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Westboro Defectors Ask Negritude, Judaism and Faggotry to Forgive Them
http://www.whitenationalist.org/foru...=8002#post8002
http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...tolerance.html
http://stumbleinn.net/forum/showthre...471#post371471
On Thursday afternoon Megan and Grace Phelps-Roper visited the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. They’d been inside only a few minutes when they saw a photo of their family. There, as part of the permanent exhibit, was an image of their grandmother and sister at the murder trial of Matthew Shepard’s killers, holding the signs for which the Westboro Baptist Church has become infamous: “God Hates Fags,” “AIDS Cures Gays,” and “Matt in Hell.”
This was once their way of life. Now 27, Megan had been taken to protests since age 5; her younger sister Grace had been attending since birth—all as part of the Kansas ministry founded by their grandfather.
Four months ago Megan and Grace decided to take a different path. They left Westboro Baptist Church and were excommunicated by their family. Now they are embarking on an adventure in the wider world together, spurred by a determination to think for themselves and reconcile their faith with reality. In the process, they are meeting a wider array of people than they ever expected and breaking down the fear-fueled stereotypes that defined the world to them—and vice versa—for so long.
“We were taught that everything bad that happens in the world is because people don’t obey God. I thought that if it caused somebody to believe and to obey God, then their lives would be so much better.”
The culture of conflict bred an us-against-them identity among the church members. “They believe that Jesus said that ‘If you follow me, the world is going to hate you,’” says Megan, “and so when the world in fact hates their message and sometimes reacts violently, it definitely reinforces the idea that you’re right. There’s so much that we didn’t know about the way people believe and how they live. We did not have a clue.”
But the vicious cycle of self-reinforcement can be broken. Three years ago, Megan and Grace were in Los Angeles to protest the Jewlicious Festival—a three-day extravaganza of music and food and speakers celebrating the people whom Phelps-Ropers actively believed were destined for hell. This year they are attending the festival as friends of David Abitbol, the editor of Jewlicious.com who puts on the festival each year with Rabbi Yonah Bookstein, to talk with the attendees about their change of heart.
It was an initial confrontation with Abitbol that helped bring this change about—a Twitter fight over whether Jews must repent turned into a longer emailed correspondence and then a meeting in person that helped crystallize some of their growing questions. It turns out that Jewish forgiveness and kindness can tear down walls.
.
.
“There was a disconnect between the way that I felt and the way I was taught,” says Megan. “We were told a lot of things that weren’t true, and we assumed they were true because we didn’t see any evidence otherwise. But we weren’t really looking.”
David asks whether “I would have had the strength of character and intellectual integrity to walk away from my family.”
The decision to leave the confining comforts of home this past November was “awful,” says Grace. “I hope above all that I’ll get my family back one day—I think about it every day. And I miss my little brother and my sister and my cousins so much.”
For the time being, the girls are living with friends in Deadwood, South Dakota. They have traveled to Brooklyn, New York, and Des Moines, Iowa, and now L.A. again. “It’s really nice not to have to be ready to fight with people at a moment’s notice. I’m looking forward to hearing other people’s opinions and learning. I think it’s so crazy how everyone believes that their way is the right way and that religion is right. There’s so many different ways of looking at things. And when you listen to why people believe what they do and they explain it, it makes sense. I’ve been so impressed with the people we’ve met since we left and become friends with.”
When the girls left the Museum of Tolerance on Thursday, members of the staff hugged them after hearing their story. Megan and Grace are in the opening stages of an admirable American journey armed only with the determination to engage the world with an open mind and open heart. These virtues were not taught in their home. Their transformation might give more people courage and compassion. “We definitely want to find a way to help people and to do good,” says Megan.
They already are.
.
http://www.whitenationalist.org/foru...=8002#post8002
http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...tolerance.html
http://stumbleinn.net/forum/showthre...471#post371471
On Thursday afternoon Megan and Grace Phelps-Roper visited the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. They’d been inside only a few minutes when they saw a photo of their family. There, as part of the permanent exhibit, was an image of their grandmother and sister at the murder trial of Matthew Shepard’s killers, holding the signs for which the Westboro Baptist Church has become infamous: “God Hates Fags,” “AIDS Cures Gays,” and “Matt in Hell.”
This was once their way of life. Now 27, Megan had been taken to protests since age 5; her younger sister Grace had been attending since birth—all as part of the Kansas ministry founded by their grandfather.
Four months ago Megan and Grace decided to take a different path. They left Westboro Baptist Church and were excommunicated by their family. Now they are embarking on an adventure in the wider world together, spurred by a determination to think for themselves and reconcile their faith with reality. In the process, they are meeting a wider array of people than they ever expected and breaking down the fear-fueled stereotypes that defined the world to them—and vice versa—for so long.
“We were taught that everything bad that happens in the world is because people don’t obey God. I thought that if it caused somebody to believe and to obey God, then their lives would be so much better.”
The culture of conflict bred an us-against-them identity among the church members. “They believe that Jesus said that ‘If you follow me, the world is going to hate you,’” says Megan, “and so when the world in fact hates their message and sometimes reacts violently, it definitely reinforces the idea that you’re right. There’s so much that we didn’t know about the way people believe and how they live. We did not have a clue.”
But the vicious cycle of self-reinforcement can be broken. Three years ago, Megan and Grace were in Los Angeles to protest the Jewlicious Festival—a three-day extravaganza of music and food and speakers celebrating the people whom Phelps-Ropers actively believed were destined for hell. This year they are attending the festival as friends of David Abitbol, the editor of Jewlicious.com who puts on the festival each year with Rabbi Yonah Bookstein, to talk with the attendees about their change of heart.
It was an initial confrontation with Abitbol that helped bring this change about—a Twitter fight over whether Jews must repent turned into a longer emailed correspondence and then a meeting in person that helped crystallize some of their growing questions. It turns out that Jewish forgiveness and kindness can tear down walls.
.
“There was a disconnect between the way that I felt and the way I was taught,” says Megan. “We were told a lot of things that weren’t true, and we assumed they were true because we didn’t see any evidence otherwise. But we weren’t really looking.”
David asks whether “I would have had the strength of character and intellectual integrity to walk away from my family.”
The decision to leave the confining comforts of home this past November was “awful,” says Grace. “I hope above all that I’ll get my family back one day—I think about it every day. And I miss my little brother and my sister and my cousins so much.”
For the time being, the girls are living with friends in Deadwood, South Dakota. They have traveled to Brooklyn, New York, and Des Moines, Iowa, and now L.A. again. “It’s really nice not to have to be ready to fight with people at a moment’s notice. I’m looking forward to hearing other people’s opinions and learning. I think it’s so crazy how everyone believes that their way is the right way and that religion is right. There’s so many different ways of looking at things. And when you listen to why people believe what they do and they explain it, it makes sense. I’ve been so impressed with the people we’ve met since we left and become friends with.”
When the girls left the Museum of Tolerance on Thursday, members of the staff hugged them after hearing their story. Megan and Grace are in the opening stages of an admirable American journey armed only with the determination to engage the world with an open mind and open heart. These virtues were not taught in their home. Their transformation might give more people courage and compassion. “We definitely want to find a way to help people and to do good,” says Megan.
They already are.
.
. you dont win war by evacuating. you dont live with cancer, you cut it out, or it kills you. wake up.
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