White Evangelical Racism
The Politics of Morality in America
Anthea Butler
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Published: 02/2021
Pages: 176
Subject: Social Science, Political Science, Religion, History
Print ISBN: 9781469661179
eBook ISBN: 9781469661186
DESCRIPTION
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, Anthea Butler answers that racism
is at the core of conservative evangelical activism and power.
Butler reveals how evangelical racism, propelled by the benefits of whiteness, has since the nation's founding played a provocative role in severely fracturing the electorate. During the buildup to the Civil War, white evangelicals used scripture to defend slavery and nurture the Confederacy. During Reconstruction, they used it to deny the vote to newly emancipated blacks. In the twentieth century, they sided with segregationists in avidly opposing movements for racial equality and civil rights. Most recently, evangelicals supported the Tea Party, a Muslim ban, and border policies allowing family separation. White evangelicals today, cloaked in a vision of Christian patriarchy and nationhood, form a staunch voting bloc in support of white leadership. Evangelicalism's racial history festers, splits America, and needs a reckoning now.
Butler reveals how evangelical racism, propelled by the benefits of whiteness, has since the nation's founding played a provocative role in severely fracturing the electorate. During the buildup to the Civil War, white evangelicals used scripture to defend slavery and nurture the Confederacy. During Reconstruction, they used it to deny the vote to newly emancipated blacks. In the twentieth century, they sided with segregationists in avidly opposing movements for racial equality and civil rights. Most recently, evangelicals supported the Tea Party, a Muslim ban, and border policies allowing family separation. White evangelicals today, cloaked in a vision of Christian patriarchy and nationhood, form a staunch voting bloc in support of white leadership. Evangelicalism's racial history festers, splits America, and needs a reckoning now.
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