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Gospel According to the Klan: The KKK's Appeal to Protestant America, 1915-1930 (Culture America) Hardcover – September 20, 2011

by Kelly J. Baker (Author)

4 customer reviews

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To many Americans, modern marches by the Ku Klux Klan may seem like a throwback to the past or posturing by bigoted hatemongers. To Kelly Baker, they are a reminder of how deeply the Klan is rooted in American mainstream Protestant culture.

Most studies of the KKK dismiss it as an organization of racists attempting to intimidate minorities and argue that the Klan used religion only as a rhetorical device. Baker contends instead that the KKK based its justifications for hatred on a particular brand of Protestantism that resonated with mainstream Americans, one that employed burning crosses and robes to explicitly exclude Jews and Catholics.

To show how the Klan used religion to further its agenda of hate while appealing to everyday Americans, Kelly Baker takes readers back to its "second incarnation" in the 1920s. During that decade, the revived Klan hired a public relations firm that suggested it could reach a wider audience by presenting itself as a "fraternal Protestant organization that championed white supremacy as opposed to marauders of the night." That campaign was so successful that the Klan established chapters in all forty-eight states.

Baker has scoured official newspapers and magazines issued by the Klan during that era to reveal the inner workings of the order and show how its leadership manipulated religion, nationalism, gender, and race. Through these publications we see a Klan trying to adapt its hate-based positions with the changing times in order to expand its base by reaching beyond a narrowly defined white male Protestant America.

This engrossing expos looks closely at the Klan's definition of Protestantism, its belief in a strong relationship between church and state, its notions of masculinity and femininity, and its views on Jews and African Americans. The book also examines in detail the Klan's infamous 1924 anti-Catholic riot at Notre Dame University and draws alarming parallels between the Klan's message of the 1920s and current posturing by some Tea Party members and their sympathizers.

Analyzing the complex religious arguments the Klan crafted to gain acceptability—and credibility—among angry Americans, Baker reveals that the Klan was more successful at crafting this message than has been credited by historians. To tell American history from this startling perspective demonstrates that some citizens still participate in intolerant behavior to protect a fabled white Protestant nation.

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Editorial Reviews

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"But Baker seems closer to the mark when she says that there's a dark strain of bigotry and exclusion running through the national experience. Sometimes it seems to weaken. And sometimes it spreads, as anyone who reads today's papers knows, fed by our fears and our hatreds."--The New York Times

"[A] brave new book. Baker has exposed something about American cultural history that many of us may not wish to see: namely, that both religion and mainstream society participate in the ugly, even violent, side of American nationalism"--Religion Nerd

"An important contribution to Klan scholarship that gives sustained attention to the centrality of Protestant Christianity in the construction of the movement's identity."--Rory McVeigh, author ofThe Rise of the Ku Klux Klan: Right-Wing Movements and National Politics

"[W]ell-written, persuasively argued book...Her suggestion that the Klan's intertwining of nationalism and religion makes it part of the lineage of the American Right is particularly provocative, and sure to stimulate some heated discussion. Highly recommended. -- S. McCloud, Choice

"While this book covers much familiar territory, it contains many original insights and evaluations that make it an important contribution to historical studies and deserving of a wide audience."--Al Menendez, Voice of Reason

From the Back Cover

"A splendid book--a major contribution to a rethinking of twentieth-century American religious history and to the history of American intolerance. Baker's compelling study places religion, specifically white Protestantism, squarely at the heart of the 1920s Ku Klux Klan in a way that no other author has done."--Paul Harvey, author of Freedom's Coming: Religious Culture and the Shaping of the South from the Civil War through the Civil Rights Era

"An original and sobering work. In the present age, when we may no longer pretend that the lines between violent fanaticism and religious fervor are clearly discernible, this book makes a timely and urgent intervention. Hatred may have more to do with religion than we care to acknowledge."--David Morgan, author of Protestants and Pictures: Religion, Visual Culture, and the Age of American Mass Production

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Product Details

Hardcover: 342 pages
Publisher: University Press of Kansas; First Edition edition (September 20, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0700617922
ISBN-13: 978-0700617920
Product Dimensions: 1 x 6.5 x 9.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #958,062 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1403 in Books > History > World > Religious > Religion, Politics & State
- #1524 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Religious Studies > Church & State
- #1580 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Specific Demographics > Minority Studies

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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

best book on religion and the Klan

By Edward J. Blum on January 26, 2012

Format: Hardcover

This is an outstanding book that takes the religious worldview created by the 1920s Ku Klux Klan seriously. By investigating everything from how the Klan thought about the Bible and American history to the robes they wore and their considerations of masculinity and femininity, religious studies scholar Kelly Baker presents the KKK as a religious movement. It may not be a religious movement we like; it may not be one we agree with, but it created beliefs about race, nation, the Bible, Protestantism, and gender that were meaningful for its people. Anyone interested in religion and American culture should take a loko at this book.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

A well-researched and written perspective

By R. L. White on August 21, 2012

Format: Hardcover

Many books on the Klan and have dismissed them as a rednecked organization that intimidated poor, insecure Jewish and Catholic immigrants. Baker's work reopens the discussion with a look at how the Klan based its actions in religious beliefs of many well-educated, mainstream Americans. This text is a must-read for anyone looking for a well-researched and well-written book on the topic.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

And just when you thought it was safe to walk down the street

By C. Wagner on March 27, 2013

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

A decidedly white Protestant (not liberal Protestant) organization strived to protect America from immigrants, Catholics, and other minorities while rewriting history to suit its needs. KKK demanded more God in public education and railed against religious schools, which did not meet its needs threshold and prided itself on good works. Also advocated were the protection of white women's virtue and growing youth into mature "real" Americans.
This book is somewhat of a slow read and specifically covers a brief time period. However, the final chapter "Passing the torch" makes it all worthwhile. Are surviving splinter groups still maintaining political power? Have the ideals of the twentieth century Klan been absorbed into various twenty-first century political and religious units? This is all interesting stuff, and I am not going to tell you the author's conclusion. You will have to buy the book and read for yourself. I just will say these few pages leave a great deal to think about.
Readers may also be interested in "Citizen Klansman" by Leonard Joseph Moore and "Klansville, U.S.A." by David Cunningham.

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1 of 12 people found the following review helpful

Prejudices spewed by author distort Klan message

By B. Bootheel on September 5, 2013

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

Kelly J. Baker is a college professor and this book seems to be an attempt to appease her academic cohorts with liberal platitudes and unkind judgments on an "unsavory" group of people. On page 31 she states her aspirations for the book: “I attempt to re-create the religious lives of dead Klansmen and Klanswomen….To see through the eyes of members and leaders clarifies their understanding of religion, nation, race, and gender.” Lofty goals indeed, but Baker limits her primary research to printed issues of THE KOURIER. This flaw is poor methodology as THE KOURIER was not read by most of the rank-and-file members. Also, she approached the subject with rigid pre-conceived ideas and only sought printed materials that agreed with her prejudices. For instance, Baker ignores, either by choice or ignorance, Bishop Alma White’s: THE KKK IN PROPHECY, and the vast number of Klan historical articles in newspapers and journals of Alabama and Tennessee . Most Klansmen were members of a Baptist, Methodist, or Presbyterian church. That is the source of their beliefs, not via the printed mail.

Hooded Klan ambassadors visited local churches, donated offerings, and even cut wood for widows and orphans (black and white). Klan leaders strengthened members’ beliefs by using Christian motifs such as the cross, prayers, public naturalizations in their meetings and events. The Klan ritual and meaningful emblems were important to Klan members in the 1920’s for they faced a dramatically changing America: the move from rural to urban society, from agricultural to industrial economy, challenges to traditional religion from modernism and social gospel, and new waves of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe.Read more ›

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