BY PETER LAARMAN JULY 20, 2021
Robert P. Jones is CEO and founder of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and the author of two books, including last year’s much-discussed White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in Christian America, which just came out in paperback. PRRI recently released a huge new survey that made headlines and drew commentary by pointing to a sharp decline in the proportion of Americans who identify as evangelical Christian. RD’s Peter Laarman reached out to Jones to talk about the dangers posed by recent shifts in religious identification. This interview is condensed for space reasons.
I think what we’re seeing in this moment of change is a test case of whether groups of white Christians have merely been paying lip service to democratic principles and free elections, or whether they really believe in those principles and norms now that white Christians have become a demographic minority.
ROBERT JONES
Jones said, “This is all quite new—this reality of not being a majority white Christian country. We’ve gone from 54% white Christian to just 44% since Obama was first elected, or a drop of about 1% per year. Previous generations of white Christians had the convenience of being able to support participation for all, at least at the rhetorical level, because their dominance wasn’t under threat. Today the question is whether these Christians only support democracy in instrumental ways. And the answer we are getting from many quarters is that they were supportive of democracy as long as they were in charge.” Read the article HERE.