- American Religion, Law and Politics, Conservative Social and Political Movements, Sexuality and Gender, Sociology of Families, Ethnography, and 9 moreFirst Amendment Law (USA), American History, American Studies, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Religion, Radicalization, Cyberstudies, and Religion and Popular Cultureedit
- I serve as the Director of Faculty Affairs for K-State's Aerospace and Technology campus, where I am a faculty member... moreI serve as the Director of Faculty Affairs for K-State's Aerospace and Technology campus, where I am a faculty member in the social sciences. I research and write in the areas of American religion; sexuality and gender; hate groups and extremism; political, social, and economic conservatism; family; disasters, and COVID inequities.edit
a review of Lisa S. Shaver's Beyond the Pulpit: Women’s Rhetorical Roles in the Antebellum Religious Press
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A review of Alison Collis Greene's history of religion in the Mississippi and Arkansas Deltas during the Great Depression
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I walk into class on the first day, scanning my roster and my classroom for visible signs of difference—or lack thereof—that are likely to affect how my students relate to each other and to me, and that may shape how they approach,... more
I walk into class on the first day, scanning my roster and my classroom for visible signs of difference—or lack thereof—that are likely to affect how my students relate to each other and to me, and that may shape how they approach, engage, and use the material presented in the college classroom. I think deeply about the kinds of differences that are not visible yet are present—in sexual orientation, in family status, in invisible disabilities, and in other categories—and adopt a universal design for learning that seeks to meet the needs of all students, respectfully engaging them and supporting them in their studies. I teach explicitly about the community of the Rebecca Barrett-Fox is an assistant professor of sociology at Arkansas State University, where she directs Women and Gender Studies. She is the author of God Hates: Westboro Baptist Church, American Nationalism, and the Religious Right (University Press of Kansas, 2016) as well as numerous articles and chapters focusing on religion, hate and extremism, and sexuality and gender.
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an analysis of how women readers of Christian romance novels use the books in their own understandings of gender and gendered relationships, in _Romance Fiction and American Culture: Love as the Practice of Freedom?_ Edited by William... more
an analysis of how women readers of Christian romance novels use the books in their own understandings of gender and gendered relationships, in _Romance Fiction and American Culture: Love as the Practice of Freedom?_ Edited by William Gleason and Eric Selinger. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Press, 2016.
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Research Interests: Sociology of Religion, Religion and Politics, Religion and Sexuality, Politics and Religion, Evangelicalism, and 8 moreSociology of religion (Religion), Sociology of Sexuality, Religious Right, Conservative Christianity, Religious conservatism, Religious and Political Right-Extremism, Conservative Christian Culture, and LGBT Anti-discrimination
Research Interests: Welfare State, Conservatism (Political Science), Evangelicalism, Religion and Popular Culture, Religious Right, and 3 moreReligion and literature, film, media, and popular culture; global Christianity; postcolonial and cultural theory, Religious and Political Right-Extremism, and Popular Christianity
Feminist ethnographic methods stress the role of empathy for research subjects and researchers’ willingness for their work to be useful to their subjects. When the research subjects are “unloved groups,” though—people whose actions or... more
Feminist ethnographic methods stress the role of empathy for research subjects and researchers’ willingness for their work to be useful to their subjects. When the research subjects are “unloved groups,” though—people whose actions or beliefs are hateful or harmful—some ethnographers argue that such empathy and empowerment is misplaced or leads to uncritical scholarship. In this reflection on the author’s ethnographic study of Westboro Baptist Church, a small Kansas-based congregation infamous for preaching its anti-gay theology at funerals, including the funerals of fallen servicemen and -women, she questions the usefulness of denying an emotional connection with “hatemongers.” Instead, she argues for compassion for both the victims and, more challengingly, the
perpetrators of hate in order to protect researchers from the threat of desensitization.
perpetrators of hate in order to protect researchers from the threat of desensitization.
Research Interests: Ethnography, Ethnographic Fieldwork (Anthropology), Hate Crimes, Protest, Ethnography (Research Methodology), and 19 moreReflexivity (Sociology), Academic Emotions and Motivation, Ethnographic Methods, Ethnographic Studies, Amish, Hate Studies, Ethnographic & autoethnographic research, The Amish, School Shootings, Mass Shooting, School rampage shootings, Amish Culture, Amish funeral practive, Mass Shootings, LGBT Anti-discrimination, Reflexivity In Research, Amish and Anabaptist Studies, Amish and Mennonite Studies, and Amish Studies
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... more
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.
University Press of Kansas, 2016.
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.
University Press of Kansas, 2016.
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an analysis of how women readers of Christian romance novels use the books in their own understandings of gender and gendered relationships, in _Romance Fiction and American Culture: Love as the Practice of Freedom?_ Edited by William... more
an analysis of how women readers of Christian romance novels use the books in their own understandings of gender and gendered relationships, in _Romance Fiction and American Culture: Love as the Practice of Freedom?_ Edited by William Gleason and Eric Selinger. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Press, 2016.
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Research Interests: Sociology and Philosophy
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I walk into class on the first day, scanning my roster and my classroom for visible signs of difference—or lack thereof—that are likely to affect how my students relate to each other and to me, and that may shape how they approach,... more
I walk into class on the first day, scanning my roster and my classroom for visible signs of difference—or lack thereof—that are likely to affect how my students relate to each other and to me, and that may shape how they approach, engage, and use the material presented in the college classroom. I think deeply about the kinds of differences that are not visible yet are present—in sexual orientation, in family status, in invisible disabilities, and in other categories—and adopt a universal design for learning that seeks to meet the needs of all students, respectfully engaging them and supporting them in their studies. I teach explicitly about the community of the
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<p>This chapter identifies the doctrines that are central to conservative American Christians' interpretation of biblical texts. Such believers view their scriptures as inerrant, literal, divinely inspired, authoritative, easily... more
<p>This chapter identifies the doctrines that are central to conservative American Christians' interpretation of biblical texts. Such believers view their scriptures as inerrant, literal, divinely inspired, authoritative, easily understood, internally consistent, and coherent, a vision of the Bible that does not necessarily lead to conservative social and political views, even as those conservative Christians who participate in conservative politics insist that it must. Those who use conservative faith to justify conservative politics form the Religious Right, which seeks to form a "Bible-based" America, one in which a limited government promotes a strong international presence, free-market capitalism, and individual liberty. This chapter traces how the Religious Right promotes the Bible as the root of American law, a hierarchy that allows them to argue that all those in the United States, not merely conservative Christians, are under the authority of the Bible, creating a mandate for Christians to seek and maintain power.</p>
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Higher education has experienced pandemics and economic downturns over its long history. Recent events have invited comparisons to small pox scares, worldwide flu epidemics, and other moments of fear for student, faculty, and staff... more
Higher education has experienced pandemics and economic downturns over its long history. Recent events have invited comparisons to small pox scares, worldwide flu epidemics, and other moments of fear for student, faculty, and staff health. Campus leaders are nervously watching the bottom line while students and parents worry and contemplate different modes of learning, deciding whether they want to buy what colleges and universities can offer. Faculty, meanwhile, forged new sorts of relationships with their students during spring semester 2020 and wonder about how this environment might continue going forward. Among many in higher education, there is a sense that something has forever changed. For over a decade, we have talked about the differences between face-to-face and remote classes, debating their relative pedagogical and financial merits. With recent events blurring all forms of instruction into virtual classrooms and online assignments, Facebook pages and websites sprung up ...
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Religious right leaders and voters in the United States supported Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election for the same reason that all blocs vote as they do: They believed that the candidate offered them the best opportunity to... more
Religious right leaders and voters in the United States supported Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election for the same reason that all blocs vote as they do: They believed that the candidate offered them the best opportunity to protect and extend their power and create their preferred government. The puzzle of their support, then, is less why they chose Trump and more how they navigated the process of inserting Trump into their story of themselves as a “moral” majority. This self-understanding promotes and exploits feelings of entitlement, fear, resentment, and the desire to dominate to encourage political action. Because Trump’s speeches affirm these feelings, religious right voters were open to writing a plot twist in their story, casting Trump as a King Cyrus figure, as their champion if not a coreligionist. This article analyzes appeals to and expressions of entitlement, fear, resentment, and the desire to dominate from more than 60 sermons, speeches, and books by religio...
Exposure to hate material is related to a host of negative outcomes. Young people might be especially vulnerable to the deleterious effects of such exposure. With that in mind, this article examines factors associated with the frequency... more
Exposure to hate material is related to a host of negative outcomes. Young people might be especially vulnerable to the deleterious effects of such exposure. With that in mind, this article examines factors associated with the frequency that youth and young adults, ages 15 to 24, see material online that expresses negative views toward a social group. We use an online survey of individuals recruited from a demographically balanced sample of Americans for this project. Our analysis controls for variables that approximate online routines, social, political, and economic grievances, and sociodemographic traits. Findings show that spending more time online, using particular social media sites, interacting with close friends online, and espousing political views online all correlate with increased exposure to online hate. Harboring political grievances is likewise associated with seeing hate material online frequently. Finally, Whites are more likely than other race/ethnic groups to be e...