unfollow: a Journay from Hatred to Hope by Megan Phelps-Roper

genre: memoir

Westboro Baptist Church. Probably you’ve heard of them before too, like I had. What does it bring to mind? Hatred. Bigotry. Protests. For Megan Roper-Phelps, though, it was HOME. Family. Godly solidarity. A sanctuary away from the wicked and sinful world. This is Megan’s story of her life in WBP, her deconstruction and what comes after.

Not only is this a really well written and captivating story, it is deeply informative and thought provoking. I hadn’t even read much about the church, so much of this was new to me, but Megan’s processing of her theology and subsequent detangling was what I was most intrigued by. There is a LOT of scripture quoting here that I sometimes skimmed a bit but this one gets five stars for how it captivated me and how proud I am of how she figured things out.