Write a summary, using your words and direct quotes, of Megan Phelps-Roper’s transformation, as described in Chen’s piece. Be sure to include 2-3 direct quotes, framed properly. Choose quotes that help illuminate changes Phelps-Roper experienced along the way.
Megan had very strong beliefs at the beginning of the piece. “Phelps-Roper believed that aids were a curse sent by God. She believed that all manner of other tragedies—war, natural disaster, mass shootings—were warnings from God to a doomed nation…” Although she still has strong beliefs, like “God hated gay people,” you can tell as the piece continues you begin to see a transformation. A specific example of this is when Brittany Murphy died. “She couldn’t bring herself to post a tweet thanking God for Murphy’s death. ‘I felt like I would be such a jackass to go on and post something like that,’ she said.” Even though members of the church reacted with “glee” when told about this news. The energy from Megan begins to shift. As she got older, she begins to realize more things about the church “It stopped feeling like this larger-than-life divine institution ordained and led by God, and more like the sniping and sordid activity of men who wanted to be in control…” Her being more aware of the things around her shows personal growth and personal transformation, and she continues to grow as the piece continues.
In your opinion, how did social media embolden Phelps-Roper’s initial message as a spokesperson for Westboro Baptist Church? How did interactions via social media influence her drastic shift in personal belief? Use at least two direct quotes, framed with help from our discussion/slides on Quote/the Quote Sandwich method, to support your claims.
In the beginning, we see that Megan changes how she acts due to the increase in her Twitter followers. “By the end of the day, Phelps-Roper had more than a thousand followers. She took the incident as an encouraging sign that Westboro’s message was well suited to social media.” Her immediate reaction was that since she was gaining followers, people agreed with her statements. You could tell as she gained traction, she became more connected to it, “That afternoon, as Phelps-Roper picketed a small business in Topeka with other Westboro members, she was still glued to her iPhone. ‘I did not want to be the one to let it die,’ she said.” She didn’t want to be the one to let the traction go away, as she began to become more and more focused on the Twitter page, showing a transformation in her thought process, her personal beliefs, and her priorities.
“Anybody’s initial response to being confronted with the sort of stuff Westboro Baptist Church says is to tell them to f*** off,” said blogger David Abitbol (Chen 79). But it was less-aggressive communication styles that “got through” to Phelps-Roper, that in part influenced her to reconsider her belief system. What style(s) of conversation (consider the message, tone, perspective) had the most impact on Phelps-Roper? What might her story teach us about confronting hate speech? What about redemption?
Megan likes the styles of conversation that show perspective, as she has the argument with Abitbol on Twitter, she tells us that “Arguing is fun when you think you have all the answers.” and “Abitbol had learned while running Net Hate that relating to hateful people on a human level was the best way to deal with them. He saw that Phelps-Roper had a lot of followers and was an influential person in the church, so he wanted to counter her message.” So, Megan believed that it doesn’t bother her, and it comes off as less-aggressive knowing it’s just another person’s perspective. Now from Abitbol’s perspective, Megan has a lot of followers, so this could help boost his following by getting Megan to respond to him. If Megan interacts, then her followers will see it, which will boost Abitbols own following and interactions, so he countered her message, but apparently, he said “We didn’t want to debate them, we just wanted to make fun of them.” But we all know the hate is most likely for clout and attention.
If you were to meet Phelps-Roper today, what question would you want to ask her and why?
Why did it take her until July 4, 2012, to first consider leaving the church? And “So many other thoughts came in that I’d never pursued, and that’s every doubt that I’d ever had, everything that had ever seemed illogical or off.” What were the other thoughts that came in? I’m curious because I know she’s gone through so much, and made a lot of changes personally, but why did it take so long, and the exact thought process of it would be nice to know.
