White Evangelical Racism by Anthea Butler

The “others” Graham feared were communists, Catholics, and immigrants. In chapter 2, “Saving the Nation,” Butler explains how Billy Graham and his contemporaries “exemplified a kind of religion that combined Christianity, patriotism, and politics into a potent mix of respectability that was predicated on fear of the other” (33). Most of all, they would allow white evangelical leaders to justify their decision to keep the reins of religious, social, and political power in white men’s hands” (32). “The nineteenth-century racial practices of white supremacy and violence would affect how twentieth-century evangelical leadership engaged African Americans and their forthcoming quest for civil rights, justice, and full citizenship. She does just that, and begins by laying bare “The Racist Foundations of Evangelicalism in the Nineteenth Century” (chapter 1): “This book aims to tell the story evangelicals won’t,” she says (12). The belief that Christianity (i.e., whiteness) is the one and only correct path, ordained by God, has caused evangelicals to embrace structures and policies that are inherently racist, with the fervent belief that the “other” must assimilate and conform, shedding their non-Christian (i.e., non-white) identity in order to be in God’s favor.īutler recognizes that these aren’t easy truths for evangelicals to hear. She continues, “From using the Bible to support slavery to opposing the civil rights movement, integration, and interracial marriage, evangelicals have long employed a presumed moral authority to hide their prejudices” (8).Įvangelicals, Butler argues, have conflated Christianity and whiteness, which has allowed them to ignore racism (9). “Racism is a feature, not a bug, of American evangelicalism,” states Butler in her introduction (2). While some have argued that evangelical racism began in the Trump era, and have loudly cried, “Not all evangelicals!” Butler gives ample evidence that racism has always been a cornerstone of evangelicalism. Anthea Butler offers a succinct and compelling analysis of evangelicalism’s racist roots. In White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America, Dr. “Trump isn’t the reason why evangelicals turned to racism. Reckoning with Evangelicalism’s Racist HistoryĪ Review of White Evangelical Racism : The Politics of Morality in Americaīuy Now:

White Evangelical Racism by Anthea Butler