [I think I started watching this on TV, but couldn't get through the first ad break... and that was the last thing on TV I ever saw...]

Anyway, this is some time with the Phelps family, and Louis seems to struggle to get to a point. Something about how the family is weird and the kids are trying to be their own thing, but are coming into conflict with their own desires and the beliefs of the church... but he tries really hard to get to that point and it doesn't come out easily.

He goes back in 2011 to see The Most Hated Family in America in Crisis, briefly touching on the court case of the time, but again goes on about the lives of the kids differ from that of the adults, and how the family has broken up and trying to deny themselves being human with emotions and stuff... but again it doesn't come along clearly.

Now, the Phelps family have strange beliefs... however, they aren't really that weirder than a lot of beliefs (not just religious ones) and many sects probably look at them in envy that they have that much control and conversion of kids. I'm thinking that a lot more sects would be like them if they could get away with it...

Ultimately, they are self-defeating. They think the end is coming very very soon (I'm thinking the timeline is years, but I'm sure they'll come up with some excuse if it doesn't turn up), and refuse to let their kids associate outside the church, so the genetic pool is rapidly terminating... it's a problem that will sort itself out.

Louis Theroux is trying for a portrait of the Phelps, but they are just vocal, and aren't any more special than other sects. Ignore them, attention is what they want...

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