MARGE PHELPS: Forget all the rest of the scripture.
Just think logically.
It's delusional.
These people are delusional.
It's like they're all mentally ill.
You turned this country over to the fags.
You did it aggressively.
You did it proactively.
You did it in 1,000 different ways.
Now we're coming home in body bags.
FRED PHELPS: It is my opinion that the news media is totally
corrupt and totally--
I mean totally--
dedicated to the militant fag agenda.
LIBBY ALVAREZ: This guy was spitting on me and they
knocked me down.
I may have been 10 or something.
SHIRLEY PHELPS-ROPER: Judge not less you be judged, you
blankity blanking blah, blah, blah that says, blah, blah.
To which I have to say, [INAUDIBLE] stop judging us.
STEVE DRAIN: All these do-gooder, lying-ass
Christians.
FRED PHELPS: Break these signs out in some public place.
Display them, and it will only be a matter of minutes, if not
seconds, before the same kind of vicious fag
attack, we call it.
Fag attack.
DENISE HALL: I think when you have that kind of hate speech
against any one particular group, other people are going
to sit back and say, wow, that's really
going over the top.
MALE SPEAKER: You should be burned at the stake.
MALE SPEAKER: You filthy, rotten, scum-sucking pig,
[INAUDIBLE] you're going to hell.
MARGE PHELPS: And this thing's going in waves now.
We go out and tell them, they respond by aggressively
rejecting the message.
MALE SPEAKER: They're pathetic.
You people are pathetic.
MARGE PHELPS: You know know who claims to be the most
Christian in this country nowadays?
The veterans and the politicians.
That's why they're the ones who fight us the hardest.
MALE SPEAKER: OK, now, hey, guys.
[INAUDIBLE].
TIM PHELPS: I remember I think the worst one I went to was
either that weekend that I left in 2007--
my birthday present was to go to Washington, DC, for the
Veterans' Day parade.
And so I was there and that was kind of crazy.
They chased us away when they're all down listening to
the speech and they all come up the hill
and we're right there.
And we're right at the corner when the parade turns around.
And we were kind of trapped there on the corner.
And we tried to jump.
I had two of the younger kids like this.
I'm shielding them or whatever.
And so we tried to hop the barrier.
And the cops pulled out there batons, like, get back over,
get back over.
DENISE HALL: They're not asking
anybody to hurt anybody.
They're saying things that we can all find terrible, but
they're not saying, let's go kill gay people.
NARRATOR: During our time with the Westboro Baptist Church,
we found it increasingly difficult to reconcile their
hate speech with how well they treated us.
But the one thing we had to keep reminding ourselves was
that, to them, we were nothing more than another platform to
spread their message.
DENISE HALL: For those of us who live here and have lived
here for a long time, we can just drive by and go, OK,
that's Fred.
It's just such a shock to people in other cities that
think, does everybody in Topeka feel like this?
And would everybody in Topeka get behind
something like this?
And, no, of course, we wouldn't .
GRUMPY: Anti-gays, anti-America--
you name it, he's against it.
MALE SPEAKER: Have a good evening.
GRUMPY: I know personally a child who died of AIDS because
of a blood transmission.
They picketed that child's funeral.
That [INAUDIBLE].
DENISE HALL: Ted's kind of--
there are good people in this town that are trying to make
the town grow and make it look interesting.
And then you have to think, oh well, you get some company in
from somewhere, and how much does that hurt if they happen
to drive by a bunch of picketers and think, huh,
should we move our families and our company to Topeka?
Hm.
Well, let's see.
Maybe we'll go to Omaha.
STEVE DRAIN: I'm much more fearful of neglecting my duty
to my children to teach them what the Lord requires of them
than I am not having some fleshly relationship with
them, besides which, when we talk about kids growing up
that become adults, you don't hang out with people who don't
like the same kind of stuff you like or do the
same kind of you do.
Everybody gravitates toward people with common interests.
NARRATOR: Steve's daughters, Lauren and Taylor, were
brought into the Westboro fold as adolescents.
Upon their arrival, the Drains sharply changed their approach
to parenting--
no Christmas, no Halloween, no Thanksgiving, no more rock
bands, no more haircuts for the girls, no more chocolate
bunnies, or even What Would Jesus Do? bracelets, and above
all, no boys.
TAYLOR DRAIN: God says to warn them for him.
These people don't obey him.
They don't keep his commandments.
STEVE DRAIN: Taylor, she actually cut a music video not
too long ago.
She's a senior at Washburn University now.
You understand, she studies computer information systems,
but she likes the the look and feel side of that.
So for instance, godhatesthemedia.com--
that's basically her website.
She put it together.
Taylor also does the WBC video news a couple times a week.
It usually has been [INAUDIBLE]
Pastor Phelps.
But here recently, some of the other elder men have been
breaking out and starting to do some talking.
And Taylor she switches that.
She's got a little switcher in there, in the studio.
And she posts it herself and sticks it up there.
So it's pretty cool.
TIM PHELPS: Taylor, she was kind of quiet.
Truthfully, I'm surprised that she's there, because I thought
that she was kind of attached to some of those boys that
left in her grade.
I don't know.
And her sister--
I thought she was attached to her sister.
NARRATOR: Well into the second hour of our interview, we
noticed that Steve was still hesitant to discuss the one
topic on both of our minds--
his daughter Lauren.
STEVE DRAIN: These are kids for a while, and then they're
adults for a long time.
And when they're adults, when they come to that age--
the age where they have a moral responsibility for
themselves--
at least I'll know this.
At least I'll know that I did my duty to them.
Because my life isn't about pleasing myself.
My life isn't about pleasing my children.
My life is about serving my Lord.
LIBBY ALVAREZ: She never was a true believer.
You don't even want to get me started on this girl.
She always wanted to go out with boys.
I know that I have people-- even after all that's left--
come up to me and tell me how she would take clothes to
school and change into them that were inappropriate.
She snuck out all the time with a guy from Topeka High
and did stuff with him.
TIM PHELPS: Then she got caught because
she had a flat tire.
LIBBY ALVAREZ: She got a flat tire and she got caught.
NARRATOR: Lauren Drain was expelled from the Westboro
Baptist Church in 2007.
She has been allowed no contact with her mother and
two younger siblings, Boaz and Faith.
STEVE DRAIN: I haven't spoken to her probably in I'm going
to say three years.
I'm not really sure.
But I think probably three years since
I've spoken to her.
She's a grown woman now.
It's way different than when you're a little kid.
When I have these little kids, they're looking to Dad for
some guidance.
And I tell them, look, this is what the scripture says here.
This is the standard that we have in this house.
But now, she's is a grown woman.
First time I go to telling her that what she's doing is
wrong, she's going to tell me to take a long
walk on a short pier.
LIBBY ALVAREZ: I'll tell you what happened.
There was this guy--
I was responsible on YouTube to put up videos.
And so I was doing that.
So this guy started talking to me.
And then Lauren started putting
up videos or something.
I don't know why she was on there.
Then she started talking to this guy.
And this guy was trying to flirt with us, OK?
So apparently, she was--
TIM PHELPS: Corresponding.
LIBBY ALVAREZ: Yeah, she was corresponding with him.
And she ended up stealing her mother's credit card--
TIM PHELPS: Bought a plane ticket.
LIBBY ALVAREZ: --and bought a plane ticket for
him to come to Kansas.
STEVE DRAIN: Look, she's not a country mile from a
Bible-believing Christian, I can tell you right now.
She lives with a man.
She's not married to him.
It's kind of the fundamental deal right there.
NARRATOR: As we looked around the Drain family home, we
noticed that not a single picture of
Lauren Drain remained.
She had been erased, as if she never existed.
STEVE DRAIN: Thankfully, the Lord has been merciful to me.
He's given me children that I didn't even have
when I came up here.
No, he gave me Bo and Faith after we
even were living here.
I got an eight-year-old daughter who knows more Bible
than a good chunk of preachers in Topeka, Kansas.
BOAZ DRAIN: Faith, you always look weird, so it doesn't
really-- you can't tell the difference.
FAITH DRAIN: Shut up.
STEVE DRAIN: Yeah, she called me on my birthday.
I think it was about three years ago.
She called me and she was very cheerful.
And she said, you were right about everything you tried to
tell me, Dad.
And then she hung up.
And that was the last I've heard from her.
NARRATOR: While she did provide us with pictures and
this video, Lauren Drain did not grant Vice an interview.
However, she did ask us to plug her book.
It comes out in 2013.
LIBBY ALVAREZ: The views were becoming more extreme.
The main thing that I had a problem with was praying for a
specific person to die.
But since I had lived there my entire life and all that
seemed normal to me--
TIM PHELPS: You went went along with it.
LIBBY ALVAREZ: Yeah, I went along with it.
And I needed a personal breaking point, like something
that happened just to me.
And that happened when my family and I went on a
vacation to Puerto Rico.
We came back, my grandpa asked for pictures.
So the one that I gave him-- and only good one--
me and my sister happened to be wearing a bikini in it.
They put out on a table so everyone going to church--
my grandma and grandpa, they liked it.
They put it out front so everyone could look at it.
After church, I walked out there and I saw the picture
had been moved way to the back.
And I just thought, oh, crap.
Something bad's going to happen.
STEVE DRAIN: There aren't any other options in life.
You either warn the wicked or you don't warn the wicked.
You warn the righteous or you don't warn the righteous.
LIBBY ALVAREZ: We had these meetings.
I had been to them with other people.
And I mean, I know how nervous I got there.
And then it was my turn for a meeting.
There's about 30 people around you in a big rectangle.
TIM PHELPS: It's like a verbal stoning.
LIBBY ALVAREZ: Exactly.
That's exactly what is, a verbal stoning.
Everyone, they were saying I don't help out enough.
And then his dad said that I was chaff and that the wind
was going to come and blow me away.
And it's just like, sitting there listening to all this,
you obviously don't want me here.
It actually opened my eyes a lot.
So every time I get sad sometimes about leaving and
missing my family, I think about that, because they are
not the honest, hard-working people that I
thought that they were.
Sorry.
Everyone kept calling me and they were telling me, stop
dishonoring your parents.
Another one said, you need to quit your job.
Then, my grandpa called.
He said, you're not thinking about leaving, are you?
And then I said, no.
And in that moment, I was telling the truth, because I
didn't think I could leave.
I didn't think that was an option for me to leave.
I just kind of had a sudden realization that I needed to
get out there.
It just overpowered me that I needed to leave.
The opportunity presented itself.
I had to do it, or it wasn't going to happen.
My dad called and I didn't answer it.
He left a message, and I listened to it.
He said, I hope you're having a good day, and everything
will be fine.
You just need to talk to everyone.
And we can get this result.
But I knew that that wasn't going to happen.
And then I left.
Shirley sent me an email.
And she said, your mom and your dad and your sister want
no communication with you.
Remember earlier, when I said it was an unspoken rule that
you can't talk to them?
So there, I still have that it writing.
TIM PHELPS: Tara and James--
LIBBY ALVAREZ: Marie, Josh, you, Hez-
TIM PHELPS: Michael, David.
LIBBY ALVAREZ: Oh, yeah.
Forgot about them.
TIM PHELPS: Mechiah.
LIBBY ALVAREZ: Oh, yeah.
TIM PHELPS: Josh Phelps.
LIBBY ALVAREZ: Oh, yeah.
Geez.
TIM PHELPS: We can't find him.
LIBBY ALVAREZ: Yeah.
TIM PHELPS: From our generation.
There's obviously Kate and Carl, Teresa, Bill, and Mary.
LIBBY ALVAREZ: Yeah, there's older ones that left, too.
Well, I still have problems, especially when I see a
homosexual couple.
I still am just like, oh, man.
What's going on over there?
TIM PHELPS: The only thing I have a problem with, I guess--
I learned pretty quick how to be able to manipulate my way
through stuff.
LIBBY ALVAREZ: I don't know how to do that.
TIM PHELPS: I usually don't even use my last name
unless I have to.
Not that I'm ashamed of it, but that I don't want to be
judged is, I guess, the word I could use, on--
LIBBY ALVAREZ: Yeah, exactly.
TIM PHELPS: I went into an interview the other day.
I was looking for a second job.
And I went into the interview, and he goes, Tim
Phelps, from Topeka?
I'm not even going to ask you.
LIBBY ALVAREZ: Oh, god.
TIM PHELPS: And I was like, you can if you want.
And he's like, you know what question I was going to ask.
And then he didn't ask it.
LIBBY ALVAREZ: You should have said something.
TIM PHELPS: It's not a big deal.
No, I just let him do his interview.
LIBBY ALVAREZ: Oh, that's weird.
If you don't get it, it's because he probably thinks
that you're still there.
I'm just kidding.
TIM PHELPS: Well, I guess I could have been.
But I don't care.
LIBBY ALVAREZ: Yeah.
FRED PHELPS: Try to stop us!
STEVE DRAIN: I'm having this interview with you.
And you know, we hit it off pretty well.
But it's your vocation to be interested in fringe
personalities.
Imagine being good friends with me.
We're not going to be bowling buddies.
We're just not going to.