Two granddaughters of Fred Phelps have
fled the anti-gay church he helms.
The Topeka, Kansas-based Westboro
Baptist Church has said its members protest the funerals of fallen
American soldiers because they were protecting a nation which
supports homosexuality.
In an online statement, Megan and Grace
Phelps-Roper said they have left the church and apologized for the
pain they inflicted.
“We know that we've done and said
things that hurt people,” they
wrote. “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.”
“We know that we dearly love our
family. They now consider us betrayers, and we are cut off from their
lives, but we know they are well-intentioned. We will never not love
them.”
“We know that we can't undo our whole
lives. We can't even say we'd want to if we could; we are who we are
because of all the experiences that brought us to this point. What
we can do is try to find a better way to live from here on. That's
our focus.”
“Up until now, our names have been
synonymous with 'God Hates Fags.' Any twelve-year-old with a cell
phone could find out what we did. We hope Ms. Kyle was right about
the other part, too, though – that everything sticks – and that
the changes we make in our lives will speak for themselves.”
Megan told Fast Company editor
Jeff Chu that she left the church in November and recounted the
moment she started questioning the church's dogma.
“My doubts started with a
conversation I had with David Abitbol,” she
said, referring to a member of the blog Jewlicious, on Twitter.
“I would ask him questions about
Judaism, and he would ask me questions about church doctrine. One
day, he asked a specific question about one of our signs – 'Death
Penalty for Fags' – and I was arguing for the church's position,
that it was a Levitical punishment and as completely appropriate now
as it was then. He said, 'But Jesus said' – and I thought it was
funny he was quoting Jesus – 'Let he who is without sin cast the
first stone.' And then he connected it to another member of the
church who had done something that, according to the Old Testament,
was also punishable by death. I realized that if the death penalty
was instituted for any sin, you completely cut off the opportunity to
repent. And that's what Jesus was talking about.”
At least two other family members have
fled the church. Libby Phelps Alvarez, a granddaughter, broke away
four years ago. And Nate Phelps, one of Fred Phelps' 12 children,
drove away on his 18th birthday and now lives in Canada.