Megan Phelps-Roper

Megan Phelps-Roper (born January 31, 1986) is an American political activist who is formerly a member of, and spokesperson for, the Westboro Baptist Church, a Hyper-Calvinist Christian sect, widely regarded as a hate group.

Her mother is Shirley Phelps-Roper, and her grandfather is the church's founder, Fred Phelps.

She grew up in Topeka, Kansas, in a compound with other members of the church.

As a child, she was taught the Westboro Baptist Church doctrine and participated in the church's pickets against homosexuality, the American response to the September 11 terrorist attacks, and the funerals of soldiers who died in the War in Afghanistan and the War in Iraq.

Megan Phelps-Roper was born in 1986, and is the eldest daughter of Shirley Phelps-Roper and Brent Roper.

Her grandfather was Fred Phelps, who founded the Westboro Baptist Church, a Christian sect based on the members' Calvinist interpretation of the bible and categorized by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group.

Her parents taught her the doctrine of the Westboro Baptist Church sect from an early age.

She grew up on a compound in Topeka, Kansas, that was owned by other church members.

When Phelps-Roper was 13, her grandfather baptized her into the Westboro Baptist Church.

After graduating from Washburn University, Phelps-Roper worked at her family's law firm, Phelps Chartered, as a business administrator.

She also appeared as a regular guest on the Kansas City morning show Afentra's Big Fat Morning Buzz.

In 2009, she became active on Twitter to preach the church's doctrine.

Phelps-Roper began to doubt her beliefs when Twitter users pointed out contradictions in the Westboro Baptist Church's doctrine, and when elders changed the church's decision-making process.

In 2011, Phelps-Roper appeared in Louis Theroux's documentary America's Most Hated Family in Crisis, in which she described her contact with four Dutch filmmakers.

After watching the documentary, her father insisted that she block the filmmakers on Twitter and limit her time on the social media platform.

Phelps-Roper complied, reasoning that removing her focus from earthly matters would increase her spirituality.

During this period, her mother was accused of not following church doctrine, and Phelps-Roper replaced her as the scheduler for the church's picketing demonstrations.

Phelps-Roper has stated that as an adult, she doubted the church's doctrine and noted the existence of many contradictions within the church's beliefs.

David Abitbol, a Jewish Twitter user, pointed out the contradictions which he perceived in the church's doctrine, including the fact that the church advocated the death penalty for people who have a child out of wedlock while Phelps-Roper's mother was not married when her first child was born.

Phelps-Roper stopped carrying signs which called for the death penalty for sins, but also stopped communicating with Abitbol so that he could not further challenge her beliefs.

Another point of contention that Phelps-Roper cited as increasing her doubts was how decision-making within the church changed.

Previously, the church had employed a consensus decision-making model, and women had influential roles in this process.

In 2011, a council of nine male church elders met separately from other members and decided to make church decisions by themselves.

Later, a member was asked to leave the church by a majority vote instead of unanimous consent.

Phelps-Roper felt that both events violated the church's interpretation of scripture and went against the group's concept of leadership.

Phelps-Roper left the church in 2012 after she was unable to reconcile her doubts with her beliefs.

Following her departure, Phelps-Roper became a prominent critic of the church's philosophy and practices.

She travels around the world to speak about her experience in the church and advocates dialogue between groups with conflicting views.

In November 2012, Brent Roper confronted Phelps-Roper's sister Grace about a relationship which Grace was having with another church member.

During this discussion, Phelps-Roper encouraged her sister to leave the church with her, and they announced their intention to their parents.

The two sisters spent one night in Topeka where they stayed in the basement of a former teacher before they moved into their cousin's home in Lawrence, Kansas.

In February 2013, she announced that she had left the church after its members planned to stage protests at the funerals of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

She stated that she did not want others to believe that her lack of response to the protests constituted tacit approval of the church's actions.

Phelps-Roper and her sister moved to South Dakota after visiting the Black Hills.

She is married to Chad Fjelland, an attorney whom she met through Twitter while advocating for the Westboro Baptist Church.

Her daughter was born in 2018.

In October 2022, Phelps-Roper tweeted that she and Fjelland had had a son.

In 2019, she released the memoir Unfollow: A Journey from Hatred to Hope.

In 2019, Phelps-Roper appeared in Louis Theroux's third documentary about the Westboro Baptist Church, Surviving America's Most Hated Family.

During the taping, Theroux informed Phelps-Roper that two of her siblings were engaged to be married, which upset her greatly.