“Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church” by Megan Phelps-Roper, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019, $27.
My first encounter with the Westboro Church was when they picketed my daughter’s graduation from KU law school. Then they picketed my synagogue, which led to our hiring a guard to be present during Shabbat services. Then my daughter and son-in-law moved to Topeka where the church picketed every service in their synagogue. They seemed to be everywhere. Now, reading Megan Phelps-Roper’s memoir, I began to understand why they were so vehemently picketing synagogues, parks and military funerals.
Rev. Fred Phelps, Megan’s grandfather, had deep biblical beliefs that he taught his family and his church. Homosexuality was a sin. Non-Christian religions were sinful. She and her family spent their childhoods picketing everything, holding signs that said “God Hates fags,” etc.
Yet in their home, their parents were warm and loving. The children were allowed to go to public schools and colleges. Megan spent a good part of her young adulthood on Twitter defending her church’s ideology to scoffers.
Then came the time when her grandfather grew old and other men took over the direction of the church. This is when Megan and her sister Grace finally decided they had to leave.
Reading her memoir explains why she left and how difficult it was to leave her family and make a new life. Her page-turning memoir captures the reader’s attention and the book is impossible to put down until the end.
Andrea Kempf is a retired librarian and an award winning book reviewer.