Has anyone seen "Fall From Grace"? It's a documentary about the infamous pastor Fred Phelps and his family of followers (literally his entire family, minus four estranged children who probably left because they just couldn't stand him anymore.). I rented it this week and watched it a few days ago. Well, I watched about half of it. I had to turn it off when they started to interview his young grandchildren. It broke my heart to hear the terrible words that were coming out of the mouths of 6 to 12 year old children. Unbelievable.

But this Fred Phelps...man! I have never in my life, EVER seen anyone so eaten up with hatred like he is. It just burns out of his eyes when he speaks...um, yells (and rants and raves...), from the pulpit. And then he sends his children and grandchildren out to picket anywhere and everyone whom he thinks is even a little bit sympathetic towards gays. They go out with signs that read "God Hates Fags!" and even the very young children are involved. It's heartbreaking and sad.

I think this is a fairly good documentary, however, because it really tries to dig into the roots of Phelp's sickness and his "church" (The Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka Kansas). It might be a little too strong for some folks in here, however, especially when, like I said, they interview the young children (some very cute boys, by the way)and when they describe how he actually disciplined his children when they were growing up. They go into graphic detail about the way he would beat them. Otherwise this is a worthwhile movie. I myself am going to have to watch it in portions; I will finish it sometime this week. But if anyone else has seen it, I would like to hear your comments.

Chris