She maintains that using scripture to rationalize inequality and violence allowed racism and white supremacy to become a permanent part of evangelicalism. Despite giving a perfunctory but obligatory concession of evangelical contributions to the abolitionist movement and support for blacks during Reconstruction, Butler is fixated on evangelical support for slavery, the Lost Cause, Jim Crow and the extrajudicial practice of lynching. To recapitulate the religious and theological justifications for the appalling treatment of blacks, in contrast with the religious and theological justifications for how blacks should have been treated, is regrettable.īut the astute observer uses history – good and bad – instructively.īutler begins with nineteenth century evangelicalism. It avidly highlights periods in American history – slavery, Reconstruction, segregation and post-segregated America – where evangelicals missed opportunities to personify the true teachings of Jesus (and Christianity) toward American blacks. Her book, White Evangelical Racism, provides a concise, readable, but one-sided historical account of American evangelicalism. After George Zimmerman was found not guilty for murdering Trayvon Martin in 2013, Butler wrote at Religion Dispatches that America’s god is “a white racist god with a problem” that is likely “carrying a gun and stalking young black men.”
White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America is Anthea Butler’s contribution to this trend.īutler is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Some of these books include The Color of Compromise, Good White Racist?, Jesus and John Wayne, and White Lies. To denounce white evangelicals for being the source and cause of everything wrong in America – particularly with respect to racial issues – has become a pretentious trend.Īccordingly, prodigious efforts have resulted in numerous articles and books written to amplify and reinforce the indictment that white evangelicals are inveterately racist. White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America (2021)
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