There was so much love growing up, but there was also so much hate. They think that my family are coming at it from a hateful viewpoint, I guess. But at least when Gramps was preaching before he died, he thought it was the right thing to do, that he needed to warn his neighbor that everyone was going to Hell.
But they really do believe it. I knew that nobody else picketed. And they told us the kids would hate us and pick on us, and it was because what we were doing was right. You finally left the church at age 25 after your family staged an intervention over a photo that had surfaced of you wearing a bikini at the beach.
They take the dumbest things and just blow them way out of proportion. And I was in Puerto Rico! Like, what are you talking about? And I know how this is going to come across. No goodbyes. The church makes headlines in news across the country. They picket concerts, football games, other churches, and, most notoriously, the funerals of servicemen and victims of hate crimes.
For its members, to question its rules is to risk going to hell. This unusual memoir presents a rare inside look into a notorious cult and is an astonishing story of strength, bravery, and determination. In fact, life becomes more complicated. Tell us what you like and we'll recommend books you'll love. Sign up and get a free ebook! Published by Skyhorse. Michael S. Troubling questions nagged at her as she grew into adulthood: "How could 70 people be right and everyone else be wrong?
Libby walked one last time through the only house she had ever lived in. Her parents and older sister, Sara, who still lived at home, were out of state picketing. Suddenly her phone started to buzz. It was her mother sending her a text message: "You having a good day? She began to cry. Lately the church had questioned her obedience. Her parents suggested she be more contrite. Her grandfather had asked her just a few days before whether she was thinking of leaving.
Even as she reassured him, she could not stop herself from forming a plan. Libby did not answer her mother. She set the phone on her bed and walked out the door. Her parents and grandparents have not spoken to her since.
Libby had grown up with the belief that the world was full of bad people who would do her harm. In the first months of her new life, she was terrified of strangers. She would go to a party and wonder what her parents would say. She would watch people from afar, wanting to fit in but not knowing how. She still has a hard time trusting others. Recently, she has set out to visit places she had been before but this time without a picket sign. It was the summer of and her grandfather took two grandsons on a bike ride to a park in Topeka.
The park had long been a hookup spot for gays. The family story goes that Fred rode ahead and when he circled back, a man was trying to lure the boys into the trees. Furious, he went to the city and demanded it clean up the park. When Topeka's government did not act, he posted his first sign on a park restroom door: "Watch Your Kids.
Gays in Restroom. Libby Phelps' parents, Margie, left, and Fred, center, protest in Baltimore in Libby says she misses her parents but has not had contact with them. He became convinced he and his offspring were chosen to battle a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah. They needed to take their warnings directly to the public. Fred, now 83, describes his church as Old School Baptist and subscribes to the Calvinist belief that certain people are picked for salvation before birth.
In the beginning, Libby saw the picketing as a play date with her cousins. Every week the children carried signs with messages of damnation and trudged around in a circle in Gage Park until a pattern was worn into the grass. Sometimes in the summer it got so hot that Libby's mother would wrap a wet washcloth around her neck. In the winter, getting their snow gear on took longer than the picket. Before long, her grandfather's crusade expanded beyond Topeka. Family members were dispatched to picket government offices, schools, military bases and pop culture events for what the church perceived as acceptance of homosexuality.
Libby picketed dozens of gay pride parades around the country, the AIDS quilt tour, the Academy Awards, radio broadcaster Paul Harvey's funeral, Jenna Bush's wedding, a public memorial for firefighters in California, college football games, soldiers' funerals, actor Bernie Mac's funeral, a Billy Graham event, the Sago mine disaster funerals in West Virginia and President Obama's inauguration.
She even picketed her high school and college graduations before taking part in the ceremonies. Holidays were not celebrated. She was forbidden to date. She could not wear makeup, pierce her ears or cut her hair.
As her family's notoriety grew, she realized she was despised.
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