“God Hates Your Feelings”: Neutralizing Emotional Deviance within the Westboro Baptist Church

Abstract

Drawing on individual and peer-group interviews, participant observations, and analysis of media content, we examine the habitual emotional deviance and neutralization techniques employed by the Westboro Baptist Church. We argue that their notoriety is attributed to their persistent, intentional, and unapologetic disregard for cultural feeling rules including incongruous emotional responses to events, fusion of culturally oppositional sentiments, and denigration of “sacred” groups and symbols. Interviews reveal that while claiming to embrace their deviant status, members engage in common neutralization techniques including denial of responsibility for the pain and discomfort they cause, appealing to higher loyalties, and denial of victimization.

Notes

¹ The GodSmack forum that focuses specifically on their reflections on tragic events that occur nationally and internationally that take the form of “tweets” on social media platform Twitter, replaced the epics—and the less current technology they relied on during the bulk of our time in the field.

² Although many of these were released after our key time frame, they were included in this research because they best mirror the narrative content that was provided by the epics (rationalizing their pickets and messages to current events).

³ Other exceptions noted include “Fag Lies” and “Fag Sin Fag Santa.”

⁴ See Barrett-Fox (2016) for a more detailed account of the group’s assumptions regarding tragedy and condemnation.

⁵ Interview data collected after the death of Fred Phelps Sr. indicates a shift toward the group harboring and/or promoting hatred and harm in recent years (Barrett-Fox 2016).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Todd Powell-Williams

TODD POWELL-WILLIAMS is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology, Criminal Justice, and Social Work at Augusta University. Dr. Powell-Williams’ scholarly interests include social movements and the social control of mobilization. At present, he continues work on his manuscript, Fuel to the Fire: social problems, social control, and the Westboro Baptist Church, which draws on over seven years of ethnographic work with WBC congregants.

Melissa Powell-Williams

MELISSA POWELL-WILLIAMS is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology, Criminal Justice and Social Work at Augusta University. Dr. Powell-Williams’ primary interest includes identity work in the areas of social movements, subcultures, policing, and organizations. She has published in the areas of domestic violence victim advocacy, the Deaf Culture Movement, and support for marriage equality.