Description:
This book places the theology and activism of Westboro Baptist Church in the context of American religious history and suggests that Westboro Baptist Church's message of national doom reflects a strand of thought that has always been present in American religion and that remains the source of much of the Religious Right's rhetoric, which is more threatening to democracy than are the uncivil pickets of Westboro Baptists.
Brief description:
Rebecca Barrett-Fox is
assistant professor of sociology and the director for Faculty Affairs in Kansas
State University's College of Technology and Aviation. In addition to God
Hates, she has published numerous articles on right-wing religion and
politics, gender and sexuality, and equity in higher education.
Review Quotes:
"God Hates is a disturbing book, not because it exposes the theology of hate and homophobia of Westboro Baptist Church--though it does so, powerfully and effectively. It is disturbing because it refuses to distance this church movement from more mainstream segments of the political and religious right. In this sensitive study, Rebecca Barrett-Fox reveals Westboro's theology of hate to be no less than the political and theological unconscious of the modern Christian Right itself--the less palatable but now fully visible heir to America's 'Puritan' legacy."--Anthony Petro, author of After the Wrath of God: AIDS, Sexuality, and American Religion
"Rebecca Barrett-Fox examines the infamous Westboro Baptist Church with thick ethnographic descriptions and an illuminating theological analysis that recognizes a shared ideology between these 'extremists' and some less reviled, more powerful Christian conservatives."--Carol Mason, author of Oklahomo: Lessons in Unqueering America