Phelps-Roper is a masterful writer. She writes movingly about the searing pain of separation from those she continues to love, and beautifully about how freeing herself from a theology of hate has given her life greater meaning and purpose. In a time of growing intolerance, Unfollow is essential reading.
... [Phelps-Roper] paints a nuanced portrait of the lure and pain of zealotry, though she leaves many questions unanswered ... for readers who aren’t as familiar with the Testaments, the scriptural passages may be overwhelming ... Unfortunately, the book dodges the overarching question of whether Westboro is an aberration or an extension of the dogmatism of many religious adherents who lack tolerance for theological diversity. As someone so deeply enmeshed in religion, the author is in a unique position to ponder the overlap between extremist and mainstream religiosity, or the ways many mainstream evangelicals have driven the culture wars in the name of their God. She’s also oddly silent on her take on religion now—on whether or not she still considers herself a Christian, whether she believes in God at all.
I wish Phelps-Roper were able to tell us more about how her grandfather came to his bizarre theology, especially given that his early career as a lawyer was that of a white man from the South who represented primarily African American clients in Topeka ... what will be difficult for most readers, I suspect, is understanding, as Phelps-Roper writes, how 'people who were otherwise bright and well-intentioned could believe and behave as we did as members of Westboro' ... The story of how Phelps-Roper extricated herself (and one of her sisters) from Westboro unfolds like a suspense novel.
