Empathy is not a betrayal of one's cause.

Megan Phelps-Roper

I was a blue-eyed, chubby-cheeked five-year-old when I joined my family on the picket line for the first time. My mom made me leave my dolls in the minivan. I'd stand on a street corner in the heavy Kansas humidity, surrounded by a few dozen relatives, with my tiny fists clutching a sign that I couldn't read yet: 'Gays are worthy of death.'

Megan Phelps-Roper

All I could do was try to build a new life and find a way somehow to repair some of the damage. People had every reason to doubt my sincerity, but most of them didn't. And - given my history, it was more than I could've hoped for - forgiveness and the benefit of the doubt. It still amazes me.

Megan Phelps-Roper

I no longer believe that the Bible is the literal and infallible word of God. And I don't believe in God as a figure in the sky listening to your prayers, things like that.

Megan Phelps-Roper

In the era of Donald Trump the echoes of Westboro are undeniable: the division of the world into Us and Them; the vilification of compromise; the knee-jerk expulsion of insiders who violate group orthodoxy; and the demonization of outsiders and the inability to substantively engage with their ideas, because we simply cannot step outside of our own.

Megan Phelps-Roper

We know that we've done and said things that hurt people. Inflicting pain on others wasn't the goal, but it was one of the outcomes. We wish it weren't so, and regret that hurt.

Megan Phelps-Roper

Assuming ill motives almost instantly cuts us off from truly understanding why someone does and believes as they do.

Megan Phelps-Roper

In spite of overwhelming grief and terror, I left Westboro in 2012.

Megan Phelps-Roper

I think for some people who leave Westboro, losing that sense of specialness feels like you've lost something really valuable and important. I had the opposite experience. I was so grateful to know that I wasn't uniquely evil. I was just a human being who had had this set of experiences that were outside of my control.

Megan Phelps-Roper

I do send messages to my family; I send letters in the mail, and when I'm in town, I almost always leave something in the door of my house in Topeka.

Megan Phelps-Roper

You hear stories about Scientology, where people are prevented from leaving, and Westboro's not like that. If you decide that you don't want to be there, then they will help you leave. The shunning, cutting people off - they're doing that because they believe it is for our highest good.

Megan Phelps-Roper

There's a rich history at Westboro of parodying pop culture. The thing about pop culture is that it gives us a shared language. We were constantly trying to co-opt things that were popular to deliver our own message.

Megan Phelps-Roper

My husband and I eventually want to start a nonprofit and call it the Westboro Foundation. It was his idea, and I love it. I would love for Westboro to come to mean something besides 'God hates gays.'

Megan Phelps-Roper

Growing up in Westboro, there was a culture of celebrating death and tragedy... a very calloused way of seeing other people's pain. After I left, it took me a while to be able to really empathize with what it must have been like for the loved ones of people whose funerals we protested.

Megan Phelps-Roper

I had never experienced the death of someone close to me until my grandfather passed away.

Megan Phelps-Roper

If you look at who you were a year ago and aren't somewhat embarrassed, you're not growing as a person.

Megan Phelps-Roper

It's important to see people as being on a journey.

Megan Phelps-Roper

There's so much power in seeing the possibility of change.

Megan Phelps-Roper

If you can see these people... as human beings and capable of change, there is hope. We should be willing to reach out. Imagine what could happen if we kept reaching out to people like Westboro members?

Megan Phelps-Roper

My first memories are of picketing ex-servicemen's funerals and telling their families they were going to burn in hell.

Megan Phelps-Roper

Megan Phelps-Roper Quotes

Empathy is not a betrayal of one's cause.

All I could do was try to build a new life and find a way somehow to repair some of the damage. People had every reason to doubt my sincerity, but most of them didn't. And - given my history, it was more than I could've hoped for - forgiveness and the benefit of the doubt. It still amazes me.

I no longer believe that the Bible is the literal and infallible word of God. And I don't believe in God as a figure in the sky listening to your prayers, things like that.

We know that we've done and said things that hurt people. Inflicting pain on others wasn't the goal, but it was one of the outcomes. We wish it weren't so, and regret that hurt.

Assuming ill motives almost instantly cuts us off from truly understanding why someone does and believes as they do.

In spite of overwhelming grief and terror, I left Westboro in 2012.

I do send messages to my family; I send letters in the mail, and when I'm in town, I almost always leave something in the door of my house in Topeka.

You hear stories about Scientology, where people are prevented from leaving, and Westboro's not like that. If you decide that you don't want to be there, then they will help you leave. The shunning, cutting people off - they're doing that because they believe it is for our highest good.

There's a rich history at Westboro of parodying pop culture. The thing about pop culture is that it gives us a shared language. We were constantly trying to co-opt things that were popular to deliver our own message.

My husband and I eventually want to start a nonprofit and call it the Westboro Foundation. It was his idea, and I love it. I would love for Westboro to come to mean something besides 'God hates gays.'

Growing up in Westboro, there was a culture of celebrating death and tragedy... a very calloused way of seeing other people's pain. After I left, it took me a while to be able to really empathize with what it must have been like for the loved ones of people whose funerals we protested.

I had never experienced the death of someone close to me until my grandfather passed away.

If you look at who you were a year ago and aren't somewhat embarrassed, you're not growing as a person.

It's important to see people as being on a journey.

There's so much power in seeing the possibility of change.

If you can see these people... as human beings and capable of change, there is hope. We should be willing to reach out. Imagine what could happen if we kept reaching out to people like Westboro members?

My first memories are of picketing ex-servicemen's funerals and telling their families they were going to burn in hell.