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 Sundayservice 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 infamouspresence 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 theologicalbeliefs to a brand of
hyper-Calvinist thought reaching back to the Puritans-an
extremeCalvinism, 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
moremainstream conservative religious activism. With an eye to the
church's protest at military funerals, she also considers why
thepublic has responded so differently to these than to Westboro's
anti-LGBT picketing.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.
General
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