The Bible Story Every Atheist Should Read, with Megan Phelps-Roper

Megan Phelps-Roper grew up as the public face of the Westboro Baptist Church, the hate group founded by her grandfather, known for picketing veterans’ funerals with signs condemning gay people and Jews. She left the church in 2012 after a series of Twitter conversations exposed cracks in its theology she could no longer ignore. 

Since then, she’s built a new career exploring faith, belief, and public discourse from multiple angles, including as host of The Free Press’s The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling. Now, somewhat surprisingly, she’s launched a new podcast called Book Keeper, where she returns to Bible stories she grew up with and tries to figure out which parts of them still hold up, and which don’t. 

She joins Coleman Hughes to talk through the exact verse that unraveled her worldview, why she still reads Scripture to her kids despite not believing in God, and why she thinks a society that abandons fixed values is just as dangerous as one that enforces the wrong ones.

Book Keeper is a Longview original series. Listen at longview.report/bookkeeper

For the Bart Ehrman lecture that Coleman mentioned in the show, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CU1EZv-pFo

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