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Joseph Laycock

Joseph Laycock is an assistant professor of religious studies at Texas State University. In addition to Speak of the Devil (Oxford University Press, 2020), his books include The Seer of Bayside: Veronica Lueken and the Struggle for Catholic Tradition (Oxford University Press, 2014) and Dangerous Games: What the Moral Panic Over Role-Playing Games Says About Religion, Play, and Imagined Worlds (University of California Press, 2015).

Articles

Religion Dispatches
For the past four years, Pastor Bill Dunfee of the New Beginnings Ministries Church has led his congregation in picketing The Foxhole, a tiny gentleman’s club in Warsaw, Ohio. Church members usually arrive at the Foxhole on weekends at 11:30pm, bearing signs, bullhorns, and cameras. While…
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Religion Dispatches
For two decades The Insane Clown Posse, a hip-hop group from Detroit, has cultivated an underground network of dedicated fans. The Posse, usually abbreviated to just “ICP,” consists of Shaggy 2 Dope and Violent J. Their musical stylings are known as “horrorcore” because…
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Religion Dispatches
He threatens criminals and undocumented immigrants with impalement but he has ‘Republican values.’ Jonathon ‘The Impaler’ Sharkey’s declaration that he will seek the Republican nomination for president is just another human interest story for the media. But what does it say that his rhetoric and positions don’t deviate appreciably from the current level of discourse?
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