The Church of Hate
Colm Flynn asks senior Westboro Baptist Church member Charles Hockenbarger about why the church's founder and main pastor, Fred Phelps, was ex-communicated just before his death.
Colm Flynn talks to church member Jael Phelps, granddaughter of founder Fred Phelps, about her beliefs that pain on Earth is God's punishment for humanity's wrongdoing.
Libby Phelps was once a member of the Westboro Baptist Church, a church she now calls 'a cult' and now advocated for the LGBT community, the group she once condemned to hell.
Description
For the BBC World Serice, Colm Flynn travels to meet ‘the most hated family in America’, the Westboro Baptist Church. The church has become infamous for telling homosexuals they are going to hell and picketing the funerals of US soldiers. In this half-hour documentary Colm asks the church leaders about their views and tries to find out why their leader, Pastor Fred Phelps, was ex-communicated from the church just before his death.
Colm talks to Libby Phelps about who she escaped the Westboro Baptist Church, a church she now calls ‘a cult’ and is now advocating for the LGBT community, the group she once condemned to hell.
Here the full documentary here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05yf71w
Sections of this documentary were also broadcast on RTÉ in Ireland, Radio France, and DW in Germany.