Landover Baptist Church

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The Landover Baptist Church is a web site that serves as the home of a fictional^[1] Baptist church based in the fictional town of Freehold, Iowa. The Landover Baptist site and its associated Landoverbaptist.net forum are a parody of fundamentalist Christianity and the Religious Right in the USA, and of Westboro Baptist Church in particular.

The site was created by Chris Harper^[2], who obtained his Master's Degree in English Literature from George Mason University in 1993 after being expelled from Liberty University in 1989 for producing a satirical radio show which Liberty's administration found offensive.^[3] The site is owned by a company called Americhrist, Ltd.

Landover Baptist: "Where the worthwhile worship. Unsaved unwelcome!"

1 Protests of the site
2 Parodies of the Church
3 Book
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Protests of the site

The site has raised the ire of several diverse Christian groups (mainly the targets of the sarcasm of the Landover Baptist Site). These various groups are advocating different methods of protesting or shutting down the site including petitioning various places (such as the web site's ISP) to have them shut down or put on blocking or filtering lists, or trying to get the government to shut it down as a hate speech site.^[4]

[edit] Parodies of the Church

Political satirist Chris Harper frequently appears at Atheist conventions, where he pokes fun at Landover Baptist Church by doing impressions of Pastor Deacon Fred Smith.^[5]

Harper's satire is often so effective, that many people assume that Chris Harper and Pastor Deacon Fred are the same person.^[6]

[edit] Book

The first book from Landover Baptist writers was released on September 15, 2006 from Time Warner Books. It is called Welcome to Jesusland (Formerly the United States of America): Shocking Tales of Depravity, Sex, and Sin Uncovered by God's Favorite Church, Landover Baptist.