Banished: Surviving My Years in the Westboro Baptist Church

Banished: Surviving My Years in the Westboro Baptist Church - Lauren Drain, Lisa Pulitzer

This was an interesting book. The writing itself was not that good, but that did not detract from the experience of reading this. I think Drain needed to write this, for herself: to vent, to rationalize, and it was a form of therapy for her. I respect that narrative.

I will say one thing about the WBC, it does not deserve our attention, our outrage, because they feed off it. They almost get off on it, to be crude. They, in my armchair psychologist analyst, have a collective martyr complex. They are emotionally-stunted as a collective. This is a dying cult, it will be dismantled or die out in the next few decades. We should ignore them, that will be the ultimate form of suffering for them, and it will rob them of their collective identity if no one reacted to them at all.

I hope that Drain will seek out a therapist to deal with all the crap she had to put up from not only the church, but her father and mother.

Being part of the ONTD community, there was a time while reading this that I enjoyed the spilling of the truth tea. The shading of members and the pastor, and sometimes not so subtle dragging. It was like reading a WBC tell-all.

I think Drain, and the Phelps girls who have also left the church after Drain, have a long way to make up for the damage, hurt, and pain they caused. I feel sympathetic towards them, but many won't and I can understand why. I never had to deal with this cult first hand, so it's easier for me to forgive them. (For those that don't know, I am a lesbian).

I look forward to reading more memoirs from the ex-members of the WBC cult.

Also huge trigger warning for physical and emotional abuse.