Growing up in Westboro Baptist Church: We were “true believers,” everyone else the enemy

“Girl on a Wire: Walking the Line Between Faith and Freedom in the Westboro Baptist Church” by Libby Phelps and Sara Stewart. Copyright 2018 by Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

It was a hot, sunny summer morning in Topeka, and I’d settled myself beside the swimming pool to write. Stretched out on a lounge chair, clad in a T-shirt and running shorts, I scribbled intently in my pink journal with my favorite turquoise ballpoint pen. My grandfather walked laps around the running track that encircled the pool, wearing a nylon sweat-suit despite the heat. He wasn’t allowed to actually run anymore because it was bad for his elderly hips and knees, but he still got out there every day, striding around. A man on a mission.