Summary

Chapter 1, “The Quarrel of the Covenant,” begins in 1991, when the author was five years old and Westboro Baptist Church, run by her grandfather, Fred Phelps, and consisting almost entirely of her family members, began their picketing protests at a park near their home in Topeka, Kansas. She later learned that Fred Phelps chose Gage Park because it was a popular locale for gay men “cruising” (4) for sex. Family lore even claims that Phelps was bicycling there with his five-year-old grandson, the author's older brother Josh, when Josh was accosted by two men. Westboro's picket signs contained phrases like “MILITANT GAYS SPREAD AIDS” (5) (soon, the epithet “f-g” (12) became more common). Young Megan enjoyed taking part in the protests, but she was frightened of the counter-protesters that often showed up.

Megan's mother Shirley was raised in the church and became a lawyer like her father...