Quote:
Originally Posted by HPLovecraft
What astounds me more than the amount of vitriol spewed from the mouth of Freddy Phelps is the way his followers can obsessively follow a man like that, free of questioning, free of their own perspective on what they're doing. They are basically empty vessels for Phelps to channel his message through. How can someone live like that, let alone thousands? It's the same question I had for the followers of Harold Camping and his whole doomsday predictions. He was wrong multiple times, but people still waited with baited breath on every word he spoke. One lunatic isn't all that strange. Thousands of people that buy into that lunatic's every word -- now that's something special.
|
While religion plays a very important role, the behaviour they show is not unlike many in abusive homes. Tough to say how much of it is religious whacko and how much of it is abuse victim. The elder Phelps himself is likely the victim of some pretty heinous stuff himself.
Of course your example doesn't really jive with my theory, but people do strange things for all sorts of reasons.