Prof. who called God racist cites tenure ‘I can’t get fired’
We recently covered Professor Anthea Butler’s disgraceful remarks in which she called God a white racist.
According to a new report from Robby Soave at The Daily Caller, she’s not backing down.
Professor backs statement that God is racist, says ‘I have tenure. I can’t get fired’
Anthea Butler, the Ivy League religious studies professor who called God a white racist after the Trayvon Martin verdict last week, doubled down on her statement and denounced the conservative media outlets that criticized her.
Butler, an associate professor of religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote a blog post for Religious Dispatches last week arguing that most Americans worship a “white racist god with a problem” who is “carrying a gun and stalking young black men.”
“As a historian of American and African-American religion, I know that the Trayvon Martin moment is just one moment in a history of racism in America that, in large part, has its underpinnings in Christianity and its history,” she wrote.
Conservative commentators criticized these remarks, but Butler hit back hard recently during a panel discussion at the Harlem Book Fair.
“I wrote an op-ed in the religion dispatches magazine this week about America’s racist god,” she said. “I got attacked by the right. I got attacked by Fox, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh — I’m saying all you all’s names out loud — Daily Caller.”
She said that the pundits at these media outlets — including The Daily Caller — a different god than the biblical Christian God.
“I was coming after their god,” she said. “I was not coming after the God of the scriptures, the God that we know, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I was coming after the god they worship, Mammon; the god they worship, racism; the god they worship, white supremacy.”
Butler also expressed gratitude to her tenure status at UPenn, which protects her from being fired no matter how many controversial statements she makes.
“Thank God I got a great institution that takes care of me,” she said. “I have tenure. I can’t get fired.”
Professor backs statement that God is racist, says ‘I have tenure. I can’t get fired’ (The Daily Caller)