Don't Touch Me

No meetings
No hugs
No kisses
No handshakes
No signs of affection
Stand back at least six feet
Stay away
Or you might get coronavirus
Save your life
Be alone
Don't touch anyone
Togetherness is gone
Replaced by online chats
Phone calls and FaceTime
Starve your physical body
Until you're grumpy
And sad
Watch the people die online
Young and old
In every country and every place
From Singapore to Zanzibar
From LA to New York
They're dying in the hospital corridors unable to breathe
This shit is real
And it's not getting any better
No check from the government is going to save your life
Stock market is crashing. So fucking what?
What's money if you can't enjoy it?
Trump wants to restart the economy for Easter
That's a death wish
As if money is more important than health
Hide yourself away
Tear yourself apart
There's nowhere to go
But to hide in your bed
Pray, sleep, read, watch a show
Play music, smoke, drink
But don't touch me
This is the story of the plague

Michael Hooper
3-27-2020

Young People: Stock Market Crash Is Opportunity of A Lifetime

The 20% decline in SPY, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust creates an opportunity.

By Michael Hooper

Calling all young people. Here is the opportunity of a lifetime. The stock market has crashed 20% due to fears over the coronavirus. Highly contagious, Covid-19 is a serious threat with about 1.4% to 3% of people dying from the virus. The coronavirus will slow down the economy. Profits will fall. The pandemic may get worse before it gets better. Eventually, some day, maybe six months now or a year from now, the numbers of sick and dying will go down. Just like the world fought the AIDS crisis, the world will come together to fight the coronavirus. If everyone does their part, we can recover from this.

Yet investors are selling stocks as if there is no tomorrow.

Stocks that used to be expensive are now cheap. For example, Evergy (EVRG), the electricity provider in Kansas and Missouri, was $72 per share before the crash. Today the stock is around $55 per share. That is a 23% decline. I imagine electricity sales will be steady, despite the corornavirus.

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B) was $220 per share before the crash.  The stock recently traded at $182 per share. Berkshire Hathaway stock is trading close to book value. I am confident that the stock will eventually rebound sometime.

SPDR S&P 500 ETF trust (SPY) was trading over $320 per share before the crash and now is trading around $256 per share, down 20%.

If you have a long-term horizon, at least three to five years, this is a great opportunity for you. The S&P 500 is the large cap index. ETFs like SPY and iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) follow that index. Most money managers don't beat the index.

Buying stocks is easier than it ever has been. You can set up a brokerage account at Robinhood, Charles Schwab or Ameritrade for free. With as little as $500, you can start trading stocks. Indeed there is no trading fees. You may buy one share of Coca-Cola (KO) at $48 per share and pay no trading fee. This used to be impossible.

When I started buying stocks in the early 1990s, trading fees were $35 per trade, to buy stocks over the phone with Schwab. Online trades used to be $9.95 for a long time, then $4.95. Today there is no trading fee to buy a stock at Schwab.

There is no doubt the economy is going to slow down as a result of the coronavirus. Travel is falling rapidly. Public events are canceled. The Masters has postponed its famous golf tournament typically held in April. These cancellations will prevent the spread of the disease.

I worry about workers in the service sector, hotels, restaurants, bars and nightclubs. I went to The Goose recently, there seemed to be quite a few people there. If this virus spreads in Kansas, I imagine fewer people will be going out. I hope people don't lose their jobs. I suspect job losses will happen in some industries including the airline industry. Eventually, the US economy will recover.

I really think this is an opportunity for new investors and young people because they've got time on their side. They can ride out the ups and downs of the market because they aren't retiring soon. Older investors in retirement or near retirement may not have that much time to recoup from losses.

Here's some buying strategies for investors:

Buy stock on a regular basis. Don't sit on your hands and wait. Consider buying every week or every month. If you want 100 shares over time, buy 20 at a time until you own all 100. This is called dollar cost averaging. I did this in the last stock market crash in 2008-2009. I put $28,000 to work with about $2,000 going into the market every month until I had invested the entire amount. I didn't know it at the time, but I bought in February 2009 near the bottom of the market in March 2009. My investments in 2008-09 eventually tripled in value.

Diversify, own a variety of stocks and bonds. I like bond ETF iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF (AGG). 

Talk to a financial adviser. They can help you make better decisions.

Create a plan and stick with it.

Editors Note: The author owns SPY, IVV, BRKB, EVRG, KO and AGG.

Kansas Pet Food Company Acquires Competitor

BERN, Kan. -- C.J. Foods, Inc., a custom manufacturer of dry pet food for leading U.S. premium brands, recently announced plans to acquire American Nutrition, Inc., a supplier of dry, canned and baked pet food and treats.

This transaction will create the largest independent manufacturer of super premium pet food in the country, producing a total of 1 billion pounds of pet food annually. The transaction is expected to close by April, according to a press release from C.J. Foods released on Feb. 17, 2020.

C.J. Foods has proposed obtaining a $40 million revolver and a $285 million term loan. Proceeds from the term loan along with roll-over equity will be used for acquisition of American Nutrition, Inc., according to Moody's.

American Nutrition is based in Ogden, Utah, where about 250 employees work for the company, according to reporter Tim Vandenack of the Standard Examiner of Ogden.

The acquisition of ANI will enable C.J. Foods to offer a full portfolio of pet food and treats with national and international distribution. David McLain, CEO, C.J. Foods, will join the board of directors. Tod Morgan remains chairman of the board, and Bill Behnken, current president and CEO of ANI, will serve as board member.

“This acquisition creates the leading manufacturer of super premium pet food with a national footprint, focused on producing and delivering the highest quality products to our customers,” said Morgan.

C.J. Foods has a 35-year history in premium pet food manufacturing with a wide range of international capabilities serving the leading premium brand owners and retailers.

ANI is one of the nation’s largest manufacturers of super-premium quality dry, canned and baked pet food and treat products. Operating five manufacturing facilities throughout the United States, ANI has achieved a reputation of manufacturing excellence through its emphasis on quality and best-in-class SQF certified production facilities.

“C.J. Foods and ANI are two world-class manufacturers with complementary capabilities that make the combination a win for our customers” said Behnken. “It truly enhances our ability to provide higher levels of innovation to meet the ever-evolving opportunities in premium pet nutrition.”

“CJF is thrilled to be moving forward with ANI to strengthen our customer value proposition with a continued singular focus on innovation and food safety, leading the industry with on-trend products,” said McLain.

C.J. Foods is a portfolio company of J. H. Whitney Capital Partners, a Connecticut based private equity firm, that has owned C.J. Foods since 2014 and acquired Lortscher’s Animal Nutrition in 2018.

About C.J. Foods, Inc.

Founded in 1985, by the Chuck & Joyce Kuenzi, C.J. Foods, Inc., is a manufacturer of many of the most sophisticated brands of dry super premium pet food in America. C.J. Foods currently serves over 40 leading super premium brands selling into the US and International markets and employs more than 400 people with campuses in Pawnee City, Neb., Bern, Kan., Baxter Springs, Kan., and Brownwood, Texas. The portfolio includes Lortscher Animal Nutrition, Inc., a leader of custom milling and ingredient supply to the pet food industry for over 60 years, which was acquired in April 2018. To learn more about C.J. Foods, Inc., go to www.cjfoodsinc.com.

About American Nutrition, Inc.

Founded in 1972 by Jack Behnken, American Nutrition, Inc., (“ANI”), is one of the nation’s largest pet food manufacturers specializing in super premium dry kibble, canned and baked treats. American Nutrition has five state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in Washington, Utah and Pennsylvania with over 400 employees serving numerous national brands as well as international brands in 17 countries worldwide. As a second-generation family-owned company, ANI has always held the highest standards of integrity, quality and safety in everything they do upholding their purpose to nourish and enrich the lifelong connection between people and their pets. To learn more about American Nutrition, Inc., visit their website at www.animanufacturing.com.

About J. H. Whitney Capital Partners

J.H. Whitney Capital Partners, (“JHW”), established in 1946 by the industrialist and philanthropist, John Hay “Jock” Whitney, was one of the first U.S. private equity firms and is often credited with pioneering the development of the private equity industry. Today, JHW is a leader in the private equity industry, having invested in over 400 companies since formation and currently manages approximately $1.0 billion in private capital. JHW remains privately owned by its investing professionals and focused on three primary sectors; consumer, healthcare and specialty manufacturing. To learn more about JH Whitney Inc. please visit the website at www.whitney.com

Activist Hedge Fund Targets Kansas-Missouri Utility

By Michael Hooper

An activist New York hedge fund led by Paul Singer sees an opportunity for creating shareholder value in Evergy, a publicly-traded electric utility in Kansas and Missouri.

Elliott Management, founded by Singer, had offered the Evergy board of directors a plan for creating shareholder value, but the board chose not to engage with the hedge fund, Elliott said.

Evergy (EVRG) stock was up 2% at $68.67 per share Tuesday on the news of Elliott Management's interest in Evergy.

Elliott's plan includes the addition of new Evergy board members and changing the way the company handles capital investments and operations; and possible sale or merger with another company.

Evergy was created with the 2018 merger of Westar Energy and Great Plains Energy.

At 2:40 p.m. today Tuesday, Evergy issued a statement saying, "In October 2019, we were approached by Elliott, which proposed two alternative paths for the Company to consider:

1. Evergy should immediately initiate a process to explore the sale of the Company or some other business combination;  

2. Evergy should significantly increase its capex over the Company’s current plan, cut investments in operations and maintenance (O&M) to help offset this increase, and halt its existing share repurchase program.

"Since October, we have engaged in good faith with Elliott to fully understand and evaluate their proposals.  As a part of this process, we have engaged Morgan Stanley as financial advisor and Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP as legal counsel to assist management and the Board with an evaluation of Elliott’s proposals and our strategic plan."

Evergy said, "We are open to evaluating opportunities that may create greater value and recognize that Elliott has different views regarding our strategic plan. At the same time, there are various considerations that we believe are important when evaluating the conclusions that Elliott has asserted in its letter. As expressed to Elliott, we are confident in our ability to deliver long-term growth and shareholder value creation through the execution of our strategic plan. This plan includes maximizing operational savings from our 2018 merger, the share repurchase program we committed to when this merger was completed, paying a competitive dividend and making capital investment that will drive value."

Elliott Management Corporation, a hedge fund and money manager, said it owns 11.3 million shares in Evergy, or about $760 million in market value. That is about 5% of the company. Elliott released a letter to Evergy's Board outlining steps which should result in "high-certainty, line-of-sight equity value creation of up to $5 billion, with opportunities for significant additional value creation over time."

According to the letter, Elliott sees an opportunity to achieve a significant increase in shareholder value while providing tangible benefits to all of Evergy's key stakeholders, including customers, employees and the broader communities its utilities serve. The letter asserts that a renewed focus on improving core utility operations and investing in Evergy's critical system infrastructure can rectify its prolonged underperformance, discounted valuation and associated increased cost of capital.

In the letter, Elliott stated that increased system investment would not only provide meaningfully more value to shareholders than the current strategy to repurchase shares, but would also provide clearly superior benefits to Evergy's other stakeholders, help facilitate the Company's deployment of renewables and reduce its carbon footprint. Elliott urged Evergy to immediately explore both of the following alternative paths:

Standalone Path: Implement High-Performance Plan with Enhanced Oversight – Develop and implement a high-performance plan with the direct input of certain new highly-credentialed Board- and management-level leadership, to increase critical infrastructure investment and optimize operating costs, leading to annual rate-base growth of up to 10% with no expected overall rate impact on customer bills. 

Combination Path: Pursue Strategic Premium Merger Transaction – Explore a strategic combination via a premium stock-for-stock merger, following which Evergy's new partner would oversee the implementation of a high-performance plan, leading to value creation in which Evergy's current shareholders would be able to participate by receiving stock in the combined entity.

Elliott believes either path, if executed properly, should result in high-certainty, line-of-sight equity value creation of up to $5 billion, with opportunities for significant additional value creation over time.

Elliott Management Corporation manages approximately $40.2 billion of assets. Its flagship fund, Elliott Associates, L.P., was founded in 1977, making it one of the oldest funds under continuous management. The Elliott funds' investors include pension plans, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, foundations, funds-of-funds, high net worth individuals and families, and employees of the firm.

You may read Ellott's letter to the Evergy board here at https://energizeevergy.com/

In a November 2019 investor presentation, Evergy said it is creating shareholder value through: 

--Earnings growth driven by merger savings, cost management, infrastructure investment and share repurchases; not predicated on raising customer prices. 

--Stable base rates allow for on-going, constructive dialogue with customers, regulators, policy makers and is good for economic development.

--Strong balance sheet combined with expected earnings and dividend growth provides an attractive total shareholder return profile.

The board of directors at Evergy is led by Mark Ruelle, chairman. He is former president and CEO of Westar Energy. Terry Bassham, current president and CEO of Evergy, is also on the board of directors, he was previously chairman, president and CEO of Great Plains Energy.

Evergy said it is creating shareholder value by:

• We are executing on our operating plan and are achieving substantial cost savings. We are on track to exceed the $550 million of cumulative net cost savings targeted through 2023 in connection with the merger.  These savings include $110 million of savings in 2019 alone – $80 million above our 2018 target.  Notably, these savings are being achieved while protecting jobs; there have been no involuntary layoffs at the Company.
• Merger savings, share repurchases, dividends and infrastructure investments are contributing to sustainable earnings growth and competitive shareholder returns.  At this time, given the regulatory considerations in Missouri and Kansas, we believe the greatest return opportunities for Evergy’s capital beyond our current investment plan are share repurchases and growing the Company’s dividend. Together with the Company’s merger savings and incremental infrastructure investments utilizing plant in-service accounting in Missouri, we expect to deliver compounded annual earnings growth of 5% to 7% through 2023.
• Evergy’s third quarter results demonstrate the strength of the Company and the value opportunity we offer to Evergy shareholders. We delivered another solid quarter, despite regulatory headwinds. Our confidence in the business and our financial strength is reflected in the confirmation of our 2019 adjusted EPS guidance of $2.80 to $3.00 and the 6.3% increase to our dividend, also consistent with our long-term guidance.

Evergy said, "We remain open to continuing our dialogue with Elliott. As we consider any opportunity, we are resolute in our commitment to serving the best interests of all Evergy stakeholders, including our shareholders, employees, customers and the communities we serve. The support of our regulators is very important, and we will maintain an open, collaborative dialogue with them as we – and they – consider Elliott’s views. Morgan Stanley is acting as financial advisor and Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP is acting as legal advisor to the Company."

Evergy provides energy to 1.6 million customers in Kansas and Missouri.

Editor's note: The author Michael Hooper owns shares of Evergy (EVRG).

Kansas Pizza Hut Franchisee Struggles Under Debt

By Michael Hooper

The world's largest Pizza Hut franchisee is struggling under a mountain of debt, weak operating trends, and rising costs for food, labor and wages, according to Moody's Investor Services.

NPC International, of Leawood, Kan., operates 1,232 Pizza Hut restaurants and 391 Wendy's restaurants. Eldridge Industries, owner of Security Benefit in Topeka, is owner of NPC International. Sometimes Eldridge Industries and Security Benefit will invest in a deal together, such as the Los Angeles Dodgers, but Security Benefit does not own any equity or bonds in NPC International, said Joe Wittrock, chief investment officer with Security Benefit.

On Sept. 13, 2019, Moody's Investor Service downgraded the corporate debt of NPC International to junk status, Caa1-PD from B3-PD. Moody's additionally downgraded the company's first lien senior secured revolving credit facility and first lien senior secured term loan to B3 from B2, as well as the company's 2nd lien senior secured term loan to Caa3 from Caa2. The rating outlook is negative.

The downgrade to Caa1 reflects NPC's continued weak operating performance with persistent cost and margin pressure, said Adam McLaren, Moody's senior analyst. High leverage and weak interest coverage, along with elevated capital expenditure requirements have pressured the company's liquidity. For the last 12-month period ended June 25, 2019, NPC's debt-to-EBITDA was high at over 7 times, with the expectation of remaining elevated over the next 12-18 months given the challenging operating environment with pressured same-store sales and labor and margin headwinds (EBITA is Earnings Before Interest Taxes and Amortization).

Moody's said the downgrade reflects NPC's high leverage and modest interest coverage driven by weaker operating trends and cost inflation related in part to labor, wages, commodities, and pricing. Given NPC's high level of capital investment, including re-locations, new units, and remodel initiatives, it is expected that free cash flow will be constrained and liquidity to be weak. 

Moody's rating also considers NPC's limited product offering, concentrated day-part in lunch and dinner and limited geographic diversity. The rating is supported by NPC's multiple brands, meaningful scale within the Pizza Hut and Wendy's franchise system, new advertising partnerships, and dedicated brand management. The company benefits from the support of its financial sponsor, including $50 million of incremental term loan borrowings and $18 million of capital injection thus far in 2019 which provide additional liquidity to enable the company to continue to invest in remodels and re-locations, although NPC will require additional future liquidity to continue to invest at such high levels (inclusive of growth capex).

The negative outlook reflects Moody's view that the company will continue to face margin pressure over the next 12-18 months, which will weigh on operating performance and credit metrics, while investing heavily in remodels, new units, and re-locations continue to constrain liquidity. Performance improvement coupled with additional equity injections from its sponsor or other forms of liquidity could help stabilize the company's outlook, Moody's said.

David Tangeman, a Houston accountant, said investors led by Eldridge Industries paid $1.2 billion for NPC International in late 2017. The year before it was sold, NPC International's EBITA was $127.6 million. Normally, a sale like this would be around 5 to 7 times EBITA, but this sale was closer to 9 times EBITA.

"They overpaid for it," said Tangeman, adding that NPC International was saddled with about $740 million in debt after the deal. He noted investors kicked in $17.5 million through equity plus a new $50 million loan in August.

Pizza Hut was founded in 1958 in Wichita by brothers Dan and Frank Carney. In 1977, Pizza Hut was sold to PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP). Then PepsiCo spun off its restaurant business, including KFC, to Yum Brands (NYSE: YUM) in 1997.

In an interview with Bloomberg Sept. 9, 2019, Todd Boehly, chairman of Eldridge Industries, was asked how he is going to salvage NPC International.

Boehly said, "Right now we're very aligned with Yum. We've got a great relationship with Yum. Yum cares deeply about Pizza Hut, we care deeply about Pizza Hut. There's no magic bullet that's going to change the fact it's been underperforming. It's performed worse than we originally anticipated. But that doesn't change our long term view of what the opportunity is with Pizza Hut. It's a tremendous brand that goes back 50-60 years. If you look at what Pizza Hut stands for people, high quality pizza, great food, great memories. We need to figure out how to make it more mobile, make it easier to get. And compete in a world where convenience is the No. 1 driver, not just quality of food."

Boehly said his strategy is to align with Yum to outperform the historical performance at NPC International.

NPC International was founded by Gene Bicknell of Kansas. But a lot has changed in the pizza business since he owned it. Some of the locations of Pizza Huts were good when they started but now are not in the ideal locations.

While Pizza Hut is growing in the international markets, the restaurants are losing sales in the US.

"In the U.S., system sales declined 2% with same-store sales declining 3% and a 1% net new unit decline. Coming off a solid second quarter, the Pizza Hut U.S. business decelerated in Q3 as changes to our value offerings helped franchisee margins, but had a negative impact on transactions," David Gibbs, Yum CFO and COO, said during third quarter earnings call, according to Seeking Alpha transcripts. "In addition, our previously announced plans to accelerate the transition to a modern delivery asset base in the U.S., while restructuring and upgrading our franchisee base also took a toll on performance. While we strongly believe that these are the right strategies to build the business for the longer term, these moves will introduce some uncertainty in the business performance over the short term, as we expect results to continue to be choppy. We caution, we could see a continuation of soft sales and unit contraction throughout 2020 in the Pizza Hut U.S. business."

Editor's note: Michael Hooper owns stock in PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP)

Muse and Freedom

There's a circular feeling around here

About a girl named Muse and a boy named Freedom

Muse has flowers in her hair and a long flowing dress, a notebook at her side, a phone in her pocket and laughter in her soul.

Freedom is dressed in a poet jacket and he has a rapper's soul, a sing song y way to keep a vibe alive.

Muse and Freedom are cherished by my poetry comrades

They travel together, so strong the bond, we fight for their rights to live among us.

When they sing together, the prairie laughs 
and the sky opens up,
a beautiful vibe hits us just right

The boy named Freedom

He's a beatnik hippie radical lover of words

who smokes a pipe and drinks coffee
feeling a nice groove

He dances in the night

Like a wild tiger

Muse plays her flute, like a songbird in flight,

she carries the vibe higher and higher.
The wind her friend in her artistic journey
colors all around her
sunshine in her eyes

Together Muse and Freedom sing songs against violence, and champion the rapper speech calling for peace and hope for new generations.

Sometimes they are mad to see a new dimension, and mad to dance, mad to talk all night.

They never stop going
until they crash and burn out of fuel

Muse and Freedom, they are my sister and brother,

we poets must keep them alive
take them with us everywhere we go,
like lovers un-separated.

I will keep in my soul,
Muse and Freedom
you are blood to me


--Michael Hooper
Oct. 17, 2019

Fred Phelps And The Literature of a Post-Cult Memoir

By Michael Hooper

The memoir has become a popular genre for writers in this modern era. Rock stars, movie actors, journalists, recovering drug addicts, politicians are all producing memoirs. Add to that the literature of the post-cult memoir documenting the descent and rise from a cult.

Unfollow by Megan Phelps-Roper, and the Girl at the End of the World by Elizabeth Esther, fall into this post-cult genre. Both books are by the granddaughters of the founders of their cults. Both women grew up in a very strict fundamental household. And both somehow found the courage to escape.

Each book hits close to home for me because I live in Topeka, Kan., where my wife and I were both verbally assaulted by the Phelps clan. When they protested at soldiers funerals, I actually sent money to a grieving parent to fight the Phelpses in a lawsuit against them. The lawsuit against the Phelpses' protest at a soldier's funeral went all the way to the Supreme Court. The Phelpses, known for their slogans God Hates Fags and Thank God For Dead Soldiers, won the lawsuit. And I was a member of Elizabeth Esther's grandfather's cult in the early 1980s.

Unfollow is the dramatic look inside of a cult that hurt a lot of people. The author tells the story of Fred Phelps, the founder of the Westboro Baptist Church. Megan Phelps-Roper takes us back to the beginning when Fred Phelps first saw two men come out from the bushes at Gage Park in Topeka. He discovered that gay men met in the park to have sex. Phelps had previously been an advocate for the rights of African Americans. As an attorney he helped them win lawsuits against people and employers for discrimination. But after Phelps was disbarred from practicing in Kansas, he looked for another passion.

When I first arrived in Topeka in 1999 I was shocked to see all of these protesters holding repulsive signs raging against homosexuals. I said something to them at the corner of 10th and Gage, "Why are you doing this? This is terrible." And one protester called me a "fag." 'Oh really, you don't even know me," I said. My wife was going to a midnight mass on Dec. 31, 1999, and they taunted her and called people derogatory names. The Phelpses, many of them lawyers, want you to get angry at them and sue them so they could collect attorney fees. They knew they had the protection of the First Amendment, the right to free speech. But you don't see them protesting in England or Germany, where hate speech is not allowed.

The author Megan Phelps-Roper does a good job describing the hypocrisy of the positions in the church. Jesus says love your neighbor as yourself. Yet how come church members show so much hatred and antagonism toward their neighbors? Jesus says pray for your enemies. Yet Fred Phelps prayed that God would kill his enemies. The Phelpses lied about being at protests in London when they weren't actually there. Yet the Bible says the Lord hates a lying tongue and a false witness that speaks lies. The Phelpses also advocated death for criminals. Yet Jesus said he who is without sin may cast the first stone.

All these hypocrisies finally got to the questioning mind of Megan Phelps-Roper. She tried to question the elders but she was always put down. She was disturbed by the way the elders had disgraced her mother. Her sister Grace wanted a Mac but an elder named Steve said she should get a PC. Steve pestered her parents for weeks afterward arguing that his reasons for remaining with the status quo were worth following. "It seemed embarrassing at the time because it was clear that Steve only cared about the issue because he wanted to be obeyed," the author wrote.

Eventually Megan woke up to all of these hypocrisies and realized that the elders really wanted superiority and control. They had developed a toxic sense of certainty in their own righteousness.

A key moment for Megan is on page 159:

"I crossed a chasm in that split second, pursuing a thought my mind had never truly imagined and now could never take back. With stark clarity I understood that whether the church was wrong or right, I was a monster. If we were wrong, then I had spent every day of my life industriously sewing doom, discord and rage to so many -- not at the behest of God but of my grandfather. I had wasted my life only to fill others with pain and misery. And if the church was right? Then asking those questions and even beginning to consider their implications was an unforgivable betrayal of everyone I had ever loved and the ideals I dedicated my life to defending. In my mind I was a betrayer already."

Megan and her sister Grace eventually left the church. They received help from former members of the church who had left in exile, and a family in South Dakota. They also received help from people they used to argue with, the Booksteins of Jewlicious.com, who took them in and cared for them. It's funny I used to see the Phelpses protest in front of Temple Beth Shalom in Topeka on Friday evenings. Years later, here are the Jews helping two exiles of the Phelps clan. In this case who is loving their enemies?

The story of Elizabeth Esther in the Girl at the End of the World is also very personal because I was a member of that group in 1982-83 led by Rod, Mike and Dave Zach in Hastings and Omaha, Nebraska. Elizabeth was the granddaughter of the founder, George Geftakys based in Fullerton, Calif. They did not believe in celebrating Christmas, they did not believe in employing psychologists; they were fundamentalists who targeted college students because they were vulnerable and wanted a community to be part of. They lived together and made high demands of members, about 20 hours per week of Bible study, prayer meetings and worship. They made women be subservient to men and wear head coverings in meetings. They spanked their children. They took the Bible literally as the Word of God.

Eventually, members of the Assembly began to question the integrity of their leader George Geftakys. A web site geftakysassembly.com exposed the corruption in his ministry. George was removed from the Fullerton Assembly around 2003. George was having adulterous affairs and covering up his son’s domestic abuse. What’s sad is that many people gave over 20 years of their life to this man and his group and now feel ashamed and duped. The geftakysassembly.com says, “It is crushing to realize that for 20 years we gave our lives to something that was wrong on so many levels. We are deeply grieved for the damage we perpetrated on others. Our work on this website is part of our effort to try to make amends in some small way.”

The Zachs would say, “He’s no longer walking with the Lord,” when I asked about a person who stopped coming to meetings. Who are they to judge? How do they know whether someone is walking with the Lord? I finally woke up to their wrongs. Some wrongs I didn’t see right away. They always had a Bible scripture to back of their behaviors. I feel lucky that I got out after about 18 months. My salvation was really my free will, the ability to make decisions for myself.

And that is the heart of the issue: control. Leaders of cults want total control over their members. The Zachs didn't want me to leave Hastings, Neb., they wanted me to stay there and build up their church. I am so glad I had the fortitude to leave!

Megan Phelps-Roper discusses the last days of Fred Phelps when he was removed from the church. He walked out of the church to address the young people running the Equality House, a global symbol of the LGBT rights, across the street. "You're good people," he said to them before he was hustled back inside by church members. Shortly thereafter Fred Phelps was put in hospice and died.

It's interesting how the third generation of the cults mentioned here found themselves inside a place they knew they didn't belong. I wonder how the fourth generation of Phelpses will feel about their behaviors? I still see them protesting from time to time. I hope some day the Westboro Baptist Church either implodes or changes and stops hating gays and starts loving people, all people.