I had read about Steve Drain years ago on the Real Life Villains wiki, then all these years later he suddenly popped into my head. Turns out something major happened with him a few months ago. So between King of the Hill and getting an idea out of my head, let's get this through.
Also because he directed so little movies I have no other reason to bring him up.
But First, Background
Steve Drain was the leader of the Westboro Baptist Church. For those who don't know, you know those protestors you see heckling gay people, army funerals and AIDS funerals? There you go.
Drain was a director of documentaries, which you probably never heard of and given his associations are bound to be as scarce as the Basement Tapes. Drain was the kind of guy who sought the truth anywhere he could. Cautionary tales would tell of consequences for those that took too much from the hand of life, so he went right to the Westboro Baptist Church for his next documentary.
Time after, he became a hard-core convert and brought his family down with him.
You could say that Drain was already a fundy Christian who found his people, but he was already mostly liberal. You could say he was easily swayed, but he was quite intelligent. You see, intelligence is second to logic. What I mean by that is that Drain analyzed the sayings of the WBC's former grand poobah Fred Phelps, and considered his beliefs so airtight he took them at face value.
If you seek to analyze what you know, it'd blind you to the emotional aspects. Drain had no rebuttals to the anti-gay doctrine, when it's more of an emotional deal, the LGBT are people at the end of the day, and it goes to show how science can be corrupt.
To say he rose through the ranks is astounding, especially since he wasn't born into it. Guy was a monster, he just didn't know it yet.
Fact of the matter is, he has to be one of the most evil parts of the WBC. Let's put it into perspective, Phelps used to be a champion of civil rights, hell, the WBC weren't predominantly anti-black, and when you take into account the heyday of the church, it was around the time LGBT rights were still well away and the moral majority was still a thing. He essentially had a warped militant perspective of the bible. Shirley Phelps-Roper was born into what her father taught so she never knew any better.
Drain on the other hand, to reiterate, he wasn't born into it, he took Phelps' word at face value and focused less on the emotional implications and more on whether or not they can be debunked, he brought his family to the church for conversion, oh yeah, he's also apparently super sexist. He worked to overthrow Phelps-Roper all because he felt women were inferior.
As another pro to Fred, he stuck by his daughter, and was more into keeping the hatred to the protests. He got excommunicated.
Only way this would be okay is if Drain was actually a double agent seeking to destroy the church from the inside, which we know wasn't true. Perhaps Drain was a dickbag all along, and just wanted justification for striking out.
Another aspect is that he doesn't believe for his actions he'd go to heaven. Wasn't the point to please god in their misguided attempt at promoting purity the hard way?
His treatment of a certain daughter should go without saying, okay he didn't do what you thought, Lauren Drain just wound up questioning the point behind all of this, and got the boot. She isn't antagonized and surprisingly is still a Christian, which is cool because even Christians hate the WBC.
So why are we here?
In December of 2020, Drain and all else of his family that remained were booted. Whether or not they were kicked out or left on their own volition is up to debate. Some claimed that Drain went on to become a minister at a church in Mississippi, but this is speculation. One other popular theory is that the pandemic made it harder for protests to occur and that caused already shaky ground to crack further.
We can only hope now that Drain would at least try to apologize to Laura, unless he has too much pride.
Final Thoughts
What we have here is the seeds for, honestly, a kick-ass meta psychological thriller film. It all falls into place. Also horrible people.
I honestly don't think they wanted Steve Drain in the first place but his talent for making videos helped them get their message out so they tolerated him.I think he wanted to run that church and thought when the old man kicked the bucket, he would be the new pastor and they would all kowtow to him.I don't think Steve Drain was in it for God. He is just am angry bitter person and the church was just an outlet for his anger and bitterness. The church did soften its message somewhat over over last couple of years and I suspect Steve didn't like that. He didn't want signs about Jesus. He wanted the signs about hate and people going to hell.
ReplyDeleteSorry for the very late reply, I didn't think people actually commented on my blog.
DeleteYou raise an interesting point (and one that's, in a twisted sense, kinda assuring). Drain did have the technical knowhow, that's for sure.
I think a clue to his bitterness stems from an interview where he claims that the acts of the church would not get them to heaven, something Fred Phelps felt the opposite about.
Phelps was just a facet of the moral majority and when non-secular mentalities were at an all-time high, though for what he put his kids through is inexcusable, that can be exemplified through the defection of his son Nathan.
Under Phelps, the message was just a grander extension of dismissal of sacrilegious actions, though they went further. Drain's leadership certainly built upon the more hateful aspects of it, because it isn't to drive the warped words of god, but to spread hate.
It's also interesting you bring up that the church had tried to soften its message, as if under Drain they realized they had it worse.