JENNIFER BUTLER

January 2024 Update
Jennifer Butler is no longer with Faith in Public Life.
Her focus now is on the dangers of a global war on democracy - and will soon launch Faith in Democracy, a global network of religious leaders committed to preserving democracy as the best way to fulfill our core religious commitments to the dignity of all human beings. (See her January 6, 2024 post here.)

Jennifer Butler was the founding executive director of Faith in Public Life (FPL) and the former chair of the White House Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Before leading FPL, Jennifer spent ten years working in the field of international human rights representing the Presbyterian Church (USA) at the United Nations and is an ordained minister.

While mobilizing religious communities to address the AIDS pandemic and advocating for women’s rights, she grew passionate about the need to counter religious extremism with a strong religious argument for human rights. Out of that experience, she wrote Born Again: The Christian Right Globalized, which was published by University of Michigan Press. That book calls for a progressive religious response to Religious Right efforts to take the culture wars global.

Jennifer served in the Peace Corps from 1989 to 1991 in a Mayan village in Belize, Central America, where she discovered she was a community organizer at heart. A graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, she also studied public policy and community organizing and graduated with an MSW from Rutgers University. She’s a graduate of the College of William & Mary. Jennifer loves hiking and biking with her family and friends. For more information visit RevJenButler.com or @RevJenButler on Twitter or @RevJenniferButler on Facebook.

Jennifer Butler’s book - Who Stole My Bible?: Reclaiming Scripture as a Handdbook for Resisting Tyranny - offers an alternative way to understand Hebrew and Christian scriptures in light of religious nationalism.

Faith in Public Life is a national movement of clergy and faith leaders united in the prophetic pursuit of justice, equality and the common good. Together, we are leading the fight to advance just policies at the local, state, and federal levels. Our network of 50,000 leaders engage in bold moral action that affirms our values and the human dignity of all. We are committed to racial equity and are on an intentional, transformational, accountable journey toward internally and externally living out these values and deconstructing white supremacy. We envision a world where prophetic faith voices triumph so that justice and democracy prevail and all people live in peace, dignity, community, and abundance. 

Faith in Public Life is a national movement of clergy and faith leaders united in the prophetic pursuit of justice, equality and the common good. Together, we are leading the fight to advance just policies at the local, state, and federal levels. Our network of 50,000 leaders engage in bold moral action that affirms our values and the human dignity of all. We are committed to racial equity and are on an intentional, transformational, accountable journey toward internally and externally living out these values and deconstructing white supremacy. We envision a world where prophetic faith voices triumph so that justice and democracy prevail and all people live in peace, dignity, community, and abundance.