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How White Christianity Turned Against Democracy | Robert P. Jones
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September 8, 2026
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55:11Now PlayingRobert P. Jones says American democracy is backsliding, and white Christianity is helping push it in that direction.
In his new book, Backslide: Reclaiming a Faith and a Nation After the Christian Turn Against Democracy, Jones confronts a difficult contradiction: among white evangelicals, greater church attendance does not necessarily produce less support for Christian nationalism, anti-immigrant attitudes, or Donald Trump. In some cases, the relationship runs in the opposite direction.
So what happens when the institutions meant to form Christians in the teachings of Jesus begin producing a politics built around hierarchy, exclusion, and power?
Jones joins us to talk about how race and culture shape biblical interpretation, why some Christians are now attacking empathy itself, what American Christianity inherited from slavery and Jim Crow, and why he believes the country has moved beyond ordinary partisan disagreement into a fight over democracy itself.
Drawing on Martin Niemöller and the failures of the German church in the 1930s, Jones ends with an urgent question: when future generations ask what Christians did in this moment, what will the answer be?
BOOK
Book: Backslide: Reclaiming a Faith and a Nation After the Christian Turn Against Democracy
GUEST BIO
Robert P. Jones is the president and founder of Public Religion Research Institute, or PRRI, and a New York Times bestselling author whose work focuses on religion, race, politics, and democracy. His books include The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy, White Too Long, The End of White Christian America, and his newest book, Backslide. Jones holds a Ph.D. in religion from Emory University and writes the Redeeming Democracy newsletter
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