The Power of Love: Granddaughter of Westboro Baptist Founder Reveals Why She Quit

Megan Phelps-Roper remembers being a blue-eyed chubby little girl holding a sign she couldn't even read: "Gays are worthy of death."

She grew up in one of the most notorious religious sects -- the Westerboro Baptist Church. The group, which was founded by her grandfather, has made national headlines for its hateful antics against gays, Jews, soldiers, and many more. 

'As a member of Westboro Baptist Church, I became a fixture on picket lines across the country," Roper says in a TED talk. "The end of my anti-gay picketing career, and life as I knew it, came 20 years later, triggered in part by strangers on Twitter, who showed me the power of engaging the "other."

Roper took to Twitter in 2009 to spread the message she had been taught since she was a little child. She zealously debated challengers on Twitter until she realized they had something she did not have -- love. 

"Initially the people I encountered on the platform were just as hostile as I expected,"  she recalls. "They would be understandably confused and caught off guard, but then a conversation would ensue. It was civil and full of genuine curiosity."

The love she experienced on Twitter changed her and made her rethink Christ's words: "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."

"Once I saw that we were not the ultimate arbiters of divine truth, but flawed human beings, I couldn't pretend otherwise," she Roper recalls. 

She finally left her church in 2012. 

While Roper says it was a "relief" to walk away from her hateful lifestyle, she knew she would lose all the love and respect she had once received from her family. She knew her family would cut her off and never speak to her again. Nevertheless, Roper believes her past can be a reminder to everyone to listen and engage with those they may disagree with.