Curses Left and Right: Hate Speech and Biblical Tradition

Britt, Brian

doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfq020

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…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%

“…Numerous church communications explain or defend their varied rebuke efforts as do media interviews. Supplementing church communications with in‐depth research, scholars have analyzed some aspects of public rebuke efforts in terms of desecration, cursing, and rhetoric (Britt 2010; Brouwer and Hess 2007; Usera and Tracy 2009).…”

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: Using Empathy To Find Evidence Of Empathymentioning

confidence: 99%

“We Need Something Different”

Gray¹

2020

Journal of Religious Ethics

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“…In committing acts of overt desecration by invoking curses in public (Britt 2010), they stake a claim to moral superiority by refusing to show deference to others' conceptions of the sacred. A scene of desecration re-told by Shirley Phelps-Roper, a central leader of protests for the group, vividly conveys this strategy: So, about eight minutes into the picket I had gotten my army flag out and tied it on me.…”

Section: Desecrating Civil Religionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

2014

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“…In this opinion, Chief Justice Roberts notes that a critique of the secular modern state was at the heart of the protests, which falls within the domain of First Amendment protection. Brian Britt (2010) argues that Phelps and Westboro contest the separation between religious and secular spheres in American politics. The hate speech employed by the Westboro members (e.g., picket signs reading, "God Hates Fags" and "God Hates America") constitutes a form of religious rhetoric employed in the public sphere.…”

Section: Violent Speechmentioning

confidence: 99%

Islamophobia, Hateful Speech, and the Need to Practice Democratic Virtues

Dunn

2013

jhs

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This essay examines the relationship between hateful speech and its potential and realized harmful effects socially and politically vulnerable groups, particularly Muslims, in a democratic society. I critically evaluate the assumption that free speech is an absolute value of secularism and the corresponding definition of Muslims as religious "others" in European and American democratic culture. Instead of arguing strictly for the legal regulation of hateful speech, however, I contend that the cultivation of civic virtues-specifically charity and solidarity-may counteract the harmful effects of such speech, and can lend moral justification for the right of free speech.

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Curses Left and Right: Hate Speech and Biblical Tradition

Cited by 6 publications

References 2 publications

“We Need Something Different”

“We Need Something Different”

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

Islamophobia, Hateful Speech, and the Need to Practice Democratic Virtues

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