16/07/2019
BBC2's Louis Theroux, who specialises in visiting the weirder side of the United States, paid a visit to the notorious Westoboro Baptist Church on Sunday evening, to find out how the cult is faring after the death of its hated founder. The group began picketing the funerals of gay men during the years of the AIDS crisis, but only came to international notoriety after disrupting the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man murdered by two bigots in Wyoming in 1998. The group later expanded to picket the funerals of American soldiers and chanting anti-Jewish messages. The response to the programme was mixed. Many LGBT people feel that the BBC should not give what Mrs Thatcher called “The Oxygen of Publicity” to the group, pointing out that even other conservative churches in the US regard them as an insane cult rather than a bone fide faith group. On the other hand, there are those who point out that the hatred of the organisation is so extreme that they actually turn people away from conservative Christianity. A 2002 “Gay Times” report spoke to the highly conservative father of a deceased American marine, who said that whilst he was still “uncomfortable” around gay people, “since day those swines disrupted by son's funeral, I will work with gay folks to stop those awful people”.