With the recitation of three provocative words - "God hates fags" - Reverend Fred Phelps ignited a firestorm of controversy in sleepy Topeka, Kansas, a maelstrom that has continued with his aggressively polarizing rhetoric on such heated issues as homosexuality and the war in Iraq.
Replete with shocking interviews and rare Phelps footage, Fall from Grace paints a powerful portrait of hatred in America, one that forces viewers to reexamine the quintessentially American right of free speech.
“Fall from Grace’’ is a documentary that looks at the world of hate of Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas. The group has participated in almost 20,000 anti-homosexual demonstrations since the mid 1990’s. They carry signs that say “God hates fags” and “Thank God for 9/11”. The congregation of only 75 members has managed to gain international attention especially now that they have begun to appear at military funerals and picketed them. The film has interviews with Phelps himself, members of his church and dissenters as well as with two of the Phelps family who left the church and their families.
The film allows Phelps to hang himself with his closed minded rhetoric. We see the ideology of hate disguised as Christianity and the
face of intolerance and the dangerous power of a charismatic leader who causes such pain and suffering. Phelps is despicable and evil and his group takes pleasure in offending. The message that they give out is that God hates pretty much everything and everyone aside from the members of Phelps’ church. Director K. Ryan has assembled enough film footage to give some insight into what drives Phelps but the entire picture will never be known. Phelps has succeeded in alienating almost all who come into contact with him to the point that he was thrown out of his own church and had to find an outlet for his anger. He chose the GLBT community as a way to vent.
My only complaint about the film is that it is too short. Even with that the camera never blinks as Phelps spews out his own strange interpretations of what is happening in the world. He is a very sick man who uses his freedom of speech as a way to hate.
