Racism in the hands of an angry God : how image of God can activate or resist colorblind racism narrative frames regarding police treatment of African Americans.

Previous research suggests an angry God image is a narrative framework predicting punitive views regarding criminal justice. However, no research examines the correlation of God image to racial attitudes nor how God image is racialized. Using Bonilla-Silva’s (2017) colorblind racism framework, I perform logistic regression on a national survey to examine the correlation between an angry God image and beliefs that a) police treat Blacks and Whites equally (abstract liberalism) and b) police shoot Blacks more often because Blacks are more violent than Whites (cultural racism). I also interact angry God image with both race and religious tradition to account for the complexity of religious effects. Results suggest that the angry God narrative serves to activate the cultural racism frame for White people and adherents of historically White traditions, yet for Black persons and Black Protestants in particular, belief in an angry God serves as a form of resistance.