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

by Megan Phelps-Roper

She began to tell us about her mother, a woman who had created a religion of her own by cobbling together elements of Judaism and fringe Christian denominations. “My mother was very ‘book smart,’ and she read a lot about a lot of different religions. She was very strict. She thought she knew better than everybody else. The whole world was wrong, but she had figured it all out. Very strict, very controlling.” “What do you mean by ‘strict’?” I asked. Cora described several prohibitions her mother had imposed, including a ban on the celebration of birthdays, Christmas, and other holidays. “If anything bad happened to me,” she said, “it was because I was a sinner. It was because I deserved it. Instead of showing compassion or understanding or trying to help—you know, being a parent—my mother said things like that.”