Here's a piece to get the blood boiling: It's about Hillsboro Baptist Church, which has made a name for itself by picketing military funerals. Showtime's got a film on the subject Tuesday night. Here's my Bloomberg review: Nutty Church Rejoices Over Dead U.S. Soldiers By Dave Shiflett Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- It takes a deeply vile person to picket military funerals, especially with signs proclaiming ``Thank God for Dead Soldiers'' and ``God Is Your Enemy.'' Meet the Reverend Fred Phelps, whose Westboro Baptist Church congregation takes to the streets and cemeteries to celebrate American combat deaths. Phelps and his twisted flock are the subjects of ``Fall From Grace,'' which airs Dec. 4 on Showtime at 10 p.m. New York time. Why does the reverend rage? Phelps and his followers, mostly members of his family, believe military deaths are divine payback for tolerating homosexuality. Indeed, any calamity that befalls America, including Hurricane Katrina, is seen as a sign of the Almighty's anti-gay wrath. Their creed is summed up pretty well in the names of two of the church's Web sites: http://www.godhatesamerica.com and http://www.godhatesfags.com . Subtlety is not their strong suit. The 70-minute documentary marks the filmmaking debut of K. Ryan Jones, a student at the University of Kansas who interviewed Phelps and several of his 13 children. Most appear to have inherited the loony gene; one or two have also succumbed to the temptations of the deep-fat fryer. Yet they do have one profound talent: spewing hatred. The church, based in Topeka, Kansas, was recently ordered to pay a Baltimore family $11 million in damages for picketing their soldier son's funeral. The film makes it clear that the protests are designed to inflict maximum pain to survivors. Disbarred Lawyer Church members, including children, trample flags, chant hate messages and wave venomous signs such as ``God Hates You,'' ``God Is Your Enemy'' and ``Your Pastor Is a Whore.'' Phelps, a disbarred lawyer, agreed to several interviews. During one he insists that military casualties are divine comeuppance for an act of vandalism against his church. Jones also filmed Phelps's services, which no one will mistake for Quaker meetings. The reverend looks pale and skeletal in his calmer moments, but as his ranting increases his face turns red and his eyes flash with rage. Four of his children have left the church and two agreed to participate in off-camera telephone interviews. They say Phelps was fond of beating his offspring, either with a barber's strop or a mattock handle. One believes his ``cult'' is capable of violence. Two segments are especially troubling. One shows protests at the funeral of Lucas Frantz, who was killed in Iraq on his 22nd birthday. ``It wasn't supposed to be like that,'' his widow tearfully says of the picketing. ``Not on that day.'' As the father of a deployed soldier, I found myself wondering where the snipers are when you really need them. Roaring Harleys When the Westboro flock targeted a ceremony to retire Frantz's football jersey, they were surrounded by a local biker gang whose members gunned their engines, totally drowning out the chanting. This is clearly why the Good Lord made Harley- Davidsons. Perhaps the most disturbing segment features interviews with children of church members. The tykes appear hardly old enough to drink soda pop, yet their prejudices are fully formed. They call gays ``evil beasts'' who are ``going to hell forever.'' Jones also interviews city officials and local clerics, all of whom clearly wish Westboro Baptist would be visited by a well-aimed meteorite. Yet Phelps, who says he wishes U.S. combat deaths were in the millions, seems certain that he and his brood of vipers will slither into heaven. I predict a hotter, subterranean fate awaits them.
