Meet Rev. Jen Butler

Who Stole My Bible?

Rev. Jennifer Butler has spent the last three decades strengthening and rebuilding the progressive faith movement. She has dedicated her life to helping individuals and communities ground themselves in liberative spirituality that empowers them to speak out with a faithful voice to change the world. 

In 2005, she founded Faith in Public Life (FPL) to amplify progressive faith voices and forge multi-racial, multi-faith and ideologically diverse faith coalitions to work for justice and the common good. In founding FPL, Rev. Jen drew on her decade long experience countering religious extremism with a faithful argument for democracy, the rights of women and LGBTQ people. Her book Born Again: The Christian Right Globalized (Pluto Press) remains a go-to resource for those tracking white Christian nationalism globally. 

Rev. Jen Butler served as CEO of Faith in Public Life from 2005 to 2022. Highlights of her work as CEO include mobilizing a multi-state faith strategy to secure passage of the Affordable Care Act and defeating Republican efforts in 2017 to gut the bill. She spearheaded faith based campaigns to defeat fake religious freedom bills at the state level by empowering ideologically diverse religious leaders to oppose discrimination in the name of faith. Rev. Jen also led FPL in the Trump years to draw a bright moral line in the sand against rising authoritarianism and racism.

In this role she consults with nonprofit organizations, think tanks and government agencies seeking to develop faith-based partnerships to build a democratic and pluralistic world. She writes, speaks, teaches and advises both religious and secular social change leaders working at the intersections of religion, culture and politics. Her most recent book, Who Stole My Bible? Reclaiming Scripture as a Handbook for Resisting Tyranny, makes a biblical case for muti-racial democracy in the face of rising white Christian Nationalism and authoritarianism in the U.S. and around the world.

In 2022, Rev. Jen was named one of Center for American Progress’ Faith Leaders to Watch. She served as the chair of the White House Council on Faith and Neighborhood Partnerships (2015-2016) and spent ten years working in the field of international human rights representing the Presbyterian Church (USA) at the United Nations. You can find her writing in Religion News Service, Sojourners and Red Letter Christians.

Rev. Jen was a Peace Corps volunteer in a Mayan village in Belize, Central America. A graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, she studied public policy and community organizing and graduated with a MSW from Rutgers University. She’s a graduate of the College of William and Mary. Rev. Butler lives in suburban Washington, D.C. For the latest from Rev. Jen, follow her on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.