Westboro Baptist Church plans to picket Vassar College on Thursday, February 28. Students at Vassar are mounting a response (read how you can help them here). – Ed.

Illogic of Westboro Church Teachings provokes defections

Earlier this month, Megan Phelps-Roper, grand-daughter of WBC founder Fred Phelps explained in an interview why she and her sister Grace left the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC homepage, WBC on Wikipedia) congregation in November, 2012, declaring, "The idea that only WBC had the right answer seemed crazy. It just seemed impossible.” (Read the full interview here.) At WBC Megan Phelps-Roper managed the protest schedule and pioneered the use of social media to get their message out, but states, “I definitely regret hurting people. That was never our intention."

Megan Phelps-Rogers is not the first Phelps family member to take issue with WBC teaching or practice. Nathan Phelps, the sixth of the Fred Phelps' 13 children broke from the family and WBC in 1976, and now advocates for LGBTQ rights as the Executive Director of the Center for Inquiry, Canada(1).

Read Megan Phelps-Roper's statement here.

Watch "Nathan Phelps: Escaping Westboro Baptist Church" on "thethinkingathiest.com" here.

Related story: "The rejection of Westboro Baptist Church: A bi-partisan affair", from Borderless News and Views.