THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD
(apologies to Keith Olbermann)
Steve Drain
Phelps’ gospel is built on the central belief, contrary to that of most Christian denominations, that God hates almost everyone, except a very select few chosen Christians. Their picketing, as explained by the church’s website, is meant to warn that “the modern militant homosexual movement [poses] a clear and present danger to the survival of America, exposing our nation to the wrath of God.” The more sensitive the setting (like a memorial for the child victims of the Newtown school shooting) and the more provocative the message (such as “Thank God for 9/11”) the better. The Westboro Baptist Church doesn’t want to recruit you, its website implies—it wants to make you mad.
The death of Fred Phelps led to a good deal of “Ding dong, the witch is dead” moralizing and opinionizing about his brand of hateful, rage-fueled Christianity. With his passing, the arguments went, surely the Westboro Baptist Church, bereft of its leader and ideological anchor, would go the way of the buffalo and fade into history. To quote the immortal Lee Corso,
“Not so fast, my friend….”
In a perfect world, that would indeed be the case, and the WBC trolls would disappear into irrelevance and well-deserved opprobrium. Instead, Phelps’ demise may just have opened the door for someone even more hateful, controlling, violent, and consumed by rage…as difficult as it may be to imagine.
[Drain] helped Phelps create the now-notorious “God hates…” signs and produced hundreds of videos for the church’s website, Godhatesfags.com. Recurring series include “Beast Watch,” “Jews News,” and “WBC Video News,” in which Drain, Fred Phelps and his son Timothy offer the Primitive Baptist take on the latest news. One of the more recent ones, for example, is titled “God Hates Malaysia,” and is pretty self-explanatory. Drain also writes and records WBC-themed pop song parodies.
It may well be that the Westboro Baptist Church isn’t about to disappear at all, and that its spiteful mean-spiritedness is about to move onto Act 2. Steve Drain, by all indications, is a megalomaniacal control freak who makes Fred Phelps look like a Boy Scout. If there’s a group or class that WBC hasn’t offended, I suspect Drain will rectify that, even as he endeavors to control and intimidate those around him.
God hates…well, pretty much everyone, as it turns out….
Stay tuned. I have a feeling the fun is only just beginning, and that Steve Drain will drag WBC and it’s hate-driven agenda kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Fred Phelps was by way of comparison an amateur- a churlish, dogmatic rageaholic rookie when contrasted with Drain. I have no idea where Drain will take the knuckle draggers who call WBC home, but it’s a safe bet it will be somewhere ugly, offensive, and mean. If past is prologue, WBC is far from dead…because hatred and rage can circle the globe before love and charity drag themselves out of bed.
God works in wondrous ways, no?
