Jennifer butler12/16/2023 ![]() ![]() “They were such amazing speakers and debaters, so civil and so able to make an argument, hear an argument and debate very civilly, and I admired that,” Butler says of the first Presbyterians she met. Jennifer Butler founded Faith in Public Life Action That led her to being the president of her Baptist Student Union at the College of William & Mary, work for the Peace Corps in Belize, and ultimately enrolling at Princeton Theological Seminary, where she was introduced to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). ![]() It was the start of a spiritual journey that led her to a prayer at age 15 asking Jesus to help her overcome her fear of nuclear war and high school awkwardness, “and at some point saying, ‘I don’t know if you’re there or not, but I like who you are, so I’m going to follow this path and see if it works out.’ And that’s what faith is: It’s the assurance of things hoped for, but things not yet seen.” I read Scripture for myself, but what I read did not match up with what I was hearing from the pulpit and from the Moral Majority.” “I took Jesus’ mission statement in Luke 4:18 quite literally: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor … and to let the oppressed go free.’ When the conservative white Christians around me said they took the Bible literally, I never heard them talk about freedom for the oppressed. “Growing up in the South, I found that what Jesus said in Scripture was not often lived out in my white, well-heeled church on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia,” Butler writes in the first chapter of the book. That is far removed from her childhood growing up in a conservative Georgia church and Christian school, and it’s the inspiration for the book, “ Who Stole My Bible? Reclaiming Scripture as a Handbook for Resisting Tyranny” (180 pp., $15.99). Justice, equality, and democracy are core issues to Butler’s work as a faith leader. “We’re going to have to figure out how to ensure that the rules of the game don’t get further rigged,” she said, “such that it’s impossible for the diversity of the country to be honored through elections.” While there will be new residents in the White House, Butler is concerned about structural changes such as gerrymandering, designed to marginalize specific communities and diminish their representation in government. “We have opened up a crack in our window to start making things right.” “I think we have averted it for now,” says Butler, founder and executive director of Faith in Public Life Action, a progressive faith advocacy and policy group. Kamala Harris secured the more than 270 electoral votes to win the presidency, can she say the country has averted that? So, the Monday after the Democratic ticket of former Vice-President Joe Biden and Sen. ![]() Jennifer Butler wrote: “America is one election away from a one-party system,” specifically the Republican Party. LEXINGTON, Kentucky - In the Introduction to her new book, the Rev. Jennifer Butler reclaims Scripture for liberating the oppressed by Rich Copley | Presbyterian News Service ![]()
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