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Roy Krahn
5.0 out of 5 stars Whiteness is a prerequisite to Christianity.
Reviewed in Canada on 2 June 2021
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Ms Butler lays out the reasons that evangelicals are a political force to be reckoned with. The fact that racism plays such a vital role in evangelicalism gives credence to the idea that white evangelicals are 21st century 'pharisees.' As is the author, so am I from evangelical backgrounds. What she lays out in this book is an absolute reality. Whiteness is what we need to strive for. Everything else is inferior.
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Clear View
5.0 out of 5 stars Knowledge Seeker
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 March 2024
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This book provides food for thought. It is empowering and definitely worth purchasing.
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Royce Turner
5.0 out of 5 stars Thanks for opening my eyes
Reviewed in the United States on 22 February 2022
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It is a difficult thing to see these things happening & wonder why other's can't. Then I remember the words of my grandma "You can't judge a book by its cover" "God cannot be mocked!" Religion as we know it started going downhill when it's came nationalized & wrapped in the flag. Then it was I believe in my gun,my country & God. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was thoughtfully provoking & honest. While we see what's happening our problem is impatience while waiting for God to act, but then I remember we are the hands & feet of God here on Earth. What can I do? Enlightened my brothers & sisters. Thank you my sister
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Book Shark
4.0 out of 5 stars Provocative Book
Reviewed in the United States on 2 August 2024
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White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America (A Ferris and Ferris Book) by Anthea D. Butler
“White Evangelical Racism” is a provocative book that makes the compelling case that evangelicalism is a national political movement whose purpose is to support white Christian men against the flourishing of others. Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Anthea D. Butler provides readers with a persuasive case of what drives white evangelicals. This direct 168-page book includes the following four chapters: 1. The Racist Foundations of Evangelicalism in the Nineteenth Century, 2. Saving the Nation Fervor, Fear, and Challenges to Jim Crow, 3. Whitewashing Racism and the Rise of the Religious Right, and 4. How Firm a Foundation A Twenty-First-Century Precipice Appears.
Positives:
1. A well-written and direct book. Butler writes with conviction.
2. A fascinating and provocative topic, white evangelical racism.
3. Clearly explains upfront what this movement is all about. “White Evangelical Racism tells a concise history of the evangelical movement and—here is the hard part—the racist and racial elements that imbue its beliefs, practices, and social and political activism.”
4. An introduction that doesn’t hold any punches. “The ubiquitous support demonstrated by white evangelicals for the Republican Party made them not just religiously or culturally white: it made them politically white conservatives in America concerned with keeping the status quo of patriarchy, cultural hegemony, and nationalism.”
5. Direct statements that resonate. “From using the Bible to support slavery to opposing the civil rights movement, integration, and interracial marriage, evangelicals have long employed a presumed moral authority to hide their prejudices.”
6. How evangelicalism equates to whiteness. “Evangelicalism is synonymous with whiteness. It is not only a cultural whiteness but also a political whiteness. The presupposition of the whiteness of evangelicalism has come to define evangelicalism, and it is the definition that the media, the general public, and politicians agree on.”
7. How slavery relates to evangelicalism. “Slavery is the foundation of racism and power in American evangelicalism.” Butler makes a compelling case for it.
8. How evangelicals used the Bible to justify slavery. “Enslaved Africans were often told that Genesis 9:18–27 and Ephesians 6:5–7, along with other biblical scriptures, justified and explained their status as slaves. They were reminded to be obedient and in return were promised heaven, where they would be able to “serve” their eternal masters.”
9. Eye-opening stats. “According to a report by the Equal Justice Initiative in 2017, there were over 4,400 lynchings of Black people in America from 1877 to 1950—a figure that includes 800 more lynchings than had previously been recognized.”
10. Evangelicalism and the civil rights movement. “Understanding how evangelicals heard his preaching against communism is key to understanding how they later came to view the civil rights movement as a potential communistic arm of destruction in America. For evangelicals, communism was not simply a social movement but an atheist movement that, with almost religious fervor, sought to destroy Christianity.”
11. The use of morality to consolidate economic and political power. “Using morality and color-blind conservatism as a shield, evangelicals made new political alliances and created organizations, such as the Moral Majority, that would promote their favored issues while continuing to embrace racist practices and strategies to consolidate economic and political power.”
12. What “States’ rights” is truly about. ““States’ rights” was a dog whistle for the GOP’s “Southern strategy.””
13. Evangelical hostage taking exposed. “I call Falwell’s method of using a great tragedy as a way to signal the loss of morality of the nation or of individuals “evangelical hostage taking.””
14. Obama’s miscalculation. “Obama’s naïve belief that Republicans, and evangelicals by default, would play fair was a major miscalculation on his part—not just in the campaign but in his presidency.”
15. What Obama represented for evangelicals. “Thus the 2008 election cycle marked a new juncture in evangelicalism and racism. The election of Barack Obama was a sign of the apocalypse for evangelicals.”
16. Evangelicals and religious freedom. “Evangelicals began to use the language of “religious freedom” as a way to exclude LGBTQ persons from civil rights and to lobby for special status in cases such as the Masterpiece Cakeshop case.”
17. Makes the compelling case that evangelicals are not being persecuted. “Evangelicals are not being persecuted in America. They are being called to account. Evangelicals are being judged for not keeping to the very morality they asked others to adhere to.”
18. Formal Bibliography included.
Negatives:
1. Lacks supplementary material that would have complemented the excellent and direct narration.
2. No notes or links to sources.
3. I wanted more!
In summary, I love the direct approach by Butler. She makes her case and follows up with a litany of supporting statements and facts. The truth is this book makes the strong case that evangelicalism is a white Christian political movement and they want their power in the here and now. The book never loses focus and I look forward to more books from Butler in the further. A brief and direct book, I recommend it.
Further recommendations: “Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States” by Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry, “The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism” by Katherine Stewart, “The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy” by Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry, “One Nation Under God” by Kevin Kruse, “Founding Myth” by Andrew Seidel, “Why the Religious Right Is Wrong about Separation of Church and State” by Robert Boston, “The End of White Christian America” by Robert Jones.
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Ruth
5.0 out of 5 stars Important Read
Reviewed in the United States on 22 February 2026
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Read this
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GREAT JOB
5.0 out of 5 stars Gaining Understanding
Reviewed in the United States on 27 September 2025
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This book will cause you to think about how the evangelical church has hijacked the political world for their own gain but sadly to a sorrowful end.
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Sierra Jade McInroe
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and eminently readable - must-read for all white evangelicals
Reviewed in the United States on 10 June 2021
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Professor Butler's short, informative, well-written analysis of the failures of white evangelicalism should be read by anyone who calls themselves an evangelical.
I found it to be heartfelt and honest, with solid research on the roots of white evangelical racism and its consequences. Though it is written in the Trump era, it delves into the history - and proves convincingly that nearly all white evangelical leaders and institutions have slipped (or jumped) into the abyss of American racism - personal and systemic.
A must-read for any white evangelical that has even a passing interest in justice for their sisters and brothers.
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Donald Castellano-Hoyt
5.0 out of 5 stars Astoundingly Accurate Historical Analysis
Reviewed in the United States on 19 June 2021
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What a magnificent and timely contribution to the current dialogue in America about the wide and seemingly insane embrace of immoral politics by the nation's evangelicals.
I too am a (former) evangelical having been raised as a PK in the Nazarene church; I remember my preacher Dad hosting a black face minstrel show in Alsea, Oregon. It seemed astounding to my five year old mind how preacher Dad could make fun of a group of people whom I had never met. He said he had met some of them, and reassured me it was all in affectionate fun.
Dr. Butler's analysis is greatly needed by this nation. Thank you, Dr. Butler!
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Danica S. Kosztolnyik
5.0 out of 5 stars Must read! Crucial message.
Reviewed in the United States on 3 December 2024
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
Finished another great one tonight. If you're already "awake", this is a necessary read, especially if you grew up in a Southern evangelical church.
If you think "woke" is pejorative, you've still got work to do before you're ready to hear what it says.
It's smart. It's gentle. It's necessary.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Took me about 4 hours to finish.
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Lionel S. Taylor
4.0 out of 5 stars An Anwers So Obvious It's Almost Invisible.
Reviewed in the United States on 2 August 2022
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In this book, the author presents a very simple question: How can people who claim to be Christian support policies and people who seem to be the opposite of what they claim to believe? How can a twice divorced man who has openly bragged about committing adultery garnered the support of 80% of white evangelicals while his predecessor, who was very open about his Christian faith, receive contempt from the very same people? The answer: It is far more about race than The Gospel.
This book is mostly concerned with giving a brief history of the Evangelical Christian movement and how it went in the opposite direction of what one would expect from such a movement. For example, rather than support the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, many evangelical leaders such as Billy Grahm and Jerry Falwell were opposed to the actions of Dr. King and others who struggled for equal rights for all citizens. This is the pattern time and time again, evangelicals chose to support the existing unequal racial hierarchy rather than seeing their faith as a force for positive change.
The conclusion the author reaches is one that is all too obvious if you look at the behaviours of some of these religious groups rather than just listen to them. A major goal of the conservative movement in this country is to maintain the current hierarchical structure and this includes racial and gendered hierarchies and the white evangelical movement has been a large part of that movement which works in the intestes of the leaders of it. The author expresses hope that this will some day change but I do not have any such optimism. History has shown that when the secular and the sacred come to odds it is usually the former that takes priority with religions used as a tool for justification.
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P. L. Weaver
4.0 out of 5 stars Sad & True
Reviewed in the United States on 18 December 2023
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As a "child of the South" I grew up throughout many of these changes, and struggled to understand how so many people (some in my own family) could justify their behavior/treatment of others as "Christian" when it flew in the face of what Christ-like actually meant. Since the early 00s, it has become increasingly difficult to stomach all the ways in which the teachings of Christ have been subverted to essentially mean "me & mine before all."
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spock
5.0 out of 5 stars When Religion is Toxic
Reviewed in the United States on 14 April 2021
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
White Evangelicals and racism have a turbulent relationship throughout history. More than doctrines, the leaders, actions, and policies of evangelicals have supported white supremacy and racism—with few exceptions! Dr. Butler has explicated the informal and formal aspects of white evangelical racism with tact and compassion. She has empathy for evangelicals even as she chronicles their misdeeds and ignorance. In a very concise manner, Professor Butler exposes how Republican politics have compromised the integrity and relevance of evangelicals over and above any doctrinal pursuits. Redemption is possible if evangelicals learn from this poignant monograph. Racism has no place in a diverse world.
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Ricks
5.0 out of 5 stars How the church influences politics
Reviewed in the United States on 5 March 2024
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This book look into how the Evangelical Church supposedly, moral conscience of our country have chosen to compromise their beliefs for the pursuit of money, property and prestige.
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Sahra Prieto Mick
5.0 out of 5 stars Makes you think
Reviewed in the United States on 29 August 2022
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
The hardest part about reading this book is reconciling how certain groups have weaponized religion. It explains the fall our I personally have been experiencing with organized religion. What this book brought to me was a broader understanding of why people are facing the hardships that they're facing, so if you're committed to changing the way things are now, you should read it.
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Kem White
5.0 out of 5 stars A Useful History and Polemic for the 21st Century
Reviewed in the United States on 31 May 2021
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This is a useful polemic denouncing the racism built into white evangelical Christianity. I have long disagreed with the vaunted position evangelical Christians hold in the US. Butler's book eloquently states my position, specifically, this statement in her conclusion to the book: "American evangelicalism lacks social, political, and spiritual effectiveness in the twenty-first century. It has become a religion lodged within a political party." Recommended.
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LG
5.0 out of 5 stars The recommendation wasn't wrong.
Reviewed in the United States on 7 July 2024
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
Was recommended this book - purely fascinating!
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LMF
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent read
Reviewed in the United States on 28 July 2023
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This book lays out how Christian evangelism has perpetrated racism in this country. It is an excellent read and explains why so many has turned away from the church.
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D. Picone
5.0 out of 5 stars Politics Sociology
Reviewed in the United States on 11 September 2024
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Masterful historical account.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!
Reviewed in the United States on 25 November 2022
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Very illuminating. This book is a magnificent history of the roots of the evangelical movement and the racism baked in from the very beginning. Let's you understand how and why they support the political candidates and policy positions that are immoral and unchristlike.
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Phil Shull
5.0 out of 5 stars required reading for religious leaders
Reviewed in the United States on 22 February 2023
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An excellent overview and history of one element of Christianity in our culture. The white evangelical movement is a cultural aberration in America that needs to be understood. This book is a great place to start.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read!!
Reviewed in the United States on 5 April 2024
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This is a great book. She is spot on!!
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Dezerae Reyes
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and thorough book on race and evangelicsm
Reviewed in the United States on 14 October 2021
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
I initially got this book for class and have really enjoyed it. It is a comprehensive and straightforward examination of evangelicalism's influence on upholding the racial hierarchy in America. I would recommend it to anyone who would be interested in learning about the historical and contemporary effects of racism and morality in America.
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M Lee
5.0 out of 5 stars Must read
Reviewed in the United States on 20 June 2022
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For any religious or non-religious person. Take a deep breath if you are of the modern Christian Evangelical persuasion. The knowledge of good and evil is only one read away. Take a bite...out of racism. Do yourself and your tribe some good.
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Christopher Lucas
5.0 out of 5 stars An absolute read !
Reviewed in the United States on 8 August 2022
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This book is an absolute read for all of you that call yourselves followers of Christ. Although I agreed with Athena from the outset. She reinforced what I knew was so; hence, the reason I left the evangelical church.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Racism among the Evangelical Community.
Reviewed in the United States on 8 May 2021
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A history of racism in the Very comprehensive and incitefull.
A book that explains the history of racism among our brothers and sisters in Christ is an eye opener. We should all be humbled and reflective of His words to "Love one another, as I have loved you.
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Corky Gardner
4.0 out of 5 stars Explains Everything
Reviewed in the United States on 12 July 2022
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Great debriefer on how we got here. Lots of historical facts in one place. Very interesting and easy to read.
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Kindle Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Great read and very informative about the issues that plaque the. Afro American community. I think it's a must read for all evangelical in America.
Reviewed in the United States on 17 July 2021
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I liked everything about this book,I think it could have been longer. However I do understand the time it was written.it's highly recommend to family and friends.
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Renee
4.0 out of 5 stars Very Interesting Read
Reviewed in the United States on 7 May 2021
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
I am currently reading this book and it is enlightening. I recommend it to anyone who has questions about evangelicalism and it's entanglement with racism.
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Marcelene O'Brien
5.0 out of 5 stars Great history in racism and Christianity.
Reviewed in the United States on 15 January 2023
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Amazing book,a must read. Since Trump became president I have tried to understand why people who I thought were Christians no longer seemed Christian to me.
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J. Zahev
5.0 out of 5 stars Plain truth
Reviewed in the United States on 7 May 2021
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Easy to read and very informative. I remember the 1950s and lived in the segregated South. We have come a long way from those days but the remaining path is more difficult. I hope the newer generations do a better job than we have.
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AW
5.0 out of 5 stars A necessary corrective to white evangelicalism
Reviewed in the United States on 14 April 2021
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Dr. Butler shows us the sad and sordid history of racism within white evangelicalism. If there is any hope of building a better future within white Christianity, we must all reckon with our past. A must-read for anyone grappling with racism, especially within Christian circles.
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Kempster
5.0 out of 5 stars Anthea Butler Unplugged
Reviewed in the United States on 19 April 2021
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The author is done... done with excuses, done with apologies, done with complicity. This book is a potent reality check for white Evangelicals who have yet to come to terms with the wreckage of the Trump era and the long, sorry history that brought us here.
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Dingster1
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Work!
Reviewed in the United States on 27 February 2022
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This is a very thorough work on the subject. Dr. Butler holds no punches with the study and yet offers an olive branch to those who are gripped in the tentacles of racism.
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Patrick
5.0 out of 5 stars This story should be told
Reviewed in the United States on 10 March 2022
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I’m grateful to this author for telling the story of Evangelicalism from the perspective of white supremacy and racism. It’s challenging and uncomfortable, and will sit with me for a long time.
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Joseph Peterson
5.0 out of 5 stars An absolutely must read for white evangelicals
Reviewed in the United States on 20 April 2021
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This prophetic masterpiece from Anthea Brown is one of the most comprehensive, accessible, and timely pieces ever written for white evangelicals. We are being called to account.
Highly recommend this resource. Will absolutely be giving to my pastoral staff.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read.
Reviewed in the United States on 11 April 2021
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Amazingly honest. A truth serum for the uninformed. An eye
Opener for those in denial. But don't just read the book, experience the movement and direction necessary to comb
this tremendous force of evil disguised as righteousness.
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ChiliCoyote7
5.0 out of 5 stars Evangelical persons called to account for enduring racism
Reviewed in the United States on 15 July 2021
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This book helped me better understand why I left the Southern Baptist Church and did not feel at home there after becoming an adult.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars A searing indictment of white evangelicalism
Reviewed in the United States on 29 July 2021
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
White evangelicals show how Christianity has left Jesus Christ behind - unless Jesus is a white, nationalist, gun toting Republican American.
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Placeholder
3.0 out of 5 stars Any evil can twist and add in their falsehood
Reviewed in the United States on 20 June 2021
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
I had to put this book down a few times . Reading how racist can use the word of GOD to justify their evil. Amazing.
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Leonard L. Edloe
5.0 out of 5 stars Very eye opening
Reviewed in the United States on 18 August 2021
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
A look at how race has been embodied in Christianity in the United States.
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