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2 Westboro members leave.


meep

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Of the immediate Phelps family members who have left one of Phelps' children, Nate left years ago. I believe two others have left.

Libby Phelps, one of other granddaughters left about four years ago.

One of the children, Lauren, of a non-Phelps church member was kicked out and now Grace and Megan.

Grace and Megan are currently living with Libby and her husband.

I am super glad that Grace and Megan are near Libby and her husband. The transition will be much easier for them.

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Something I just thought about, with all the family members always doing things together unless they are at work, I wonder how they found the time to have a conversation and space to have a conversation about leaving together.

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What I find quite interesting is Megan's insistence that she wanted to do good in the world. Not what you'd think of from WBC. I guess it shows how deep the brainwashing runs.

Of the immediate Phelps family members who have left one of Phelps' children, Nate left years ago. I believe two others have left.

I can remember Nate saying in an interview that an older sibling left at 18, and another tried to run away at 16 but was brought back by the police, so that's how he knew to wait until his 18th birthday. IDK if the 16 year old ever escaped after that though...

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Weirdly enough, Megan and Kevin Smith are Twitter buddies. He has a great story about the WBC coming to protest his movie "Red State." As soon as I heard the news, I checked his Twitter, and yep, there's a tweet congratulating Megan and saying to let him know if she needs anything. He's a good guy.

If you have Netflix, the story is in "Kevin Smith: Burn in Hell."

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This news makes me so happy! I loved Grace in that Louis Theroux thing, where she was showing her photographs to him. Megan leaving is a bit of a surprise, but no less happy a one for that. Jael, however, I predict will never leave. She really does seem brainwashed in all footage of her.

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I'm confused... is this the same Westboro Baptist Church that made the movies Fireproof and Facing the Giants? I thought they were fundy lite... I didn't realize they were an actual CULT.

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I'm confused... is this the same Westboro Baptist Church that made the movies Fireproof and Facing the Giants? I thought they were fundy lite... I didn't realize they were an actual CULT.

The movie-church is called Sherwood Baptist Church and without knowing anything about them, I dare say they have no affiliation with the WBC, since the WBC has affiliation with no one but themselves ;)

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I was so happy when I read this! I didn't know two people left, I only knew about Megan. I liked Libby Phelps Alvarez's page on FB, she's shared some really interesting things about leaving and her life since.

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What I find quite interesting is Megan's insistence that she wanted to do good in the world. Not what you'd think of from WBC. I guess it shows how deep the brainwashing runs.

I can remember Nate saying in an interview that an older sibling left at 18, and another tried to run away at 16 but was brought back by the police, so that's how he knew to wait until his 18th birthday. IDK if the 16 year old ever escaped after that though...

The 16 year old is Kathy Phelps. I read somewhere she eventually escaped and moved in with her boyfriend who was a soldier.

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Megan was the heir apparent to Shirley as far as church leadership goes. Here is an article from a while back about her

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/11/19/32 ... ir-to.html

I haven't followed the Phelps, so maybe this is just hindsight. But my first impression from this article is that I know people really thought Megan was really deeply entrenched in the church, but there she sounds like she is trying to convince herself to stay (maybe for the connection to her family) and that the doubts were already there. She keeps talking about how afraid she is that something in the world is going to corrupt her beliefs and it sounds like she had maybe squashed some questioning at that point or was at the least (maybe because of others from the church leaving) aware that Westboro might not be the only valid viewpoint out there. She may have squashed this knowledge down but I think it was there, at least unconsciously. That's just how I remember thinking for a long time about certain aspects of Catholicism (mainly the Catechism's position on birth control/sex/etc) because I didn't want to deal with the fact that I was doubting the validity of some of my religion's teachings. Religion had been like a safe space, almost, for me and I didn't want to lose that security, so I would think to myself that I just wouldn't read certain things or only read certain "valid" sources and that way I wouldn't encounter something that would make me take my doubts more seriously. Once the crap came out about the birth control mandate, I was forced to think about it more and that made everything tumble down. (For reference I still consider myself Catholic, but more in line with the "nuns on the bus" or just the general social doctrine. I don't agree with most of their politics/old boys club mentality/etc.) Megan's statements sound similar to what I would tell myself in my head, and I have ALWAYS, always remember doubting on some level. Even as a kid I felt bad because I didn't seem to believe as strongly or have a "personal" relationship with Jesus that my (non-Catholic) Christian friends would talk about. So I think the seed of independent thought was there and she knew it on some level, which scared her and maybe even got more involved with the church to keep herself from straying? And then one little conversation was enough to make her face that.

So maybe that's hindsight, but at least from that article it did come off to me like she hadn't been totally buying it for a long time on some level and couldn't even admit that to herself. I don't think she was as entrenched as maybe even she thought she was.

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The movie-church is called Sherwood Baptist Church and without knowing anything about them, I dare say they have no affiliation with the WBC, since the WBC has affiliation with no one but themselves ;)

You are correct. Sherwood Baptist Church has no affliation with WBC. Sherwood is based in Georgia and they are a maintstream type church.

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Thanks, CoatRack!

The 16 year old is Kathy Phelps. I read somewhere she eventually escaped and moved in with her boyfriend who was a soldier.

Some info from Nate's AMA on reddit:

#2, Mark, #6, Nate, and #11, Dortha (also referred to as Dorotha on the web, but Nate repeatedly called her "Dortha" in his AMA) have left, but only the men have spoken out.

Nate referred to those three (inc. himself obviously) but not to Kathy in his AMA, but the family list floating around the web says Kathy has left too. It may not have taken into account that she was forced to return.

Jael, one of the most zealous third-geners, is the daughter of a Phelps son and another member, who became pregnant out-of-wedlock and was basically kicked out. She (the mother) was then let back in but has been treated like shit ever since: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/v ... ch/c52fqi2

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Weirdly enough, Megan and Kevin Smith are Twitter buddies. He has a great story about the WBC coming to protest his movie "Red State." As soon as I heard the news, I checked his Twitter, and yep, there's a tweet congratulating Megan and saying to let him know if she needs anything. He's a good guy.

If you have Netflix, the story is in "Kevin Smith: Burn in Hell."

They've had massive Twitter wars, its pretty awesome. I was hoping he would offer her some help, he always seemed to genuinely care about her.

I also hope Louis does another documentary. I want to have his babies.

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Jael, one of the most zealous third-geners, is the daughter of a Phelps son and another member, who became pregnant out-of-wedlock and was basically kicked out. She (the mother) was then let back in but has been treated like shit ever since: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/v ... ch/c52fqi2

I had to do a double take because it sounded like you were saying Jael got pregnant out of wedlock. :D

She is crazier than crazy, that one. She married a guy who goes by the name KJVMatt on Twitter and who is originally from the UK. I've had some direct interaction with Jael and, despite being bat crap, she was always very cordial and polite to me.

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Megan was the heir apparent to Shirley as far as church leadership goes. Here is an article from a while back about her

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/11/19/32 ... ir-to.html

I remember reading this article about a year ago and feeling like there was a lot of underlying ambivalence and doubt about the church on Megan's part. I love that what Libby said about her hopes to reconnect with Megan actually panned out.

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  • 1 month later...

That's wonderful to hear! I'm fairly surprised, Megan seemed pretty zealous and it looked like Grace was never going to get a moment to really think for herself. I'm just basing this off the Louis Theroux docs though.

Jael kind of scares the crap out of me. When she laughed while saying that Theroux was going to hell in the first documentary he did, it seriously gave me shivers. It sounds like she's had a hard life though what with her mom being temporarily kicked out and possibly facing abuse over meeting a boy, so it seems understandable that she would seek such approval from the church through her zealous behavior to try to make up for that. Not that I think she doesn't believe it though, she does seem totally insane.

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Being around that much hate would be exhausting and unfortunately perpetuating that hate can become an easy outlet. I'm sure leaving is going to do wonders for their mental health, once they find some stability.

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It was Dortha Phelps who left at one point at sixteen and was forced back. she did leave again later. Here is an audio interview with her and another sibling talking about growing up in the phelps family.

It is good to hear that two more have left the phelps clan.

Lauren drain, who is the daughter of Steve drain, has written a book about growing up in the WBC. Here is the amazon link:

http://www.amazon.com/Banished-Survivin ... uren+drain

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  • 5 months later...

Sorry to bump this old thread, but I just learned from the PP daughters thread that these 2 girls had left WBC. Its funny because several years ago I posted pictures of one of them in the old forum, commenting how she seemed a lot unlike the others. Funny how that turned out. http://freejinger.yuku.com/reply/153934 ... gxnJJI3vzM

I don't have much interest in following WBC news or anything having to do with their worthless protests, but I love learning things about their everyday lives. Seeing them do normal, human things is like watching a dog walk on its hind legs.

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