Faith in Public Life: Rev. Jen Butler - Commentary from the intersection of progressive Christian faith and modern public policy.

Trump’s Wall is Immoral: What Bible are you Reading Pastor Jeffress?

February 11, 2019 By Rev. Jen Butler

I have to wonder what Bible President Trump’s close evangelical advisors are reading. Pastor Jeffress of First Baptist Church of Dallas Texas in a recent NPR interview justified Trump’s build-a-wall solution to immigration by cherry-picking certain biblical texts and misconstruing them. As a seminary professor once told me, a text without a context is a pretext. Religious supporters of compassionate immigration laws often cite the hundreds of verses of Christian and Jewish scripture that command us to welcome the alien… Read more

The Moral Vision Trump Should Have Delivered

January 10, 2019 By Rev. Jen Butler

32 Comments

Earlier this week, President Trump delivered an Oval Office address on immigration that sought to stoke fear and hatred in the hearts of the American people. He pleaded for funds to build a monument of bigotry that we don’t need. Today, President Trump visited the border town of McAllen, Texas to double down on his racist and immoral rhetoric. People of faith must condemn racist ideology. Children and mothers seeking safety at our borders from insurmountable violence are deserving of… Read more

Tear Gassing Children is Not Christian

November 27, 2018 By Rev. Jen Butler

20 Comments

As Americans finished up Thanksgiving celebrations, immigrant children fleeing violence in their home countries were tear gassed at the border. President Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and racist, fear-mongering rhetoric are to blame. We can be better than this. As a Christian, my soul is indelibly marked by God’s frequent exhortation: “remember who you are.” Hundreds of verses like this one pepper nearly every book of the Bible, particularly the legal codes of Hebrew Scripture: “And you are to love those who… Read more

This is the Year of the Faithful Women in Politics

November 10, 2018 By Rev. Jen Butler

0 Comments

This image means a lot to me pic.twitter.com/vj5JW9Bji7— Solomon (@solomonmissouri) November 8, 2018 In a rebuke of President Trump and the Republican party’s racism, attacks on health care, the separation immigrant children from their parents, and failure to confront sexual abuse, women turned out to vote for women in record numbers. The result is an election that will go down in history as the year of the woman in politics. Voters will send a historic 100-plus women to Congress, including… Read more

Trump’s Nationalism is Incompatible with Christianity

October 25, 2018 By Rev. Jen Butler

162 Comments

Speaking at an election rally for Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Trump admitted to being a nationalist: You know, they have a word. It sort of became old-fashioned. It’s called a nationalist. And I say, really, we’re not supposed to use that word. You know what I am? I’m a nationalist, OK? I’m a nationalist. This is hardly a revelation. Trump’s actions have already earned him this label. But it indicates another milestone in Trump’s chipping away at democracy and human… Read more

Is Democracy Done? The Road after Kavanaugh

October 16, 2018 By Rev. Jen Butler

6 Comments

No, it’s not done. But that’s the right question. It means that unlike many Americans, you no longer take democracy for granted. Democracy can only be maintained by vigilance and we have been headed down the road to unfreedom for some time. The Kavanaugh appointment was a failure for our democracy on so many levels. The Senate failed to fully vet a lifetime appointment with a faux FBI investigation of sexual assault charges and a refusal to release millions of… Read more

Food Stamps: Some Good News out of September

October 2, 2018 By Rev. Jen Butler

6 Comments

As allegations about Judge Kavanaugh multiply and cast doubt on his character and fitness for the Supreme Court, there was a lot of bad news this past September. Here is one good story that no one is paying attention to — SNAP, that is, food stamps, in the 2018 Farm Bill. Just this past Sunday, September 30th, we missed a deadline to renew the Farm Bill. But that is actually a good thing. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is… Read more

Franklin Graham says Attempted Rape Doesn’t Matter

September 21, 2018 By Rev. Jen Butler

61 Comments

Franklin Graham, son of the famous evangelist Billy Graham and on of the Trump’s most vocal evangelical supporters, implied in an interview this week that he thinks attempted rape doesn’t matter. Graham is president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse, an international relief organization. Asked by a Christian Broadcast Network reporter what he thought about the attempted rape allegations against U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Kavanaugh, Graham said that what Kavanaugh did as a teenager… Read more

Six Ways Faith Can Counter Polarization and Russian Espionage

September 14, 2018 By Rev. Jen Butler

5 Comments

Thanks to U.S. intelligence agencies, we now know Russian agents are still actively working to promote polarization and destabilize American democracy. Our reality show president uses misinformation and inflammatory tweets to distract and divide us. With midterm elections coming up, it is especially important for faith communities to be vigilant. With the right skills, we can play a major role in strengthening democracy. Here are a few ways we can get started. Use social media wisely First, come up with… Read more

Why Kavanaugh is Dangerous

September 4, 2018 By Rev. Jen Butler

63 Comments

I don’t like calling anyone dangerous but a Supreme Court justice who threatens our civil rights instead of championing them is just that. Today Brett Kavanaugh takes his seat before the Senate Judiciary Committee and the American people to tell us how he would serve on the Supreme Court. He has already told us he thinks the President shouldn’t face questioning or criminal charges while in office and he has already made it clear that he does not seek to… Read more