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A review by cymo01
The End of White Christian America by Robert P. Jones
4.0
Really a 4.5 star book, this is a short work about the loss of political power. Jones identifies two groups - white mainline Protestants and white evangelical Protestants - who have enjoyed political power and privilege for all of the 19th and 20th centuries. But as we roll into the 21st century, it is clear these groups are surely losing that power. The book is filled with graphs and bar charts quoting survey data and polling numbers that supports this and the author's other main points. But this is no dry, dusty statistical tome. It's a clear and interesting explication whose main narrative explains much about American society today.
A key point Jones makes is "The American religious landscape is being remade, most notably by the decline of the white Protestant majority and the rise of the religiously unaffiliated." Religiously unaffiliated is not jargon for "other," as in religious affiliations other than mainline or evangelical Christianity. It means the rise of Americans with no religion at all. This is an important and welcome sea change in this country. Jones presents much polling data from his PRRI organization to support this contention. Jones also makes important points about how WCA’s views on race and LGBT issues have contributed to its wane.
The book itself was written before the 2016 election though the Afterword addresses the topic in a few short pages. He points out that Trump's victory was in large part due to White Evangelicals whom he calls "nostalgia" voters rather than their former name, "values" voters. White evangelicals voted overwhelmingly for Trump: 81%. And while he castigates that group slightly (saying the 2016 election will be remembered as the one in which white evangelicals traded away their integrity and influence to resurrect their past), he stops short of calling them the shameless hypocrites they surely are.
Jones has no bitterness with the loss of power of these two privileged groups. Instead he recognizes America's increasing diversity. He proposes a hopeful path forward with WCA becoming an equal partner with Black and Hispanic religious groups as well as with the religiously unaffiliated. He understands that this path may not be easy. When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression. Recommended.
A key point Jones makes is "The American religious landscape is being remade, most notably by the decline of the white Protestant majority and the rise of the religiously unaffiliated." Religiously unaffiliated is not jargon for "other," as in religious affiliations other than mainline or evangelical Christianity. It means the rise of Americans with no religion at all. This is an important and welcome sea change in this country. Jones presents much polling data from his PRRI organization to support this contention. Jones also makes important points about how WCA’s views on race and LGBT issues have contributed to its wane.
The book itself was written before the 2016 election though the Afterword addresses the topic in a few short pages. He points out that Trump's victory was in large part due to White Evangelicals whom he calls "nostalgia" voters rather than their former name, "values" voters. White evangelicals voted overwhelmingly for Trump: 81%. And while he castigates that group slightly (saying the 2016 election will be remembered as the one in which white evangelicals traded away their integrity and influence to resurrect their past), he stops short of calling them the shameless hypocrites they surely are.
Jones has no bitterness with the loss of power of these two privileged groups. Instead he recognizes America's increasing diversity. He proposes a hopeful path forward with WCA becoming an equal partner with Black and Hispanic religious groups as well as with the religiously unaffiliated. He understands that this path may not be easy. When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression. Recommended.