Korin Griffin

September 14th, 2019

ENG110 Section F

Unfollow Response

“Unfollow” is an emotional roller coaster ride filled with anger, confusion, sympathy, and joy. It tells the story of a girl named Megan Phelps-Roper who is a member of the Westboro Baptist Church and she believes that all tragedies are a blessing and a sign from god. Throughout the story, her beliefs waver from fully faithful to questioning everything she has ever believed in. On page 73, it explains her beliefs, “She believed that all manner of other tragedies– war, natural disaster, mass shootings– were warnings from God to a doomed nation, and that it was her duty to spread the news of His righteous judgements.” This means that, in simple terms, she practices hate crimes. Such as going on strike at funerals for homosexuals and soldiers and gay-pride parades, praising of 9/11 and famine and death. Phelps-Roper was born into this religion and her whole family practices together. 

Although, as the story goes on, she sees herself questioning her faith. The social actions that Phelps-Roper encounters causes her to change her beliefs. On page 87, she speaks to her sister about her wavering faith, “‘Does it really make you happy when you hear about people dying or starving or being maimed? Do you really want to ask God to hurt people? I ask myself these questions. I think the answer is no.” This shows that Phelps-Roper goes through major personal transformation. She goes from being the spokesperson of hatred for Westboro Baptist Church on twitter to realizing her true beliefs and fleeing the Church and her family. 

Social Media, specifically Twitter, is a huge impact on Phelps-Roper in terms of her beliefs. At the beginning of the passage, Phelps-Roper starts using Twitter as a public place for her to spread the news and messages of the beliefs of Westboro Baptist Church. An example of the messages she posts (on page 73) reads, “Thank God for AIDS!…You won’t repent of your rebellion that brought His wrath on you in this incurable scourge, so expect more & worse! #red” Reading that tweet, I felt disgusted. To “repent” means “feel or express sincere regret or remorse about one’s wrongdoing or sin.” What she is saying, I think, is that you won’t feel any regret or remorse about your sins in which gave you AIDS, so expect worse or death. These are the types of messages that she was raised to believe, and for awhile she had always felt so strongly about this. 

Throughout the story, her Twitter page grows immensely, and she encounters significant interactions with two people who oppose and argue with Phelps-Roper. David Abitbol questions her about the “Death Penalty for Fags’ sign. He suggests that “if gay people were killed they wouldn’t have the oppurtunity to repent.” on page 82. This was the first step of her wavering faith. Then, C.G. proceeds to make her question her beliefs. On page 83, it reads, “C.G. urged Phelps-Roper to think of how much hurt it must cause the families of the deceased to see Phelps-Roper and her family rejoicing.” A bit further on page 83, she digs deeper into her confusion of her faith. With the passing of a famous actress, named Brittany Murphy, Phelps-Roper finds herself crying instead of praising God for this tragedy. “When Brittany Murphy died, Phelps-Roper had seen the disparity between her reaction and that of the rest of the church as a sign that something was wrong with her. Now the contradiction of her mother’s glee and her own sadness has made her wonder if something was wrong with the church.” it reads. This shows her personal transformation because before interacting with Abitbol or C.G., she never would have felt such sorrow for the loss of Brittany Murphy and never would have questioned her beliefs. 

It’s interesting, but not too surprising, to me that such calm interactions changed Phelps-Roper’s perspective on her views. She made friends with these people from having arguments with them. Despite their views, despite Phelps-Roper believing they were evil inside, she still became friends with them because they were just genuinely likeable. When arguing, neither Phelps-Roper nor Abitbol or C.G. used hateful tone. They just simply presented their beliefs and messages from their own perspective in a calm tone. Whether their statements were considered rude or not, they spoke them in such a way that wasn’t hateful or spiteful, just simply knowledgeable. 

If I were to meet Phelps-Roper today, I wouldn’t know where to begin. So many questions and thoughts race through my mind that I can’t collect them all together. I have my own personal connections to homosexuals and people who have been diagnosed with AIDS, so it might be a bit difficult for me, at first, not to say something hateful. I would have to keep in mind that she is a changed person. She no longer believes in the practices that make my skin crawl. I would want to ask her questions about her mother, deep questions that would require her to explain their relationship a bit. Also, I would ask her how her bible is different from other bibles. I am very close with many extremely faithful people, but I have never met anyone that sees a faith in God’s hatred and I would like to understand how her Church interpreted their bible to be a hateful practice. I would like to gain more details about the Planting Peace building and if it has changed the Church’s views since the passing of Fred Phelps.