Professors featured on a recent panel hosted by the University of Virginia claimed that evangelical Christians are white racists who “may end up killing us all.”
“If evangelicals don’t change, they pose an existential crisis to us all,” said University of Pennsylvania professor Anthea Butler. “They are part and parcel of the reason why we cannot move forward, because they say they have religious beliefs.”
“And because they are being selfish and because they don’t care, their racism, their sexism, their homophobia, their lack of belief in science, lack of belief and common sense may end up killing us all,” Butler added.
During the panel, titled, “White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America,” Butler also claimed that “evangelicals are willing to die for whiteness.”
“And it’s not just about health care or guns or anything else. They are willing to die to be white,” the professor continued.
“When people say to you, ‘I don’t see color, I see what Jesus season you,’ that really actually means that they just see white,” Butler added.
University of Virginia professor Larycia Hawkins also chimed in, claiming that the lost cause of the Confederacy is alive and well among white evangelical Christians today.
“I think that a strong and compelling argument can be made, that it’s not just a lost cause, a narrative that still animates white evangelical Christianity wherever it exists, whether it’s on the West Coast, in the south,” Hawkins said.
“I lived in Chicago for 10 years and I came away telling my friends, upon reflection — the Midwest is Confederate. In fact, America is Confederate,” the professor added.
“So deeply does white evangelicalism WASP religion penetrate the ethos and mythos of the United States,” Hawkins said.
The professor also argued that evangelical Christians are white supremacists, adding that it’s wrong to be entrepreneurial and patriotic.
“This is one of the things I hope we get to discuss more is this sense that American entrepreneurialism is woven through white evangelicalism, which is Americanism, which is patriotism,” Hawkins said.
“To be American is to be white, is to be Christian, at least modally, right,” she added. “And that it’s a winsome white racism that’s described here.”
The third panelist, University of Virginia professor Charles Mathewes, suggested that Butler’s book, White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America, helps explain why so many evangelical Christians voted for former President Donald Trump.
Butler is also no stranger to being in the headlines. In 2013, the professor faced backlash after calling God a “white racist.” In 2015, Butler made headlines again when she suggested that Dr. Ben Carson deserved a “‘coon of the year'” award.
Last year, Butler claimed the Vatican is trying to tell Catholics “to pay attention to the racism that is happening and the racism that is in your own church in America.”
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