Education

Professor backs statement that God is racist, says ‘I have tenure. I can’t get fired’

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Robby Soave Reporter
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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 — worship 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.”

Rush Limbaugh did not take kindly to Butler’s assertion that his God was not the biblical one.

“All we did was react to what this professor said in her rage and her anger,” he said on his radio show. “But then she flips everybody off: you can’t do anything about it because I have tenure. Anyway, I don’t know how much you spend to send your kids to this school, but it’s a waste of money if your kid’s taking a course taught by this woman.”

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