The incredible @AntheaButler (@Penn), one of the most exciting historians of religion working, is at @PrincetonCSR talking about her amazing new book White Evangelical Racism
The book, Prof. Butler tells us, came out of a frustration with the one-sided, uncritical narrative of evangelical Christianity in contemporary America that is all too current in the public discourse
Our wonderful interlocutor, @wmstell, invites Prof. Butler to comment on whether the critique of racism is separable from the theological doctrines, esp. relating to the Bible. Short answer: no, because of the racialized hermeneutics and Eurocentric theologies at work
@AntheaButler makes a mind-blowing move in reading white evangelical ideology through Lee Atwater and the way he schooled conservatism to dodge the overt racism and dog-whistle their way to victory, which she argues deeply influenced how evangelicals talk about morality and race
On the importance of critiquing color blindness: “if you don’t see color then you see white.” I am going to be thinking about that forever
The discussion from @AntheaButler about the ethics of how to simultaneously critique and engage with historical figures, in this case prominent black evangelical critics, should be required listening for all historians
@wmstell asks about efforts to “redeem” evangelicalism and its history through invocations of either social justice evangelicalism or evangelicals of color worldwide
Prof. Butler points out that the global exportation of American and American-style evangelicalism means that you really can’t escape it’s problems by looking elsewhere
And now William surfaces something I have been wondering this time: how Prof. Butler’s work speaks to @kkdumez’s (amazing) Jesus and John Wayne, and vice-versa
A brilliant observation from @wmstell explicating the “immorality” that is white evangelicalism’s bugbear as the demise of white Christian nationalism
Prof. Butler: this is an ongoing story. She speaks with amazing eloquence about the present-ness of all the historical patterns she explores in the book. She moreover mounts a searing critique of how contemporary evangelicalism deals with #BlackLivesMatter
“If anybody thought that this was about trump, this isn’t about trump. This is what this country has always been about. “ —@AntheaButler
To a question about QAnon, @AntheaButler just blew my mind connecting it to the epistemological individualism of evangelicalism. “Read the text and decide for yourself” compounded with a dumbing down: the retreat of, eg, intelligent design & creation science
Something left on the cutting room floor? “A lot of Palin...” plus material on how Christianity Today dealt with issues of race
If the book had been scholarly, what would be different? “Tear up Calvinism” @AntheaButler please please please write that book!
Wonderful discussion on the potential of writing books deliberately for small-group discussion. Now a question about the mainline Protestant denominations. “There’s a racism story to tell in the mainline, too, I just didn’t touch it.”
Prof. Butler speaking on how much her work is in dialogue with @robertpjones’s work on the end of white Christianity
Now a question from yours truly on prison ministries: huge entanglement between evangelicalism and mass incarceration, a competition between them and the Nation of Islam. A captive mission field that was a natural outgrowth for the movement
End of white Christian America, apologies, got that wrong, my phone is dying 😬
On the reaction from evangelical readers: people are writing to @AntheaButler asking for help, with all kinds of issues. The title is self-selecting, people choose to see the book as an opinion piece
Fascinating question about where Asian American evangelicalism fits in the story, which is very much part of the racialized performance of Christian identity and the missionary story w/i evangelicalism
Question inviting @AntheaButler to speak on the different approach to individualism in black churches and black theologians: “evangelicals think about the individual because they’re not having to deal with structural racism”
Final question from @wmstell on what was new in the bush/Obama years: nationalism and islamophobia had always been there, but it was brought to the fore in a new and more explicitly political way
Thank you so much Prof. @AntheaButler, @wmstell, and @PrincetonCSR for one of the best discussions I’ve heard in a LONG time!
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
