Anyone reading "Banished" about leaving Westboro?

[MamaJunebug]

Ekugal, this in all seriousness: if you do figure out what they're trying to accomplish, please, share it here!

I finished the book last night and have to come away with the same thing that Lauren herself said: they're out there to call attention to the fact that people are going to hell (except for themselves). They do not bleieve that person can change the mind of God and become one of the elect, so, what's the frickin' point?

It seems to me that they are in a cycle of self-gratification. Lauren describes more than once the senses of camaraderie, purpose, higher calling and just plain joyous satisfaction that they got out there, sang their repulsive take-off lyrics to well-known tunes, were yelled at by the public and in some cases were able to tell people one-on-one that they were going to hell, as was everybody except basically themselves.

My theory on the whole thing is that Fred, Sr., was traumatized by his weekend at West Point as a potential cadet, became wholeheartedly anti-homosexuality, channeled his energy and talent into good for a while (as a civil rights attorney on race-based issues in Mississippi and later Kansas);

then, after he was disbarred for over-reacting to a one-day-late deliery of legal paperwork (suing a trranscriptionist or something (IIRC) an exorbitant amount of money and tying up the legal system for months if not years, he turned his energy to telling folks they were damned.

The Matthew Shepard murder and funeral gave him and his followers their first real notoriety beyond the greater Topeka area. The arrival of Lauren Drain's family, ironically, gave the group a real shot in the arm due to the talents of Lauren's father.

Now, there's another personality to be ... repulsed by. Mr. Drain grew up fatherless with a mother he perceived as self-absorbed. He had a problem with authority figures as a youth, married early, set out to do a scathing docu on WBC and instead found the authority figures he could cling to and emulate.

This is getting far longer than I'd ever intended, but when I searched for Westboro defectors, hits about the defections of two of Shirley's 20-something daughters came up. CRS or their names, but one of them figures pretty prominently in "Banished." Intereesting that they made their break just about the time "Banished" came out.

Two PHelps-Roper daughters who remain with the WBC also receive a lot of mention in the book. Jael was Lauren's bff until WBC banished her, and then became her sworn enemy, even filing a complaint against Lauren to get Lauren transferred to a different floor in the Kansas hospital where they both worked as RNs. (The supervisor said Lauren was aces and if Jael needed to be on another floor, Jael could transfer.)(ha!)

Libby is referred to in the book as never accepting Lauren to the extent that Jael, Megan and another one did.

[MamaJunebug]

MOre things about the book, hoping this won't get TL to read.

Hypocrisy abounds in WBC, writes Lauren. There are two sets of rules - one for Phelpses, one for everybody else. Shirley P-R, who had her first child out of wedlock with a man she did not marry, has "atoned" for her misdeed and she and the son are completely accepted. Lauren could not begin to "atone" for having kissed a schoolmate.

Women must cover their heads in worship and while they may sing there, they may not speak during services. Yet when Mr. Drain scolded one of Shirley's kids, Shirley let Mr. D have it with both verbal barrels for having usurped her authority.

Members who lose family members - usually children - to the outside world are supposed to rejoice that the church [sic] has been purified by the exit of those damned (literraly) people. When Shirley's first child to leave, left, she was in big-time tears and verbal lamentations and required the calming comfort of all around her.

I tell you, the book is a page-turner. And as sorrowful as triumphant. I'm very glad for Lauren, especialy that she's kept faith in God (as opposed to those who claimed they spoke for God). But it's sorrowful for the children born into this mess, and it really diminishes one's hope for the Maxwell 30-somethings, never mind the reversal babies! As well as for others who know no other life.

[MamaJunebug]

One last (for now) comment. The co-writer, LIsa Pulitzer, has made kind of a niche-niche market for herself in helping to pen memoirs of young women who've survived cults and exited in one piece. I'm keen to read some of her other co-work, not just for stories of survival and prevailing, but because she herself had a hardknocks background.

Yes, she was born to the moneyed Pulitzers but her father abandoned his wife and their children, leaving them with next to no resources. She scrabbled from a young age to keep body and soul together, get educated, develop her talents and make the right career moves. Her own memoirs, should she write them, are on my reading list if I'm still around when they come out!

But more to the point, she's co-written the book in such way that it's apparent she was nothing but respectful, supportive, patient and understanding - both intuitively and experientially - of the main author's story.

Just a heckuva read from cover to cover.

[NoQuiverNoCry]

One last (for now) comment. The co-writer, LIsa Pulitzer, has made kind of a niche-niche market for herself in helping to pen memoirs of young women who've survived cults and exited in one piece. .......

Right on the heels of "Banished," I read "Beyond Belief," which is the story of Jenna Miscavige's life in and escape from Scientology. Jenna is the niece of David Miscavige, the current head of the church. Lisa Pulitzer co-authored this book also. Beyond Belief was absolutely riveting, possibly because there is so much crazy to work with: the church has institutionalized and regimented their bizarre practices, using hierarchical systems modeled after military (specifically, navy) organizations. So in addition to misguided individuals--like the hatemongers in Banished--you get multiple levels of organizational insanity with a belief system premised on bad science fiction. It's complex. And intriguing. Jenna had a wretched childhood, basically living in a work camp that sounds a lot like a boot camp, where she was only allowed to see her parents (who were high-ranking church people) for a few hours on Sunday mornings. Every aspect of her life was monitored and controlled, and she was subjected to all sorts of bizarre "training," some of which was just weird--like staring at a poster of L Ron Hubbard for hours, without moving a muscle or speaking a word--but some, like performing hard labor under conditions of duress, that would not be consistent with the Geneva Convention's rules for treatment of prisoners of war. By the time she was a teenager, she was thoroughly brainwashed; when her parents exited, at first she didn't even know about it because they were living on opposite sides of the US and were not allowed to communicate much. When she was told of her parents' departure, she surprised everyone by electing to remain with the church. Eventually, though, she reached her personal breaking point when the church mistreated her badly enough, and she also left. It's an excellent story.

You can hear Lisa Pulitzer's "voice" through both Banished and Beyond Belief. I think I like Beyond Belief better, because there was so much more material for the authors to work with, the net result was a more robust story. That said, both books provide valuable insight into the victimization of children raised in cults, and both are also beacons of hope in the right hands.

[MamaJunebug]

Elisanne, thanks for the comments on BB. I'll get that next, though as a Christian it's the extremists claiming my own religion that get me maddest, quickest! :D