KEY POINTS:
There's an extended family in Kansas deemed The Most Hated Family in America, the title of the first of British journalist Louis Theroux's new Inside Story series, which began last Monday on TV One. The Phelps family, of the Westboro Baptist Church, believe "God is America's Terrorist" and the country is going to hell because of tolerance towards people they call "fags". Fags are sinners; people who accept them, or don't care about their sexual orientation, are sinners; and the logical (to the Phelps') outcome is that all soldiers killed in Iraq are sinners, paying the price for the pro-fag Bush government's decision to go to war. In other words, the Phelps are foaming homophobes.
This charming lot spend huge amounts each year travelling around picketing soldiers' funerals with signs denouncing the army as fag-lovers. What a ghastly lot. You have to admire Theroux for spending three weeks with them without losing his rag. Instead, he quietly persisted in talking to as many of the Phelps as he could and attempted to apply some logic without having any impact at all.
He didn't get much of an audience with patriarch Fred, a grumpy old tyke who dismissed Theroux's perfectly reasonable questions as "stupid". Theroux spent more time with Fred's daughter Shirley, mother of 11. Shirley and her family were courteous, polite and absolutely rigid. They discovered that Theroux and his partner had a child out of wedlock. So, with a sincere smile, they told him he would burn in hell along with fag-lovers like Liz Taylor, Desmond Tutu and Princess Di.
None of Shirley's older girls were allowed boyfriends, stated Shirley. Boyfriends would just lead to filthy fornication. "You've got fornication on the brain, Shirley," Theroux pointed out in his mild-mannered way. He was right.
The Phelps were a scary, cordial phenomenon. Theroux eventually got an admission from one of the girls that kids had been horrible to her at school, that she'd felt the hatred all of her life. A classic case of getting back what you put out.
Theroux concluded that Fred was an angry man, a "rage-aholic", and this had formed the true basis of their beliefs. When he put that to Shirley, she couldn't budge. "What we are doing is a courteous and loving thing," she fired back. "America is a depraved nation." At least it allows her the freedom of speech to say all those foul things.
Theroux travelled to Las Vegas for his next instalment, to investigate gambling. He focused on the plush Hilton where a handler for rich clients provided an introduction to a mattress millionaire called Alan who flew in for three days of high-rolling.
Las Vegas is, as Theroux pointed out, all about taking your money while keeping a smile on your face. Alan was given a 1394sq m suite as a free perk and a free shopping credit card, and you could see why. He paid the casino back in droves, losing $300,000.
Theroux also met a retired doctor, Martha, who had played the slots every day for 10 years. She had lost $4 million during that time, and the casino staff treated her like a dear friend. Of course they would.
Theroux went all out on his last night and won $1500 at Baccarat even though he didn't know how to play. He would be of no use to the casino in the long term. He knew when to quit. He was in control rather than the other way around, making spellbinding TV in the process.
