A Mirror for Evangelicals: Anthea Butler

The American political scene today is poisonously divided, and the vast majority of white evangelicals play a strikingly unified, powerful role in the disunion. These evangelicals raise a starkly consequential question for electoral politics: Why do they claim morality while supporting politicians who act immorally by most Christian measures?

In this clear-eyed, hard-hitting chronicle of American religion and politics, our guest Anthea Butler answers that racism is at the core of conservative evangelical activism and power.

Her recent book, White Evangelical Racism, moves with surgical precision, demonstrating the key moments and alliances between Evangelicalism, anti-Black racism, and White Nationalism, over the last hundred and fifty years. In the process, Dr. Butler lays bare the assumptions and excuses that are made for the involvement of Evangelicals in politics.

Anthea Butler is associate professor of religion at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of Women in the Church of God in Christ: Making a Sanctified World. A leading historian and public commentator on religion and politics, Butler has appeared on networks including CNN, BBC, and MSNBC and has published opinion pieces in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and many other media outlets.