THE WESTBORO PROBLEM
The following is an excerpt from an article at Relevant Magazine published this morning. It's written by Mohan Karulkar, Blog Coordinator and contributor for People of the Second Chance, and it focuses on the same theme of grace that Mohan explores here. Check out the article, share, and leave some love! A NEW HOPE FOR WESTBORO BAPTIST
...It was with great interest that I recently read about Megan Phelps-Roper, granddaughter of Fred Phelps, and her bold decision to leave Westboro Baptist last November. She’s kept under the radar until now, and is just starting to write about her experiences. She writes with the caution of someone newly adjusting to a world outside her former walls and confronting the lifetime’s worth of lies she was raised with. She writes, “I don’t feel confident at all in my beliefs about God. That’s definitely scary.”
I may not have grown up in the stringent rules of Westboro, but I can relate to this feeling. When I first began contemplating “converting” to Christianity, I might have said something similar. I wasn’t raised behind walls or subjected to manipulative lies, but I was confronting and challenging a worldview I’d held for 24 years, and it was scary. I think that thought, more than anything else, helps me extend the forgiveness to Megan that my heart already knows I must give. Otherwise, forgiveness doesn’t come as easily.