Louis Theroux is having a renaissance in the aftermath of his Inside the Manosphere documentary on Netflix, and while it might not be his most hard-hitting release yet, it sheds light on another subculture of extreme beliefs.
Having previously spent time with neo-Nazis, prison inmates facing potential death sentences, those stuck in a heroin-addicted town, and convicted pedophiles, Theroux's faux-naive style of journalism continues to earn him praise. Theroux recently revealed the 'worst' person he's ever met, although various interviewees have come under fire for sharing their views.
Some of his most infamous documentaries include his two visits to the Westboro Baptist Church. Following the Kansas-based unaffiliated Primitive Baptist church in 2007's The Most Hated Family in America, the deep dive proved popular enough for Theroux to return for 2011's America's Most Hated Family in Crisis.
You might remember the Westboro Baptist Church for its controversial protest style of picketing the funerals of soldiers and waving 'God Hates F*gs' placards.
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Many of those featured have since moved on or been exiled from the church, while founder Fred Phelps passed away in 2014. Accounts from Phelps' granddaughter, Megan Phelps-Roper, claim he'd "had a softening of heart at the end of his life," with reports that he'd been excommunicated from the church.
Many former members have spoken out about their excommunication, including Lauren Drain, who stepped away in 2008.
Drain is especially notable due to her father, Steven, being a documentary filmmaker who set out to film the Westboro Baptist Church and ended up joining it in 2001.
Speaking to The Sun in 2022, Lauren Drain explained how she 'escaped' the church, became a New York Times best-selling author with her 2013 book called Banished, trained as a nurse, launched a fitness career, and turned to OnlyFans.
With 3.5 million followers on Instagram, Drain has been dubbed the world's 'sexiest' nurse by some.
Discussing how the church adopted a 'very strict culture', Drain maintains she wasn't allowed to cut her hair, paint her nails, chat to boys, or really interact with those outside of the church.
Saying there was a lot of fear-based shaming if you broke rules or asked questions, Drain continued: "I asked a lot of questions, so clearly I became a target for some of the church humiliation and punishments.
“To me now, it was all part of their goal to control the members and keep them in line with their strict rules and judgmental beliefs.
“They openly judged everyone to death and hell, which became a source of discomfort for me as I got older and wiser.”
For Drain, she realized she wanted out when the Westboro Baptist Church picketed the funeral of several Amish children who'd been shot.
She admits there's a sense of irony in the fact that she used to be throwing hate at others but now faces it online: "Life sure is strange and can come full circle. There will always be people who troll others. Some of the trolls are just hurting people who project, and some of them learned those behaviours from others."
Still, her time with the WBC and moving away from it has taught her to grow a 'thicker skin' as she says, "Most of the hate isn’t personal and it’s often them projecting their bad feelings about themselves onto others."
Looking at her current trajectory, Drain concluded: “Ever since I left Westboro, I promised God and myself I will never intentionally hurt or destroy someone’s heart.
“It has taken many years of bible studies and therapy to turn the other cheek and rise above all forms of hate, but I feel I’m getting there.”
There's a renewed interest in Theroux documentaries since Inside the Manosphere, although things seem to be much quieter in terms of WBC these days.