One prominent theologian calls Topeka’s Westboro Baptist Church “arguably the most obnoxious Protestant congregation in American religious history.” It is known for its “God Hates” slogan and all-be-damned picketing of funerals, scenes of national tragedy, and other sites and occasions of church members’ choosing.

In a discussion of her new book God Hates: Westboro Baptist Church, American Nationalism, and the Religious Right, Arkansas State University sociologist Rebecca Barrett-Fox goes inside the church and its hyper-Calvinist ideology. She makes a case that the Westboro movement isn’t so distanced from more mainstream segments of today’s religious right, where tragedy is commonly attributed to God’s ability to punish sin.

Barrett-Fox is a visiting assistant professor of sociology and director of the Women and Gender Studies Program at Arkansas State.