Desecration, Moral Boundaries, and the Movement of Law: The Case of Westboro Baptist Church

Baker, Joseph O.; Bader, Christopher D.; Hirsch, Kittye K.

doi:10.1080/01639625.2014.906282

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Rebuke is conveyed by parodies and attack sites on the internet. Rebuke is conveyed by the dozens of laws aimed to silence or deter the church (Powell‐Williams 2008; Baker et al 2015, 60). Individuals who encounter the pickets sometimes let loose more visceral expressions of hatred of the Church, such as shouting, insulting, and cursing them, not to mention physical assaults.…”

Section: Drawbacks To Conventional Responses To Westboro Baptist Churchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The WBC offers theological reasons for its social media and street ministry (Baker et al 2015, 49–52; Barrett‐Fox 2016; Britt 2010; Powell‐Williams 2008, 79–85). They are five‐point Calvinists who believe themselves to be God’s predestined elect.…”

Section: Drawbacks To Conventional Responses To Westboro Baptist Churchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…His sociological analysis examines their creation of a ritual space for pickets, ability to maintain internal controls on their message and members, and how they elicit social controls (for example, from legislatures) that increased with their activism. Another study of social controls (Baker et al 2015) focused on the Church’s desecration of symbols and transgression of boundaries. In ethnographic research, Barrett‐Fox wrestled with her relationship with the Church, seeing “empathy as a tool to achieve [comprehension]” and reflected on how, by feeling the pain of WBC’s targets, she was increasing her “capacity to care more for Westboro Baptists” (2011, 28).…”

Section: Using Nonjudgmental Empathy To Understand a Ministry Of Rebukementioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is a tight knit group, inwardly focused, if not entirely isolated, from a social standpoint. The WBC is also proud of its communal solidarity or “compactness” as a church, which it sees as reflecting New Testament times (Baker et al 2015, 44). But the empathy is not merely a byproduct of their social separation.…”

Section: Using Empathy To Find Evidence Of Empathymentioning

confidence: 99%

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“We Need Something Different”

Gray¹

2020

Journal of Religious Ethics

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This article examines responses to the controversial picketing and media‐savvy provocations of the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC). Since WBC’s conduct is widely perceived as cruel, people often respond with anger and animosity, which reinforce WBC’s self‐representation as a persecuted church. Conversely, I have engaged Westboro Baptists in interviews that function as “bridging conversations.” This methodology centers on critical‐empathic listening, comparative religious ethics, and a disciplined restraint from expressing moral judgment. I argue that this response is supported by the data and understandings obtained, metapragmatic commentary, my rapport with churchgoers, and evidence of their empathy. In conclusion, I gauge the methodology’s risks and consider its expansion, for example, with undergraduates who have joined our conversations. In an era of polarized discourse, nonjudgmental listening is a counter‐intuitive response that troubles entrenched binaries, including the public fashioning of WBC as a dehumanized enemy.

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Section: Drawbacks To Conventional Responses To Westboro Baptist Churchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Drawbacks To Conventional Responses To Westboro Baptist Churchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Using Nonjudgmental Empathy To Understand a Ministry Of Rebukementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Using Empathy To Find Evidence Of Empathymentioning

confidence: 99%

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“We Need Something Different”

Gray¹

2020

Journal of Religious Ethics

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“…After all, the United States is still quite a religious nation, which means their ideology has to have at least some religious elements. In the context of American civil religion, the military has a very important symbolic function (Baker et al 2014). Those who serve in the U.S. military are seen as the defenders of not only American values like freedom and democracy, but also Christianity; there is a double religious dimension.…”

Section: The Unsc and The Us Militarymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Dark of the Covenant: Christian Imagery, Fundamentalism, and the Relationship between Science and Religion in the Halo Video Game Series

Paulissen

2018

Religions

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What do a bionic supersoldier, space stations and religious fanaticism have in common? They are all vital elements of the plot in Halo, a series of first-person shooter games developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Games. One of the interesting things about Halo is that the developers made use of quite a number of religious images and themes, especially from the Christian tradition. In modern Western society, science and religion are often portrayed as polar opposites, and Halo appears to reaffirm this narrative. Yet it might still be interesting to look at how exactly this animosity is portrayed, and to see whether there is more to it. This paper is an inquiry into the significance of religious imagery and themes in Halo, as well as an attempt to place the game in the broader context of the geopolitical situation of its time. In short, this article is going to be a case study of how the relationship between science and religion can be explored through the medium of video games. For an overview of the current debate on how science and religion relate to one another in academia, I am going to look at the works of American physicist and scholar of religion Ian Barbour, American paleontologist and historian of science Stephen Gould, and British ethologist and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. To justify the academic study of videogames I will be drawing from the writings of Dutch cultural theologian Frank Bosman. The analysis itself will consist of a summary of the game's main story, its portrayal of religion on the one hand and its depiction of science on the other, and its representation of how these two fields relate to one another. In the conclusion, finally, I will connect the dots between the different parts of the analysis and provide an answer to the main question.

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References

2017

Dominance and Aggression in Humans and Other Animals

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Desecration, Moral Boundaries, and the Movement of Law: The Case of Westboro Baptist Church

Cited by 10 publications

References 31 publications

“We Need Something Different”

“We Need Something Different”

The Dark of the Covenant: Christian Imagery, Fundamentalism, and the Relationship between Science and Religion in the Halo Video Game Series

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