- The story of Megan Phelps-Roper written by Adrian Chen was rather strange. It started with a rocky childhood, raised by her mother and father in Topeka Kansas. Her family was very devoted to the Westboro church run by her grandfather Fred Phelps. His ideas of society were very conservative but he viewed America as already being too far gone to conserve. In Freds eyes America was unredeemable after Obama was elected Megan recalled that Fred referred to him as the “antichrist, this presidency signalled that beginning of the apocalypse (chen 87)”. Chen the author does not go further to explain exactly why Fred had hated Obama other than the fact that america now supported gay rights. Eventually after the church had been around for a while they began picketing just about everything. Megan was so used to the culture she mentions times when she would protest her own highschool during lunch. “The Westboro students had a reputation for being diligent and polite in class, but at lunch they would picket the schools (chen 84)”. After so many years of being forced to do god’s will it became ingrained in Megan’s mind that she was right in contrast to popular belief as she found on twitter.
- With the Use of twitter Megan was able to make a lasting mark on the world through the internet. At a young age she was able to gain thousands of followers by saying things she was taught in church which went completely against societal norms. These radical ideas led people to be interested in Megan’s ideas and brought fame to Westboro church. Interactions such as the twitter conversations between Megan and David Abitbol lead to Megan personality shift. Abitbol is a member of the Jewish community from Canada who spoke to Megan Abitbol was not completely kind but he managed to relate to Megan and make conversation with her. The conversations didn’t change much for Megan but she now put feelings into her tweets, she was learning how to debate and “developed her affable rhetorical style (chen 91)”.
- The writing which had the most impact on Megan was from a person with a calm but snappy undertone. She enjoyed the debate and the conversation but she didn’t take criticism. As time went on she became far more open minded and able to have conversations with people over twitter without causing problems. This text teaches us that confronting hate speech is hard to do. It normally comes from somewhere else, hatred is not known at birth it is taught. In Megan’s case having a conversation rather than tweets made all the difference. This story also teaches us about redemption. On one hand some may argue that Megan had done too much to deserve redemption but I believe that she has redeemed herself. She no longer supports her grandfather Fred’s ideas but she still had committed acts of hate. Time has passed however and Megan has righted her wrongs, therefore she has redeemed herself.
- If I met Megan today I would ask her what one occasion if there is one do you regret the most regarding your time with Westboro? I’m curious to know how far hatred can truly make the innocent go. I say this because Megan was raised knowing nothing but hate, god loved only those of whom her grandfather deemed fit and everyone else was going to hell. So how far did the teachings of others take Megan before she shifted her beliefs.
