Name: Joe Rogan Experience #974 - Megan Phelps-Roper
Uploaded: 2017-06-09T00:36:55.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Joe Rogan Experience #974 - Megan Phelps-Roper' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2017-06-09. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Joe Rogan Experience #974 - Megan Phelps-Roper' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2017-06-09. Transcript available.

Joe Rogan Experience #974 - Megan Phelps-Roper

3, 2, 1, yes. Are we live? Not yet. Pause. Hold. YouTube. Some sort of a
struggle.
Yeah, we're live. Okay. How are you? You're a Wheeler Walker Jr. fan, I see?
Um, I, maybe I will be.
You will? You never heard of him before?
I hadn't. I confess.
That's okay. Um, so first of all, thank you. Thanks for doing this. Appreciate
it.
Yeah, no problem.
What is it like? I mean, I guess this is the best way to get this started.
What is it like being a person that grew up in the Westboro Baptist Church for
a person on the outside, for me, when I think of that,
I think of, like, this crazy, hateful, angry environment filled with, like,
really mean people that say horrible things about gay people and all sorts of
other folks.
But I meet you and you're super nice. You seem so normal.
That is the conundrum. So, I mean, a lot of the things, the words that you just
used to describe the church, that's definitely not how I experienced it growing
up, for the most part.
I mean, my family, outside of, when they're not on the picket line, they're, I
mean, incredibly kind and gentle and, and compassionate.
And I think the biggest misconception about the church is that they're
motivated by hatred and in their eyes, it's the definition of loving, what we
thought we were doing, what we were doing was loving our neighbor.
So in the first time that phrase appears in the Bible, it's in the context of
when you see your neighbor sinning, you have to rebuke him, not just like watch
him wander off on this way to hell.
So that was how we saw it. We thought we were warning people and, and giving
them the only hopeful message, um, that could save them from eternity and how.
Was there ever any dissent amongst the, the people that were in the church
about like how the message is being distributed?
Like if you're holding up a sign that says God hates fags and a gay guy was
being buried at a funeral and you guys were there protesting with those signs,
like was there ever anyone inside the organization that was like, hey, this is
not the way to do it.
These people are suffering and mourning.
Not really. I mean, once, once my grandfather, uh, it was, he was the one who
kind of, um, developed that strategy.
He thought, so, you know, this, the examples are for funerals.
If somebody, if they're burying somebody, uh, so a soldier say, or a gay person,
uh, it's an example of the curses of God.
So God says, if you obey me, I'll bless you. And if you disobey me, I'll curse
you.
So why soldiers?
So several times in the scriptures, uh, it's this connection between the sins
of the nation and, uh, the punishments.
So for instance, in the book of judges, it says they chose new gods. Then was
war in their gates.
Uh, and then, um, in the books of the Kings, it says they, um, uh, there fell
down many slain because the war was of God.
And then in the book of Hosea, it says, uh, they have deeply corrupted
themselves.
Therefore, I will remember their iniquity and I will visit their sins.
Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them.
There shall not be a man left.
So it's these, these threatenings, these warnings from God that if you disobey
me, I'm going to curse you.
So we would go to these soldiers, these soldiers' funerals, uh, to warn the
living, to say that if, if, if you don't want to be likewise punished, you have
to repent.
You have to change your ways and, and obey God.
Now, people that are also hardcore Christians, uh, that also follow the word of
God very closely, but still would see like what you guys were doing at these
funerals, holding up these signs, protesting where a soldier who supposedly
gave his life for our freedom, right?
Supposedly they're over there fighting so that we could be safe here and that,
yeah, you guys are out there with these signs.
Like there had to be a lot of people that have like-minded views in
Christianity, but still were furious at you people.
Yeah, absolutely.
And, and from our perspective, um, we thought that they were substituting their
righteousness for the righteousness of God.
So they were upset that we were out there giving this message that was 100%
biblical in our, from our point of view.
And they, God calls that compassion when he sends his servants with his message.
So we thought, even though they call themselves Christians, they're ignoring
these, you know, vast swaths of the Bible that, that support what we were
saying and how we were saying it.
So, I mean, there was definitely a lot of, a lot of pushback from people on all
sides, but, and especially from, um, other Christians.
But we just thought they're not really Christian because they're not following
this like we understand it.
So you guys were pretty much solidified in your opinion.
It was a consensus.
It was like everybody thought you were doing the right thing.
Right.
So, I mean, so that when the soldiers' funerals, when those protesting, it was
in June of 2005 that we started protesting soldiers' funerals.
How was it brought up?
So my grandfather had been, so it's 2005, so the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
you know, he'd been, you see these things on the news and he, he was, I mean,
the funerals, like what was going on at the funerals.
And he said, these aren't funerals.
These are patriotic pep rallies.
And they're saying all these things about God bless America.
Well, God isn't blessing America.
God is cursing America.
So we have to go and, and give a different message.
Um, so that's how it came up initially.
Um, but, so I went to my first soldier's funeral protest and then the following
month in July of 2005.
And before I went, so, you know, every time we would go to these, I was
protesting from the time I was five years old.
So when you go out on the, you know, to these protests, a lot of times there
would be, uh, media there, you know, people asking questions.
And I, I wasn't sure how I would answer that.
If somebody asked me, why are you at this funeral?
I didn't, I wasn't sure how I would answer it.
So, like, I felt very, when I found out I was going, I thought, I thought I
need to, um, I need to understand this.
So I went to my mother and she brings forth those verses that I just quoted to
you and several others.
We sat down as a family, as we did every night, um, you know, to read the Bible
and to talk about world events and, you know, the church's interpretation of
these, uh, events in light of their understanding of the scriptures.
So, you know, she goes through and explains this, you know, very carefully.
And because her answers came from the Bible, I was, that was my, my foundation
was that the Bible is the infallible word of God.
And that it's true, no matter what any human thinks, and that we have a duty to
obey it 100%, no matter, no matter what I think or feel.
Otherwise, I have to bring my thoughts and opinions in line with this.
So even though I had a lot of trepidation at the beginning about going to those
funerals, uh, I very quickly acclimated to it.
You know, as you do when you're in an environment like that, where everything
depends on you falling into line.
Now, what was it like when you first did it?
Like, what was the reaction to other people?
Well, you know, other people's reaction to you.
So that very first one, it was in Omaha, Nebraska, and it was incredibly tense.
Um, so there was a bunch of cops.
We always, every time we would go to protest somewhere, we would contact the
police to make sure that there would be a police presence.
Uh, because, because people were tempted to, and did, you know, would come
after us physically, um, try to assault us.
And, and again, this, it happened with some regularity.
So from the very earliest days of the protesting, we, uh, you know, my mom and
her generation had made this decision to, who I should say, many of them are
lawyers.
So they would, you know, write letters from, you know, as, as attorneys saying,
we're going to be coming, we're going to be protesting in your city.
Uh, people, this is what we do.
You know, we hold signs on public sidewalks.
We are not violent.
We, so explaining what a pro, what our protests looked like.
And then, and then saying, if you want to avoid, you know, uh, these kind of
like violence that often happens, uh, be there.
So this first one, how old were you in 2005?
I was 19.
So you were a kid, you know, but a grown kid and, you know, you're with your
parents and this is the first time you're protesting a veteran.
What, what was that experience like?
So I'm standing, uh, across this, we're standing across the street from the
church.
Like I said, it's, it was very solemn, very quiet.
There were, which is not, was not normal really for protests.
A lot of times we would be out there, you know, singing and chanting and, and
making, it was a big public display.
Um, but this was, uh, like I said, incredibly tense.
Nobody was really talking.
Nobody was really moving.
Um, uh, and you know, the family was, you know, pulled up in a, and I think it
was in a limousine across the street and the family got out and, and looked
around, uh, and saw us.
Did they know you guys were going to be there beforehand?
Mm-hmm.
Because we always would publicize that.
We would send out news releases.
So they were aware that we were going to be there.
Um, and there were a bunch of, I think they were Marines, uh, like in dress
blues standing there.
And they, they looked incredibly angry and, and upset.
But like I said, it was, it was like, it felt like at any moment, if something
happened, like that, the whole situation could explode.
But again, like, so the cops having the cops standing there.
And so it was, um, it was, it was, it was, it was pretty, uh, it was, it was
really tense.
What kind of things are they saying to you guys?
They weren't saying anything.
Like none, none of this, which is like what I was trying to say.
It's really unusual, um, for protests like that.
We, a lot of times we would be exchanging, you know, we would, we would, of
course, would be yelling about.
Bible verses and the hatred of God.
And, you know, they would be talking about love and tolerance and how we're
wrong and not Christian.
And, but at this one, it was, it was very quiet.
It wasn't always like this.
So pretty quickly, you know, once again, once we became acclimated to, to those
protests, um, and also there, uh, have you heard of the Patriot Guard riders?
It was a group of motorcyclists, uh, who decided to, and they formed like in,
uh, across the country.
So in every state, there was a group of these, uh, motorcyclists who, when they
found out we were going to be
protesting somewhere, they would go and, you know, rub their engines so that
our words and songs and such wouldn't be heard by the family.
Uh, and, and they would, you know, hold American flags and try to block, you
know, it's always, it's putting a buffer between us and the family.
And, uh, so when, when that started to happen, it became almost like a game
sometimes.
And, you know, in hindsight, I, this makes me cringe and, and, but, but it
became like this game of trying to like show that we were going to get our
message across no matter what any human being wanted, because we knew we were
so sure that this was what God wanted.
Wow.
What made you leave?
Uh, a lot of things.
It, it started, my very first sort of conscious doubts came from conversations
on Twitter.
So, wow.
Yeah.
Something good got done through Twitter.
Yeah.
Lots of good things.
I also met my husband there.
Oh, there you go.
While I was still at the church.
Oh, it's kind of nuts.
Is he an atheist?
Uh, I don't know that he would use that word to describe himself.
Actually, I was just talking to Sam about this and I was like, when people, the
problem with the word is when people, when you say atheist, people think jerk.
And like, so many people do.
So many people think that like, oh, you're absolutely certain that there is no
God.
And so it's, it's a word that I hesitate to use to describe myself too, but,
but I'm not a, 