God Hates Fags: The Rhetorics of Religious Violence (Sexual Cultures) (Paperback)

~ Michael Cobb (Author)
Key Phrases: religious hate speech, church sex scandals, racial civil rights, United States, African American, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Michael Cobb raises questions of both ethics and effectiveness that are deeply urgent. If you, too, want to know how the rhetorics of violence that swirl around queer people work, then read this book."

- Janet R. Jakobsen, co-author of Love the Sin: Sexual Regulation and the Limits of Religious Tolerance

”[Cobb] begins not only in the middle of still fresh news (Matthew Shepard, Fred Phelps, Colorado’s Amendment 2, and the marriage debates), but in the middle of ordinary assumptions about rhetoric and our east elision of sexuality with race.”

- Journal of the American Academy of Religion.”

“God Hates Fags is an exciting, even exceptional, book, and it will contribute to an important and necessary conversation between queer studies and African American literary and cultural studies.”

- Christopher Nealon, author of Foundlings: Lesbian and Gay Historical Emotion Before Stonewall

”I am moved by it, as by his practiced rhetorical sensibility.”

- Journal of the American Academy of Religion

“Looks specifically at texts and spectacles about religious violence and hatred.”
- Julie Novkov, University at Albany, SUNY

Product Description

2007 Choice Outstanding Academic Title

At the funeral of Matthew Shepard—the young Wyoming man brutally murdered for being gay—the Reverend Fred Phelps led his parishioners in protest, displaying signs with slogans like "Matt Shepard rots in Hell," "Fags Die God Laughs," and "God Hates Fags." In counter-protest, activists launched an "angel action," dressing in angel costumes, with seven-foot high wings, and creating a visible barrier so one would not have to see the hateful signs.

Though long thought of as one of the most virulently anti-gay genres of contemporary American politics and culture, in God Hates Fags, Michael Cobb maintains that religious discourses have curiously figured as the most potent and pervasive forms of queer expression and activism throughout the twentieth century. Cobb focuses on how queers have assumed religious rhetoric strategically to respond to the violence done against them, alternating close readings of writings by James Baldwin, Tennessee Williams, Jean Toomer, Dorothy Allison, and Stephen Crane with critical legal and political analyses of Supreme Court Cases and anti-gay legislation. He also pays deep attention to the political strategies, public declarations, websites, interviews, and other media made by key religious right organizations that have mounted the most successful regulations and condemnations of homosexuality.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 229 pages
• Publisher: NYU Press (June 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814716695
• ISBN-13: 978-0814716694
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #282,559 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #93 in	Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Special Groups > Gay Men
  #98 in	Books > Religion & Spirituality > Religious Studies > Gender & Sexuality

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Questioning Ethics and Effectiveness, May 29, 2008

By	Amos Lassen (Little Rock, Arkansas) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: God Hates Fags: The Rhetorics of Religious Violence (Sexual Cultures Series) (Hardcover)

Cobb. Michael. "God Hates Fags", NYU Press, 2006.

Questioning Ethics and Effectiveness

Amos Lassen

Michael Cobb's "God Hates Fags' may be small in size but is a very big book and makes a huge contribution to the field of gay studies. Cobb raises questions that are not only important but urgent. He explores the violence that surrounds the GLBT community and his sense of rhetoric is both sensible and practical.
Cobb looks at the funeral of Matthew Shepard as one of the turning points in the history of our community and further maintains that the discourses of religion are part of what has brought about gay activism and expression in these times. He shows how gay people have taken on the rhetoric of the religious and used it as a response to the violence that it has caused. He looks into American literature and at cases of the Supreme Court as well as anti-gay legislation to prove this. He also looks closely at other issues such as websites and interviews, public announcements and political strategies as he takes us through the anti-gay history in this country. He especially explores the organizations of the religious right and shows how it has mounted regulations against gays that have been successful as well as its condemnations of the homosexual lifestyle.
Let me say that this is not an easy read and I found it particularly painful but it is to the point. I an observant Jewish gay male who has had his share of prejudice but I have managed to rise above it. Cobb, intellectually and academically, looks at the hatred we have all felt and shows us connections that are not always visible to the average lay person.
"God Hates Fags" is a very important book that everyone who wants to understand the nature of hate should read. Hatred, intolerance, and bigotry have no place in the world today and the only way to abolish it, it to learn about from where it comes.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book on the anti-homosexual religious movement, January 26, 2007

By	Karen "Karen" (Colorado) - See all my reviews

This is not a breezy read. Michael Cobb's writing is dense and academic, but so very dead on. His research is vaste and deep and he delves into the history of the anti-gay movement with passion and detail. He makes connections that would not have been visible to any lay person. This should be read by every activist, every member of any gay, straight alliance group, every parent, every Christian, every Democrat, every Republican.... who wants a deeper and more intellectual look at the roots of violence, hatred and bigotry against the new minority.