God Hates

Westboro Baptist Church, American Nationalism, and the Religious Right

Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Christianity, Church, Church History, History, Americas, United States, 20th Century
Cover of the book God Hates by Rebecca Barrett-Fox, University Press of Kansas
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Rebecca Barrett-Fox ISBN: 9780700622665
Publisher: University Press of Kansas Publication: June 10, 2016
Imprint: University Press of Kansas Language: English
Author: Rebecca Barrett-Fox
ISBN: 9780700622665
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
Publication: June 10, 2016
Imprint: University Press of Kansas
Language: English

The congregants thanked God that they weren’t like all those hopeless people outside the church, bound for hell. So the Westboro Baptist Church’s Sunday service began, and Rebecca Barrett-Fox, a curious observer, wondered why anyone would seek spiritual sustenance through other people’s damnation. It is a question that piques many a witness to Westboro’s more visible activity—the “GOD HATES FAGS” picketing of funerals. In God Hates, sociologist Barrett-Fox takes us behind the scenes of Topeka’s Westboro Baptist Church. The first full ethnography of this infamous presence on America’s Religious Right, her book situates the church’s story in the context of American religious history—and reveals as much about the uneasy state of Christian practice in our day as it does about the workings of the Westboro Church and Fred Phelps, its founder.

God Hates traces WBC’s theological beliefs to a brand of hyper-Calvinist thought reaching back to the Puritans—an extreme Calvinism, emphasizing predestination, that has proven as off-putting as Westboro’s actions, even for other Baptists. And yet, in examining Westboro’s role in conservative politics and its contentious relationship with other fundamentalist activist groups, Barrett-Fox reveals how the church’s message of national doom in fact reflects beliefs at the core of much of the Religious Right’s rhetoric. Westboro’s aggressively offensive public activities actually serve to soften the anti-gay theology of more mainstream conservative religious activism. With an eye to the church’s protest at military funerals, she also considers why the public has responded so differently to these than to Westboro's anti-LGBT picketing.

With its history of Westboro Baptist Church and its founder, and its profiles of defectors, this book offers a complex, close-up view of a phenomenon on the fringes of American Christianity—and a broader, disturbing view of the mainstream theology it at once masks and reflects.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

The congregants thanked God that they weren’t like all those hopeless people outside the church, bound for hell. So the Westboro Baptist Church’s Sunday service began, and Rebecca Barrett-Fox, a curious observer, wondered why anyone would seek spiritual sustenance through other people’s damnation. It is a question that piques many a witness to Westboro’s more visible activity—the “GOD HATES FAGS” picketing of funerals. In God Hates, sociologist Barrett-Fox takes us behind the scenes of Topeka’s Westboro Baptist Church. The first full ethnography of this infamous presence on America’s Religious Right, her book situates the church’s story in the context of American religious history—and reveals as much about the uneasy state of Christian practice in our day as it does about the workings of the Westboro Church and Fred Phelps, its founder.

God Hates traces WBC’s theological beliefs to a brand of hyper-Calvinist thought reaching back to the Puritans—an extreme Calvinism, emphasizing predestination, that has proven as off-putting as Westboro’s actions, even for other Baptists. And yet, in examining Westboro’s role in conservative politics and its contentious relationship with other fundamentalist activist groups, Barrett-Fox reveals how the church’s message of national doom in fact reflects beliefs at the core of much of the Religious Right’s rhetoric. Westboro’s aggressively offensive public activities actually serve to soften the anti-gay theology of more mainstream conservative religious activism. With an eye to the church’s protest at military funerals, she also considers why the public has responded so differently to these than to Westboro's anti-LGBT picketing.

With its history of Westboro Baptist Church and its founder, and its profiles of defectors, this book offers a complex, close-up view of a phenomenon on the fringes of American Christianity—and a broader, disturbing view of the mainstream theology it at once masks and reflects.

More books from University Press of Kansas

Cover of the book Making Rocky Mountain National Park by Rebecca Barrett-Fox
Cover of the book Leadership in American Politics by Rebecca Barrett-Fox
Cover of the book Transforming the University of Kansas by Rebecca Barrett-Fox
Cover of the book The U.S. Constitution and Secession by Rebecca Barrett-Fox
Cover of the book The Presidency of John F. Kennedy by Rebecca Barrett-Fox
Cover of the book Abraham Lincoln and White America by Rebecca Barrett-Fox
Cover of the book Fighting Means Killing by Rebecca Barrett-Fox
Cover of the book By Order of the President by Rebecca Barrett-Fox
Cover of the book Beyond the Borders of the Law by Rebecca Barrett-Fox
Cover of the book Nixon's Nuclear Specter by Rebecca Barrett-Fox
Cover of the book The First Presidential Contest by Rebecca Barrett-Fox
Cover of the book Getting Physical by Rebecca Barrett-Fox
Cover of the book President Obama by Rebecca Barrett-Fox
Cover of the book The Presidents and the Poor by Rebecca Barrett-Fox
Cover of the book Jacqueline Kennedy by Rebecca Barrett-Fox
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy