Conversation with an EX Westboro Baptist

[sageowl]

https://soundcloud.com/https%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Fsamharrisorg%2Fleaving-the-church-a-conversation-with-megan-phelps-roper
This podcast, which is a fascinating interview with the granddaughter of the founder of the infamous Westboro Baptist church, is an hour and 15 minutes long, but well worth the time.

She tells what it was like growing up indoctrinated with these type of highly fringe beliefs, how she broke free of that mental prison and ultimately left behind the church and lost almost all her family in the process, and what she is doing with her life now. Also a little bit about her current religious frame of mind.

One of the things I found most fascinating is how genuinely happy she was able to be while inside such a broken belief system.

Here's a second, redundant link.
http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/leaving-the-church

 

[sageowl]

The other thing I thought was incredible was the way she described her old church mates as, for the most part,really good, intelligent, decent, caring people who just, unfortunately, genuinely believed some absolutely strange and destructive things.