Review: White Evangelical Racism

 White Evangelical Racism
Anthea Butler
University of North Carolina Press, 2021
176 pages

Summary via Goodreads: The American political scene today is poisonously divided, and the vast majority of white evangelicals plays 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...

One of the things that confuses secular Americans the most is how the evangelical crowd can vote for Donald Trump when he is the antithesis of everything the Christian religion supposedly stands for. How can someone who believes in the teachings of Christ first and foremost, vote for a thrice married adulterer, alleged child rapist, liar, etc., etc.. I know it certainly has been a dichotomy that has been turning over in my head for the past four years. Enter Anthea Butler who has succinctly explained how this came to be and, while many presume the reason is simply abortion, there are actually more layers and quite a history that has lead to where we are now. The underlying reason evangelicals are this way? Racism. 

It's so easy for modern evangelicals to balk when being accused of racism, but how many of them accurately know where their movement has come from? I would wager not many. Thankfully for those of us who have been hung up on this issue for awhile, Butler lays out for us in a very succinct manner how evangelicalism adopted racism for its benefit since slavery and how it grew after the second reiteration of the Klan in 1915. 

Many people know that when Trump and other Republicans talk about "law and order" they are using a dog whistle for anti-blackness. It seemed evident to me when this phrase first hit my radar during the protests this past summer, but how did that phrase become such a dog whistle? This was one of the most eye opening parts of the book to me, along with the rise of Billy Graham and how he ties in with anticommunist sentiments which then morphed into racist sentiments. Graham, Hoover, the Red Scare, an evangelical fear of end times... it seems they all combined to create this everlasting racism.

Butler also demonstrates how evangelicals became politically entwined with the Republican party, to the point today where, in my mind, it is impossible to separate the two. I would urge you to read this book even if it were just for this section because it shows how a minority of Americans have been able to leverage their vote and win presidential elections as a result. Butler argues that George W. Bush was the first to benefit from this and how it has grown. A look at almost any evangelical/fundamentalist Instagram or Facebook account shows they are falling for the conspiracy theories spouted by Trump, who they seem to think is second to Christ but indeed act as if he is first. Even knowing how they arrived there, it still blows my mind.

On a side note, this section reminded me of something important. In the age of Trumpism, it's easy to look back at George W.'s administration and think, "Well, maybe it wasn't as bad as I thought," but if you take the time (for a two minute Google search, even)  you can easily find examples of disgusting, racist behavior on the behalf of the former president. We have to insist that the bar has not moved. We cannot dismiss the awful behavior of other Republicans because "at least they're not as bad as Trump." Trump should be the extreme, not the bar between okay and not okay.

I want to thank Butler for taking the time and putting in the work to write this book because it answers several questions many of us have had about the religious voting bloc. I would encourage you to read this succinct and timely book, it won't take more than a few hours, and in the end you'll have at least some of the answers you may have been looking for.  If you are evangelical, Butler also writes directly to you at the end of the book. While it's unlikely evangelicals will read the book, they ought to. They know they are accused of racism and it's time for them to learn why and grow from it. Well, one can dream. 

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an advanced copy to read.

PS: Butler mentions the Lost Cause a few times in her book, but if you're looking for more about the Lost Cause and its racist and religious ties, I highly suggest the recent book The False Cause: Fraud, Fabrication, and White Supremacy in Confederate Memory by Adam H. Domby.