Backslide: Robert P. Jones on White Christianity, Democracy, and Love of Neighbor

On this episode of the The Soul of the Nation with Jim Wallis podcast, Rev. Jim Wallis talks with Robert P. Jones, president and founder of the Public Religion Research Institute and author of Backslide: Reclaiming Faith and a Nation After the Christian Turn Against Democracy. Jones explains why the theological language of backsliding offers a powerful way to understand America’s democratic decline and the support of many white Christians for authoritarian politics, Christian nationalism, and Donald Trump.

Jones traces the history behind white Christian nationalism through his own family Bible, inherited from ancestors who took Cherokee land and enslaved Black people. He examines how white Christian identity became entangled with racial hierarchy, political power, and resistance to multiracial democracy.

Jim and Robby also discuss the difference between the older Religious Right and the New Apostolic Reformation, the role of demographic fear, the danger of government retaliation against critics, the legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Niemöller, and the need for a faithful remnant committed to truth, equal dignity, pluralistic democracy, and love of neighbor.

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