Banished: Surviving My Years in the Westboro Baptist Church

· Sold by Grand Central Publishing
4.6
43 reviews
Ebook
304
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

Banished is an eye-opening, deeply personal account of life inside the cult known as the Westboro Baptist Church, as well as a fascinating story of adaptation and perseverance.

You've likely heard of the Westboro Baptist Church. Perhaps you've seen their pickets on the news, the members holding signs with messages that are too offensive to copy here, protesting at events such as the funerals of soldiers, the 9-year old victim of the recent Tucson shooting, and Elizabeth Edwards, all in front of their grieving families. The WBC is fervently anti-gay, anti-Semitic, and anti- practically everything and everyone. And they aren't going anywhere: in March, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the WBC's right to picket funerals.

Since no organized religion will claim affiliation with the WBC, it's perhaps more accurate to think of them as a cult. Lauren Drain was thrust into that cult at the age of 15, and then spat back out again seven years later.

Lauren spent her early years enjoying a normal life with her family in Florida. But when her formerly liberal and secular father set out to produce a documentary about the WBC, his detached interest gradually evolved into fascination, and he moved the entire family to Kansas to join the church and live on their compound. Over the next seven years, Lauren fully assimilated their extreme beliefs, and became a member of the church and an active and vocal picketer. But as she matured and began to challenge some of the church's tenets, she was unceremoniously cast out from the church and permanently cut off from her family and from everyone else she knew and loved.

Banished is the story of Lauren's fight to find herself amidst dramatic changes in a world of extremists and a life in exile.

Ratings and reviews

4.6
43 reviews
K. A.
February 9, 2018
I saw much of my life in yours...my sperm donor was an over bearing know it all who drove all his children away in some form of another and I, too, spent 8 years of my life trying to get compassion from supposed Christians who eventually helped me succeed at being suicidal. Thirty years later, I still have strong feelings about what went on in that Southern Baptist Hell hole. Good luck with your new life. I am no longer a Christian and happier with that than I ever dreamed. I hope you find a place to rest
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Briana Bairey
March 18, 2021
Great book. Really highlights the hate culture in the WBC. Lauren has a great story to tell and it is amazing she kept her faith and grew in her spirituality after all the negativity. If learning about cults interests you definitely give this a read.
1 person found this review helpful
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Jeremy Ahn
December 27, 2012
I've heard about the Westboro Baptist Church here and there all around the media, and I've grown a curiosity in them and how life is like inside the church, which this book will be about. I'm excited for this book, to say the least, because I'm pretty sure this book will be insightful and a good read.
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About the author

Lauren Drain works as a registered nurse. She lives with her husband in Connecticut, where she enjoys outdoor activities including endurance races, hiking, dirt biking, and camping. Banished is her first book.

Lisa Pulitzer is a former correspondent for the New York Times. She is the author and co-author of more than a dozen nonfiction books, including the bestselling Stolen Innocence.

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