A review by srbelflower
Gospel According to the Klan: The KKK's Appeal to Protestant America, 1915-1930 by Kelly J. Baker

5.0

I read this book for my Race and Religion in the United States class and it is by far the best book I have ever read for a class. The book drew a clear, well-argued connection between how contemporary American WASP religious values have been racialized directly due to the work and legacy of the Klan. One of my favorite parts was Baker's analysis of white womanhood's role in the growth of the Klan and its legacy, with the book going into important detail about white women's efforts during suffrage and beyond to assert white women as the privileged equals of white men in their racial pecking order. In a "colorblind" era it is important to understand how the Klan's values left such a deep rooted impact on WASP religious ideologies, using interpretations of scripture along with the legacy of colonialism and the rise of pseudoscience to assert that the Klan's vision for the world was what the Protestant Christian God had intended. Overall this is an excellent read for someone trying to understand how racism and xenophobia have become so deeply rooted in so many American's interpretation of Christianity.