"We Need Something Different": Understanding Westboro Baptist Church’s Ministry of Rebuke through Empathic Research Methods
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. Convers...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Wiley-Blackwell
[2020]
|
In: |
Journal of religious ethics
Year: 2020, Volume: 48, Issue: 2, Pages: 247-277 |
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Westboro Baptist Church
/ Provocation
/ Interview
/ Listening
/ Empathy
/ Moral judgment
/ Rejection of
|
RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy AG Religious life; material religion CA Christianity KBQ North America KDG Free church NCC Social ethics |
Further subjects: | B
Westboro Baptist Church
B Listening B comparative religious ethics B Empathy |
Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
Summary: | 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. |
---|---|
ISSN: | 1467-9795 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of religious ethics
|
Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/jore.12308 |