A Black scholar’s challenge to White evangelicals

I distinctly remember my Introduction to Church Doctrine course at a well-known evangelical Bible college. The professor handed out the syllabus to a classroom filled with wide-eyed freshmen eager to see which theologians we would study throughout the semester. I scanned the pages and noticed that there was not a single author of color listed. As the professor clicked through a presentation of the theologians we would read, my suspicion was confirmed: each slide contained a white man, often sporting a long beard and a scholarly cap. I wondered if evangelical theology was uninfluenced, unaffected, and unconcerned with non-White experience, with my experience.

Anthea Butler answers that question with a bold yet somber, “Yes!” In White evangelical spaces, she argues, the experiences and concerns of non-White folks are often unseen, unheard, and unrepresented.

White Evangelical Racism is an excellent and scathing critique of American evangelicalism. Butler argues that racism is not a bug in the system of evangelicalism but rather a distinctive feature of the tradition. As a person of color invested deeply in the redemption and reformation of American evangelicalism, reading Butler’s brief history brought me through a range of emotions: anger, gladness, fury, joy, sadness, hope. The text bears the scars of Butler’s experience as a former evangelical, a story which she includes in the book. Her historical analysis does not claim to be detached from her own story—it is, rather, deeply personal and experiential.