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947 reviews for:
Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church
Megan Phelps-Roper
4.15 AVERAGE
947 reviews for:
Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church
Megan Phelps-Roper
4.15 AVERAGE
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
fast-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
There is a lot of unexpected information in this book. I meant to read it when it came out years ago, but only now got around to it. I've always been fascinated by the WBC and followed their protests and shenanigans over time. I read Lauren Drain's book, as well, but Megan's perspective is very different because she was so intimately involved in every aspect of the church. Seeing the humanized side of these people, and realizing that that is what they are - just people, was an incredible perspective. Overall, extremely informative and extremely moving.
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
I've known about the Westboro Baptist Church for decades. I thought Fred Phelps was a sociopathic lunatic and his children were just one step behind him. But I always had a little sympathy for the grandchildren - the ones who were born into the church and never knew anything else. However, that sympathy only went so far, and I always believed no one would miss them if a giant sinkhole swallowed the entire family.
This book forced me to reconsider everything I had believed. Yes, many of them are just as closed-minded and hate-filled as I always believed. But Phelps-Roper managed to make all of her family - even her grandfather - into real people. (She calls him "Gramps" throughout the book.)
Her story of how she began to actually think about WBC's teachings is very well done. It was not a quick or easy process and she lays it out with openness and honesty. It was also not a forgone conclusion once started. I suspect if things had not become personal (with the attacks on her mother and sister), she may have stayed.
One small issue I had was with how "easy" it was for her once she left. (I put "easy" in quotes because it was NOT easy, but it could have been a lot harder.) Due to her long use of Twitter (as the representative of WBC on that platform), Phelps-Roper had multiple contacts outside the church that she could tap into to help her get her feet under her.
This book forced me to reconsider everything I had believed. Yes, many of them are just as closed-minded and hate-filled as I always believed. But Phelps-Roper managed to make all of her family - even her grandfather - into real people. (She calls him "Gramps" throughout the book.)
Her story of how she began to actually think about WBC's teachings is very well done. It was not a quick or easy process and she lays it out with openness and honesty. It was also not a forgone conclusion once started. I suspect if things had not become personal (with the attacks on her mother and sister), she may have stayed.
One small issue I had was with how "easy" it was for her once she left. (I put "easy" in quotes because it was NOT easy, but it could have been a lot harder.) Due to her long use of Twitter (as the representative of WBC on that platform), Phelps-Roper had multiple contacts outside the church that she could tap into to help her get her feet under her.
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
‘What if we’re wrong? What if this isn’t The Place led by God Himself? What if we’re just people?’
I am not unbiased. I am suspicious of organised religion, and deeply mistrustful of the beliefs of evangelicals and fundamentalists. I am not entirely sure how (or even why) this book made its way onto my reading list, but it did, and it made me think.
Based on its rhetoric the Westboro Baptist Church is high on my list of despicable organisations. Ms Phelps- Roper writes of her upbringing in this fire-and-brimstone sect which is both aggressively homophobic and antisemitic. An organisation which rejoiced in the suffering inflicted on others by AIDS and natural disasters and picketed the funerals of American soldiers. Hateful, horrible conduct. But imagine being brought up in this sect, of not knowing any other way of life, of not experiencing respectful debate? I kept reading, interested in learning how Ms Phelps-Roper reached her decision to leave. And I acknowledge that it would be a difficult decision: leaving all that is familiar to venture into a world seen as damned.
When she was twenty-six, in November 2012, Ms Phelps-Roper left this despicable organisation. She had changed her mind. This book documents her experience within the church (which was largely comprised of family members), her happy experiences of family and acceptance of their hurtful, exclusionary actions, and then her gradual realisation of and movement into a wider world.
I acknowledge how difficult it must have been for Ms Phelps-Roper to take those first steps into uncharted territory and wish her every success in the future.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
I am not unbiased. I am suspicious of organised religion, and deeply mistrustful of the beliefs of evangelicals and fundamentalists. I am not entirely sure how (or even why) this book made its way onto my reading list, but it did, and it made me think.
Based on its rhetoric the Westboro Baptist Church is high on my list of despicable organisations. Ms Phelps- Roper writes of her upbringing in this fire-and-brimstone sect which is both aggressively homophobic and antisemitic. An organisation which rejoiced in the suffering inflicted on others by AIDS and natural disasters and picketed the funerals of American soldiers. Hateful, horrible conduct. But imagine being brought up in this sect, of not knowing any other way of life, of not experiencing respectful debate? I kept reading, interested in learning how Ms Phelps-Roper reached her decision to leave. And I acknowledge that it would be a difficult decision: leaving all that is familiar to venture into a world seen as damned.
When she was twenty-six, in November 2012, Ms Phelps-Roper left this despicable organisation. She had changed her mind. This book documents her experience within the church (which was largely comprised of family members), her happy experiences of family and acceptance of their hurtful, exclusionary actions, and then her gradual realisation of and movement into a wider world.
I acknowledge how difficult it must have been for Ms Phelps-Roper to take those first steps into uncharted territory and wish her every success in the future.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
tense