The End of White Christian America

[rug]

Robert P. Jones (Photo by Randy Bacon)



Maureen Fiedler | Jul. 22, 2016

By many accounts, it’s a fascinating book -- with strong religious and political implications. It has gotten rave reviews from both academics and media outlets like The New York Times. (The NCR review is coming soon.) I’m talking about The End of White Christian America by Robert P. Jones. Jones is the founder and CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), and (like me) loves to analyze polling numbers. So I interviewed him about his book this week for Interfaith Voices.

One question I asked him got me a blunt answer. “When Donald Trump says he wants to ‘make America great again,” is he really saying, “bring back white Christian America”? Jones’ immediate answer: YES. No hesitation… just “YES.” Donald Trump is the nostalgia candidate, wishing for an America that has already passed into history.

But the title of this book can be jarring for Catholics and Orthodox. After all, we are Christians too. So I asked Jones about that. It turns out that Jones is really talking about the end of White Protestant America, in both its mainline and evangelical forms. He called the title a “metaphor” for that dominant political/religious group up to the latter part of the 20th century.

For those old enough to remember (like me), white mainline Protestantism was indeed the dominant religious/political force in this country for much of the 20th century, certainly until the 1970s. [Just think about the obstacles Catholic Al Smith faced when he ran for president in 1928, and the fact that many skeptical Protestant voices could still be heard when Jack Kennedy, also Catholic, ran in 1960].

https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/end-white-christian-america