• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Theroux on the Phelpses

This part may qualify as the understatement of the century:

I think that the pastor is not a very nice person. I think he's an angry person who's twisted the Bible and picked and chosen verses that support his anger, that sort of justify his anger, and he's instilled that in his children and they've passed it on to their children. Although the second and third generation are by and large quite nice people from what I saw, they still live under the influence of their Gramps.
Click to expand...
 
Just the BBC article is fascinating reading, imagine how awesome the episode will be!

No ripping to youtube necessary, Louis releases all his stuff on DVD to buy.
 
Can't wait to see this. Just watched his 'Weekend' bit on Thai brides, it was pretty good.
 
I try to avoid news articles and videos on the Phelpses. One can afford only so many monitors a year.

Cheers,
TGHO
 
Here's the thing about Phelps. One of his sons alleges that he actually has a hatred paraphilia, meaning he gets off on people loathing him. This actually sounds very likely to me, since he's aligns himself with no group, and hates and incurs the hatred of every major group I know. So, I think the solution might be to just ignore him.
 
All he's doing is spreading a negative message, really.

And he has a pretty dang small following.

He gets way too much screen time.

Ignoring him seems like the best solution overall. Seriously. Glen's postX10.
 
well.....it was ok - good by normal documentary standards, but not a classic for Theroux,

normally he manages to get a real human insight into the people behind the ideas, be that the neo-nazi racists, the end-of-days fundies, or the suburban swingers....regardless of his own personal views,
this time i don't think he really suceeded - not through any fault of his own, but he was up against a wall of unbendng God-rhetoric - and the usual both-learn-from-each-other relationship was replaced by a one way monologue....

still, an interesting insight into fundamental certainty nonetheless.
 
I downloaded it and I'm watching it tonight.

Theroux always impresses me with his approach. I like how he gets into the inner circle of these weirdos and lets them clearly say their piece without too much interference. It's a great way to see how these people live, how they justify themselves, and some of the garbage they spew. Also, the people in his videos could probably watch the show and think "Yes, he did a pretty fair job of reporting on us," rather than "He took us out of context and made us look like fools!"
 
I think he didn't grok that they're Calvinists or accept a couple of their basic axioms (e.g. OT is all good & applicable, all godly 'judgements' [= anything bad that happens] are good, etc), which resulted in a lot of head-on-wall.

Would be interesting to ask e.g. "okay, I understand that fags are bad, and you feel you're the only ones to really preach that, but why not preach any of the other things that the OT says are horrible things that nobody cares about and everyone accepts? Shrimp, cloth-mixing, divorce, failure to marry your brother's widow, ... nobody preaches those any more. This country is full of divorce-enablers..."
 
saizai said:
Would be interesting to ask e.g. "okay, I understand that fags are bad, and you feel you're the only ones to really preach that, but why not preach any of the other things that the OT says are horrible things that nobody cares about and everyone accepts? Shrimp, cloth-mixing, divorce, failure to marry your brother's widow, ... nobody preaches those any more. This country is full of divorce-enablers..."
Click to expand...

and eth answer is, because eth new testament (in the book of Romans) also has passages which could support an anti gay agenda, whereas the other OT laws (outside of the "big ten") have little NT support.
 
I think that there was a whole line of questioning he missed that might have been interesting to hear. The name on the wall of the church was

"Tachmonite"

There's a lot of enormous ego in Phelps linking himself to that name, and it would have given some insight as to how the church viewed itself in the world.
 
Why did Fred Phelps call Billy Graham an "Armenian"? (3rd clip, 5:17 (or 2:30 left))

Graham is from North Carolina.
 
saizai said:
kopji - Huh? Explain please.
Click to expand...

Tachmonite [EBD]

=Hach'monite, a name given to Jashobeam (2 Sam. 23:8; comp. 1 Chr. 11:11).


and following from that:


Jashobeam = "the people will return"

1) a Hachmonite, the leader of the 30 mighty warriors of David; he
joined David at Ziklag and was best known as the man who slew 800
or 300 men at one time; also called 'Adino the Eznite'




I trust you feel totally enlightened now...

I guess Phelps feels that he really is some mighty warrior instead of just the sad sack of excrement that he really is.

I actually think he should have taken the name "The Golgothan" - a la "Dogma".
 
Deus Ex Machina said:
I guess Phelps feels that he really is some mighty warrior instead of just the sad sack of excrement that he really is.
Click to expand...
If he imagines himself a warrior, I wonder who he imagines his opponents to be. Certainly not "fags"; God has that situation well in hand (according to Phelps), right?

Could it be America? If so, how does he justify still living here? Or reaping the rewards of America's bounty by letting his family attend universities and become lawyers?

The problem with fighting on the same side as an omnipotent force is that the omnipotent force doesn't really need your help...

Phelps was right about one thing in that documentary: Theroux had the chance to ask some really good, graduate-level questions, and all he asked were grade-school ones.
 
Last edited:
Downloaded and watched it yesterday. I thought it was great. I especially like the 2 'interviews' with Fred himself. I think I have a man-crush on Louis Theroux.

"These people hate God and worship the rectum."

"The rectum?"
 
There was an awful lot of focus on the rectum.

"Projection" comes to mind.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom