num_pages: 256
description: It wasnt until Libby Phelps was an adult a twenty-five year old that she escaped the Westboro Baptist Church. She is the granddaughter of its founder Fred Phelps and when she left the church and its values were all shed known. She didnt tell her family she was leaving. It happened in just a few minutes; she ran into her house grabbed a bag and fled. No goodbyes.Based in Topeka Kansas the Westboro Baptist Church community is one the countrys most notorious evangelical groups. Its members are known for their boisterous picketingtheir zealous members with anti-military anti-Semitic and anti-gay signsThank God for Dead Soldiers God Hates Jews or Thank God for 9/11and their notorious catchphrase God hates fags. The church makes headlines in news across the country. Youve driven past its picketers or seen them on TV. It has seventy members and ninety percent of them are part of Libbys family. They picket concerts football games other churches and most notoriously the funerals of servicemen and victims of hate crimes. For its members to question its rules is to risk going to hellwhere worms eat at your body and fire shoots out of your eyeballs.In Girl on a Wire Libby is candid about her experience and whats happened since her escape. On Anderson Cooper Live she was confronted by the mother of a soldier whose funeral had been picketed and had to respond. Despite it all she cares for her family. Her grandfathers sermons were fear mongering but she loves him. This unusual memoir presents a rare inside look into a notorious cult and is an astonishing story of strength bravery and determination.
language: English
title: Girl on a Wire: Walking the Line Between Faith and Freedom in the Westboro Baptist Church
publisher: Skyhorse