Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church

The activist and TED speaker Megan Phelps-Roper reveals her life growing up in the most hated family in America

At the age of five, Megan Phelps-Roper began protesting homosexuality and other alleged vices alongside fellow members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. Founded by her grandfather and consisting almost entirely of her extended family, the tiny group would gain worldwide notoriety for its pickets at military funerals and celebrations of death and tragedy. As Phelps-Roper grew up, she saw that church members were close companions and accomplished debaters, applying the logic of predestination and the language of the King James Bible to everyday life with aplomb--which, as the church's Twitter spokeswoman, she learned to do with great skill. Soon, however, dialogue on Twitter caused her to begin doubting the church's leaders and message: If humans were sinful and fallible, how could the church itself be so confident about its beliefs? As she digitally jousted with critics, she started to wonder if sometimes they had a point--and then she began exchanging messages with a man who would help change her life.

A gripping memoir of escaping extremism and falling in love, Unfollow relates Phelps-Roper's moral awakening, her departure from the church, and how she exchanged the absolutes she grew up with for new forms of warmth and community. Rich with suspense and thoughtful reflection, Phelps-Roper's life story exposes the dangers of black-and-white thinking and the need for true humility in a time of angry polarization.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Author: Megan Phelps-Roper
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 10/08/2019
ISBN: 9780374275839
Pages: 304
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 9.10h x 5.90w x 1.30d

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 08/05/2019
Kirkus Reviews 08/15/2019
Library Journal 09/01/2019 pg. 75
BookPage 10/01/2019
Shelf Awareness 10/08/2019
Booklist 11/15/2019 pg. 22