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.Ī 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. 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.

Phelps-Roper will be in conversation with Greater Good editor Jeremy Adam Smith.Īt 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. Berkeley Arts & Letters and The Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley co-present an evening with Megan Phelps-Roper for her debut book Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church.

Unfollow megan phelps