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. 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. It takes real talent to produce a book like this.The activist and TED speaker Megan Phelps-Roper reveals her life growing up in the most hated family in AmericaĪt 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. ‘Her journey – from Westboro to becoming one of the most empathetic, thoughtful, humanistic writers around – is exceptional and inspiring’ – Jon Ronson ‘A modern-day parable for how we should speak and listen to each other’ – Dolly Alderton ‘A beautiful, gripping book about a singular soul, and an unexpected redemption’ – Nick Hornby
It is a fascinating insight into a closed world of extreme belief, a biography of a complex family, and a hope-inspiring memoir of a young woman finding the courage to find compassion for others, as well as herself. Unfollow is a story about the rarest thing of all: a person changing their mind. In November 2012, at the age of twenty-six, she left the church, her family, and her life behind. From her first public protest, aged five, to her instrumental role in spreading the church’s invective via social media, her formative years brought their difficulties. Megan Phelps-Roper was raised in the Westboro Baptist Church – the fire-and-brimstone religious sect at once aggressively homophobic and anti-Semitic, rejoiceful for AIDS and natural disasters, and notorious for its picketing the funerals of American soldiers. Yet in other ways it was the precise opposite: a revolving door of TV camera crews and documentary makers, a world of extreme discipline, of siblings vanishing in the night.
A loving home, shared with squabbling siblings, overseen by devoted parents. It was an upbringing in many ways normal. A brave, unsettling, and fascinating memoir about the damage done by religious fundamentalism’ NPRĪ Radio Four Book of the Week Pick for June 2021Īs featured on the BBC documentaries, ‘The Most Hated Family in America’ and ‘Surviving America’s Most Hated Family’ ‘A nuanced portrait of the lure and pain of zealotry’ New York Times ‘Such a moving, redemptive, clear-eyed account of religious indoctrination’ – Pandora Sykes ‘For anyone who enjoyed Hillbilly Elegy or Educated, Unfollow is an essential text’ – Louis Theroux
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