Banished!
 

I just finished reading the book Banished! by Lauren Drain. This young woman was a part of the Westboro Baptist Church because her parents joined when she was about 14. It is an amazing story of cruelty and abuse that she went through both at the hands of the church and her parents. Poor kid. She got thrown out because she talked to a boy on the phone that she had been told not to talk to. She is disowned to this day and her parents will have nothing to do with her. Anyway, it is worth the read.

Re: Banished!
 

About how many attend that church anyways? Is is 10? 100? More?

Re: Banished!
 

She never says but it is mostly the Phelps family. They don't believe in birth control so they have lots and lots of kids. There are only a couple of families beyond that. So Fred Phelps had maybe 13 kids or so and a couple left but the rest are there and some of them have boatloads of kids. Anyway, it is a sick, sick place.

Re: Banished!
 

They probably think they're applying Matthew 19:29. "And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life."

Re: Banished!
 

Westboro started stalking Kevin Smith, so he had a movie about them; Red State? My sis said she liked it...



* You might find parts of this trailer offensive *


**video removed**


* You might find parts of this trailer offensive *

Re: Banished!
 

Prolly so.

Re: Banished!
 

Wild amount of drivel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2JaR9DcN90

Re: Banished!
 

I find this trailer very offensive. I couldn't even watch it.

Re: Banished!
 

I heard that they are going to be protesting at the funerals for the children in Moore, Oklahoma who were killed in the tornado. How disgusting can they get!????

Re: Banished!
 

That is really disgusting. However, after reading that book, I begin to understand that they are all brainwashed by Fred Phelps. The rest of them are pretty much just followers of his warped theology and I feel sorry for them.

Re: Banished!
 

Headed up by "Pastor" Fred Phelps, the Church had a membership of around 40, according to reports in 2011. Their website is sadly entitled "godhatesfags.com"

One of the members of our Church is from Topeka, and is well acquainted with
Megan Phelps-Roper. She left the "church" in January of this year, shortly after her Sister Grace made the same decision. They are the grand-daughters of Fred Phelps.

Megan spoke at our Church in April and told her story. It is an amazing story of spiritual abuse. In addition to being the grand-daughter of the Founder, she was responsible for all of Westboro's social media and Internet presence.

In an interview shortly after their departure, a spokesman for Westboro, Steve Drain told reporters that the girls had simply decided to stop following God and that if they continued on this course and did not return to "the fold," they would "go to hell."

http://www.kansascity.com/2013/02/06...ro-church.html

Re: Banished!
 

I would be willing that if anyone were to start debating Fred Phelps here he would initially come off as extremely knowledgeable on scripture with page after page of Greek words defined by the best scholars, and any time you questioned any obvious glaring error his standard come back would be "I told you thousands of times!" followed by more multi-page posts cut and pasted from various online bibles. . . . .

Re: Banished!
 

LOL! Snicker. Yeah.

Re: Banished!
 

There would also be liberal use of the SIZE function as well as the COLOR in order to make the posts look more like a ransom note.

Re: Banished!
 

And don't forget all the wild smilies just to add extra emphasis to every sentence written...

Re: Banished!
 

ILG.. I saw this book at the bookstore, and flipped through it, and read a page or two. I couldn't hardly stomach it, and so, I didn't buy it. Maybe I need to, and just read this poor girl's story.

Re: Banished!
 

:banghead

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I dunno... he would probably think I was too stupid to talk to and not waste his time on me!

And man that first movie trailer is raunchy... F-bomb warning and worse folks...

Re: Banished!
 

As long as people are warned there should be no problems. After all, I posted an episode of Penn & Tellers bull**** episode a while back which dealt with gun control.

"Properly warned, be thee, says I."

Re: Banished!
 

I wasn't suggesting it be taken down... just attached a stronger warning... Yikes!

Re: Banished!
 

My sincere apologies to you both and anyone else....


I had not watched the trailer, but went back to remove it just now and cannot. Someone muted it for what it's worth, of it was already like that, but if any mod can delete plz do.

Re: Banished!
 

I added it to my to-read list on goodreads. If you like those kind of books ILG, I found a list that had some in the same vein of various fundmentalist religious groups:

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3...moirs#15791137

(And yes, Goodreads is pretty much my favorite website in the whole world, because at 38 yeards old, and reading 200-300 books a year, I would be completely lost without it!)

Re: Banished!
 

Well, maybe it's not the right time if it was making you nauseous. ;) This girl was treated very badly by her family and the church. I was more disgusted by her parents though.

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That's a great list, Mich! I am a librarian so I've read a good number of those already but I had not used that type of listing before. Thanks!

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If you are a reader, or a Librarian, or anything to do with books, it's a great website to use, as they have great lists, you can make your own personal bookshelves (things you've read or want to read), and even keep track of books that haven't been published yet.

I am good friends with many of the Librarians at the local library. (Particularly the manager), and they always let me know when they are going to be making new purchases, so I can submit my list of suggestions.

I am so jealous though, because the libraries in the state where you live (in case it's secret), are so much better than those down here. I live in a very small county, and for example, our library got a measly $4500 for purchasing new materials this year! If I didn't have access to two e-book libraries (where you live) I would probably go crazy!

Re: Banished!
 

We are part of a great system where it's free to order any books from any libraries in the system so you can do a web search and order whatever you want and it is delivered to your library! This is just a great perk for people.

Re: Banished!
 

Very, very sad......this is part one. See the rest on You-Tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOrz5k0jWdU

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And four years later:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjmg69XmJp8

Re: Banished!
 

BTW, there is some swearing on these videos.

Re: Banished!
 

My daughter and I were talking about the similarity between the UPC and WBC in that people have to deny their feelings to a certain degree.

Please explain. I'd comment, but want to know what the part in bold means before doing so.

Re: Banished!
 

People in the UPC often have to repress their feelings. This is good if it is about sin, but when it is about questions people have that are legitimate questions, people often are brushed aside and pushed to bury their feelings.

Re: Banished!
 

Ok. Thanks for clarifying.

Re: Banished!
 

Can't speak for others, but nope I cannot relate to WBC. The UPC I know is quite opposite... Love the vilest of sinners to reach even one... Sometimes I think they go too far. But Christ himself went farther, much farther...

Re: Banished!
 

Steven Drain worked for the same Insurance co I work for until january.they terminated his contract when the upper management saw him on Russell Brands talk show.
We never had a clue what he did in his spare time,always very professional and good with customers.

Re: Banished!
 

Can he be legitimately fired then, since they are terminating his contract, not for unprofessionalism but because they saw him on a talk show? Isn't that religious discrimination?

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I'm glad you have not had that experience. The reason I brought it up is because my daughter brought it up with me after having read the book and we discussed it. Having feelings and questions brushed off was pretty much the norm.

Re: Banished!
 

They can terminate our contract at any time. There doesn't have to be reason given. We ate considered self employed.

Re: Banished!
 

Being on AFF for weeks if you know us, you know we are all about questions :)

More so than here have we been VERY open in asking MANY questions. We find the UPC Apo Church (and those that belong to UPC elsewhere) to be more motivated in helping us seek answers than ANYWHERE we've ever known!

We are honestly scared, not only in our now-apparent lack of salvation, but in the culture shock as well. However the one thing that we feel completely open & welcome in doing is asking questions.

I'm not saying anything to discredit you, as we are misfits-what do we honestly know being new to UPC, but simply saying this is not always the case.

Re: Banished!
 

Ah young grasshopper you are still early in your journey into the APO world. :happydance