I used to hate these people, until I read an article in which one of Phelps' estranged sons detailed how Phelps beat the shit out of/starved/imprisoned/etc his wife and kids on a regular basis. Now I just kinda feel bad for them. Luckily the litter's not allowed to procreate with anyone who's not in the church (and the whole church is pretty much all related at this point), so this'll probably be the final generation.
The more research you go into it, the sadder it gets. Phelps was once turned out of a sane church for punching his own baby boy for crying during his sermon. Their whole lives are basically Stockholm Syndrome ala' Daddy.
And then they get dragged to protests, where entitled college kids scream at them because they're too fucking stupid to realize that that's exactly what Phelps wants and both fuels their persecution complex and gives their church even more publicity.
The Children of God (aka The Family International) have lived on extremist endogamy for a couple of generations and are still going on fairly strong.
Yes, their group is definitely past their golden age, but that's more due to worldwide persecution and the loss of a charismatic leader, rather than the practice of endogamy per se.
Louie Theroux says the Phelps kids want desperately to be normal, but they've been trained to think this way since birth. They've never had a choice. The Phelpses who manage escape are miserable. This is like an immoral psychology experiment.
So Americans are going to Hell because they commit idolatry by worshiping dead soldiers who are in Hell because they are the sons and daughters of people who worship dead soldiers who are in Hell? Is this what I truly heard?
"Embraced by a new generation" of like three kids. The Phelps clan has allegedly stopped breeding entirely because THE END IS THAT CLOSE Y'ALL.
(Also, because the Phelps Gals would pretty much *have* to go outside WBC to find someone and it's going to be im-fucking-possible to keep them under control if that happens.)
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