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The End of White Christian America Hardcover – July 12, 2016
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Robert P. Jones, CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute, spells out the profound political and cultural consequences of a new reality—that America is no longer a majority white Christian nation. “Quite possibly the most illuminating text for this election year” (The New York Times Book Review).
For most of our nation’s history, White Christian America (WCA) set the tone for our national policy and shaped American ideals. But especially since the 1990s, WCA has steadily lost influence, following declines within both its mainline and evangelical branches. Today, America is no longer demographically or culturally a majority white, Christian nation.
Drawing on more than four decades of polling data, The End of White Christian America explains and analyzes the waning vitality of WCA. Robert P. Jones argues that the visceral nature of today’s most heated issues—the vociferous arguments around same-sex marriage and religious and sexual liberty, the rise of the Tea Party following the election of our first black president, and stark disagreements between black and white Americans over the fairness of the criminal justice system—can only be understood against the backdrop of white Christians’ anxieties as America’s racial and religious topography shifts around them.
Beyond 2016, the descendants of WCA will lack the political power they once had to set the terms of the nation’s debate over values and morals and to determine election outcomes. Looking ahead, Jones forecasts the ways that they might adjust to find their place in the new America—and the consequences for us all if they don’t. “Jones’s analysis is an insightful combination of history, sociology, religious studies, and political science….This book will be of interest to a wide range of readers across the political spectrum” (Library Journal).
- Print length320 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherSimon & Schuster
- Publication dateJuly 12, 2016
- Dimensions6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches
- ISBN-101501122290
- ISBN-13978-1501122293
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“Robert Jones has established himself as one of the country’s most intelligent and fair-minded explorers of the American religious and political minds. So it’s not surprising that The End of White Christian America is meticulous, engagingly written and full of insight. It describes one the most consequential changes in our nation’s history with genuine empathy for both the old and the new majorities, a truly blessed achievement at a time of so much stress and anger. The charts and graphs alone are worth the price of the book and make Jones’ thesis instantly understandable. This book is an important achievement that will be discussed not for years but for decades.” -- E. J. Dionne Jr., author of WHY THE RIGHT WENT WRONG: Conservatism from Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond
“Jones persuasively articulates how both the fear and thehope of the new America are animating our faith and our politics. I stronglyrecommend this book to anyone who seeks to understand how we got to where weare in our churches and politics today, and how we might help build the bridgeto a new America.” -- Jim Wallis, New York Times bestselling author of America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America, president of Sojourners, and editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine
“Robert Jones gives us animpressive, clear-minded account of an America that once was but will be nomore. While the new realities may cause some to grieve, citizens from everydemographic and faith perspective will applaud this book’s non-polemical approach and its insights for a changingnation that remains spiritual and religious as it finds new expressions for itscore beliefs.” -- Mike McCurry, Former Press Secretary to President Bill Clinton, Distinguished Professor of Public Theology, Wesley Theological Seminary
“As a white pastor who has been active addressing cultural issues for decades, I found this book fascinating, clarifying, and useful. For white Christians who want to serve our nation as a part of our faith, the big story line is not the loss of our centrality in the realms of political power; it’s the welcome opportunities for new partnerships based on shared moral principles. This book also leaves us pondering ways to be part of the sequel.” -- Rev. Dr. Joel C. Hunter, Senior Pastor, Northland, A Church Distributed
“Robert Jones’ new book is a brilliant and eloquent epitaph for white Christian America. Jones deftly and insightfully shows how this new moment marked by white Christian America’s demise holds both promise and peril for those concerned about racial justice and the future of race relations in the country. This book is a must read!” -- Michael Eric Dyson, author of THE BLACK PRESIDENCY: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America; University Professor of Sociology, Georgetown University
“The 2016 election campaign revealed to all and sundry that we live in a new country. Robert Jones has written the best guide I have seen to the America taking shape around us.” -- Alan Wolfe, Professor of Political Science and Director of The Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life, Boston College
“Robert Jones provides essential insight not only into the politics of 2016, but into the broader cultural, ethnic and religious forces restructuring America in the 21st Century. . . . While everyone else was looking 25 years ahead in anticipation of demographic evolution, Robert P. Jones recognized that this country had already experienced crucial social and political change: that the very definition of ‘white Christian’ was undergoing radical transformation.” -- Thomas B. Edsall, author of The Age of Austerity: How Scarcity Will Remake American Politics
“Robert Jones convincingly illumines the waning influence of white Protestantism in America as well as the reactions of those bewildered or angered by this inexorable shift. Fast-paced and keenly discerning, this book does a remarkable job of explaining why our culture and politics are so fraught and why we seem to be entering a whole new era in our history. Truly a must-read for understanding the divided state of our nation today.” -- R. Marie Griffith, Director, John C. Danforth Center on Politics and Religion, and John C. Danforth Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, Washington University
“Required reading for anyone who wants to know what the American religious landscape looked like in the past, and hopes for a glimpse of where it’s heading in the future.” -- Eboo Patel, author of SACRED GROUND and INTERFAITH LEADERSHIP
"Jones’s analysis is an insightful combination of history, sociology, religious studies, and political science. . . . This book will be of interest to a wide range of readers across the political spectrum who are interested in politics and religion." ― Library Journal
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Product details
- Publisher : Simon & Schuster; First Edition (July 12, 2016)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 320 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1501122290
- ISBN-13 : 978-1501122293
- Item Weight : 1.05 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,071,061 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #517 in Nationalism (Books)
- #1,371 in Democracy (Books)
- #4,729 in History of Christianity (Books)
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About the author

Robert P. Jones is the President and Founder of PRRI and a leading scholar and commentator on religion, culture, and politics. He is the author of:
* "The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future," a New York Times bestseller;
* “White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity,” winner of a 2021 American Book Award; and
* “The End of White Christian America,” winner of the 2019 Grawemeyer Award in Religion.
Jones writes a regular newsletter at https://robertpjones.substack.com.
Jones also has bylines at The Atlantic online, TIME, NBC Think, and Religion News Service and is frequently featured in major national media such as MSNBC, CNN, NPR, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and others. Jones serves on the Committee for the Public Understanding of Religion for the American Academy of Religion. He holds a Ph.D. in religion from Emory University, a M.Div. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a B.S. in computing science and mathematics from Mississippi College. Jones was selected by Emory University’s Graduate Division of Religion as Distinguished Alumnus of the Year in 2013, and by Mississippi College’s Mathematics Department as Alumnus of the Year in 2016.
Before founding PRRI, Jones worked as a consultant and senior research fellow at several think tanks in Washington, D.C., and was an assistant professor of religious studies at Missouri State University.
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Robert P. Jones’ The End of White Christian America sounds almost preposterous at first. How could we be living at the end of “Christian America”? The evidence of the Christian religion, whether mainline Protestant or evangelical Protestant, seems to be everywhere! In his six-chapter book, Jones argues convincingly that the cultural forces that shaped the life of 20th-century America and earlier have died or actually are currently dying. The final chapter, in fact, characterizes the death in terms of the stages of grief from the well-known book, On Death and Dying. A well-researched book from a highly credible scholar, The End of White Christian America should be read by anyone interested in religion and life in the US today.
The book begins with an obituary:
“After a long life spanning nearly two hundred forty years, White Christian America—a prominent cultural force in the nation’s history—has died. WCA first began to exhibit troubling symptoms in the 1960s when white mainline Protestant denominations began to shrink, but showed signs of rallying with the rise of the Christian Right in the 1980s. Following the 2004 presidential election, however, it became clear that WCA’s power were failing.” (p. 1).
The book begins with an examination of three significant cultural landmarks of organized religion: The United Methodist Building in Washington, DC; the Interchurch Center in NYC; and the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, CA. The UMC building establish in Washington, DC, in 1923 was built to establish a connection between the Methodist Church—a leading denomination—and governmental policy making. At that stage, Methodists were particularly interested in alcohol and its continuing elimination and thwarting the growth of Roman Catholicism in the US! It is now a building that features tenants from many Christian and other world religion traditions. The Interchurch Center, connected with the National Council of Churches, now opens its door to both religious and secular tenants. Finally, the empire church of Robert Schuler that once presented his sublimated, conservative evangelical Protestant agenda of Orange, Co., CA, is now a Roman Catholic building for public worship, after the Shuler descendants bankrupted the church. These buildings provide important metaphors for understanding change in both mainline and evangelical traditions. The book examines Roman Catholics only in the sense that they were not a part of the “original” White Christian synthesis and occupy the position now of the incursions to non-white Christians.
The book examines carefully the demographics provided by the Pew Foundation and surveys conducted by PRRI over the last few years as well as other normed studies. The book concludes with the idea that theologians such as Stanley Hauerwas have provided ways to suggest the end of mainline Protestantism and that scholars such as Russell Moore (SBC) and David Gushee (Baptist) have provided the ways of understanding decline and death to evangelical Protestants. For those people not “plugged in” to the traditions, these might sound like odd suggestions; however, for skill observers all of these writers suggest ways that the traditions may survive their own deaths—that is, beyond or after their own places in a cultural hegemony.
The book examines two topics in particular that will interest contemporary readers: gay marriage and the treatment of GLBTQ people and race relations since Ferguson. Jones examines the challenge where mainline Protestants have in many ways embraced GLBTQ people and that evangelical Protestants have not. I’m painting a broad sweep of what he examines with careful detail in light of how millennials understand this issue. Mainliners have moved toward acceptance while evangelicals have moved toward “religious liberty” as a way of understanding a cultural shift that has happened to alienate them from larger American life. Whatever can be said for evangelical Christians, the Supreme Court decision of 2015 was a “nuclear event” (145). With respect to race relations, Jones notes the institutional segregation that was set into civic structures as early as 1911 that provided for segregation as the order of the day in terms of organization. Jones moves behind the events that resulted in the deaths of several African Americans to talk about the way that socialization and the failures of socialization have set in those patterns both for mainline Protestants and evangelical Christians. What may surprise some mainline Protestants is how the surveys do not show the disparity between themselves and evangelical Protestants they have often been told.
Jones’ book does not suggest that Christianity will leave the face of America, but it is one that suggests the old order cannot be revived—it cannot be “great again”—but must accommodate itself to a diminished role. Any attempt to reassert the older mythic narratives of history will only make the challenges greater and the fall more apparent.
Jones’ analysis, based on a number of statistical studies from highly reputable sources, is illuminating. He seems to have limited “evangelical” at times to “Southern Baptist.” That seems to be a mistake in a world of an increasing post-denominational movement. Still, however, many of those churches are “Southern Baptist” in orientation, with the outward signposts removed. He does note that contemporary feelings and opinions seem to support the ideological position of mainline Protestant groups, but that too is deceptive for them. What he does not examine are other traditions rising from the gap between mainline and evangelical positions—a kind of “new monasticism” or the emerging church.
Jones’ book is very much on the mark with its investigation. Anyone interested in the trajectories of modern American Christianity would do well to read his book.
After laying some groundwork in the opening chapter, this book goes on to describe how the end of white- dominated Christianity has impacted everything from political strategy to family dynamics to social attitudes. It used to be that people assumed that protestant theology would dominate most decision making, from the political to the social, and for good reason. With white protestants comprising such a large portion of the population, there was no reason to feel otherwise. But times have changed and people must adapt to the changing religious landscape around them.
One doesn’t have to look too long or hard to see the influence of the changing religious beliefs of Americans and how they have impacted our laws and lifestyle. If you need to know the exact breakdown of how different religious groups feel about one issue or another, you will find many of your answers in this book. It is loaded with statistics, and these figures serve to illustrate, with official data, the shifts that are taking place over the past several decades.
Does this mean that white Christians are ready to concede defeat and accept their new role as a religious minority? Far from it, and it is this resistance and backlash that we see playing out all around us, in everything from school board elections to the American presidency. White Christians have made some concessions, but they are not willing to go down without a fight. This book discusses some of these compromises and what they mean for the nation, not just for Christians vs. non- Christians, but also for fundamentalist versus mainstream Christians, the latter of which is more likely to accept change.
One thing you need to keep in the back of your mind as you read this book is that when it uses the term white Christian America, it is referring to white protestant America. Catholicism is certainly a part of Christianity, but when white Christian America is mentioned, it means white protestant America. It goes back to the original people who inhabited the nation. The Constitution was certainly secular and religious freedom was granted to all. But the population was distinctly protestant and it remained this way for a long time. It’s true that in more recent times, protestants have increasingly formed coalitions with Catholics out of necessity but for the purpose of illustration and placing things in proper context, this book uses white Christian America to mean white protestant America.
Could white Christians once again come to rule the land? It is extremely doubtful because it would require significant changes to take place, none of which is likely. One possibility is shutting the spigot on immigration or limiting immigrants only to those of western European backgrounds who already profess to being Christian. Another is increasing the birth rates of existing white Christian Americans, then hoping the children remain in that religion when they become adults. Another possibility would be trying to convert immigrants who are non- Christian over to Christianity. None of these are likely to happen at a level that would reverse these trends.
America is in a state of change. Of course, change has been taking place all around us since the founding of the nation, but in terms of religious beliefs, change is occurring at a faster clip than ever before. The End of White Christian America is a final curtain call for this segment of the population and a good read for those who want to better understand the changes and what they mean for the nation. Christians will continue to fight back and try to stop the inevitable. But they must eventually come to terms with the stark reality, be ready to make concessions, and realize that their heyday was in the past.
Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2022
After laying some groundwork in the opening chapter, this book goes on to describe how the end of white- dominated Christianity has impacted everything from political strategy to family dynamics to social attitudes. It used to be that people assumed that protestant theology would dominate most decision making, from the political to the social, and for good reason. With white protestants comprising such a large portion of the population, there was no reason to feel otherwise. But times have changed and people must adapt to the changing religious landscape around them.
One doesn’t have to look too long or hard to see the influence of the changing religious beliefs of Americans and how they have impacted our laws and lifestyle. If you need to know the exact breakdown of how different religious groups feel about one issue or another, you will find many of your answers in this book. It is loaded with statistics, and these figures serve to illustrate, with official data, the shifts that are taking place over the past several decades.
Does this mean that white Christians are ready to concede defeat and accept their new role as a religious minority? Far from it, and it is this resistance and backlash that we see playing out all around us, in everything from school board elections to the American presidency. White Christians have made some concessions, but they are not willing to go down without a fight. This book discusses some of these compromises and what they mean for the nation, not just for Christians vs. non- Christians, but also for fundamentalist versus mainstream Christians, the latter of which is more likely to accept change.
One thing you need to keep in the back of your mind as you read this book is that when it uses the term white Christian America, it is referring to white protestant America. Catholicism is certainly a part of Christianity, but when white Christian America is mentioned, it means white protestant America. It goes back to the original people who inhabited the nation. The Constitution was certainly secular and religious freedom was granted to all. But the population was distinctly protestant and it remained this way for a long time. It’s true that in more recent times, protestants have increasingly formed coalitions with Catholics out of necessity but for the purpose of illustration and placing things in proper context, this book uses white Christian America to mean white protestant America.
Could white Christians once again come to rule the land? It is extremely doubtful because it would require significant changes to take place, none of which is likely. One possibility is shutting the spigot on immigration or limiting immigrants only to those of western European backgrounds who already profess to being Christian. Another is increasing the birth rates of existing white Christian Americans, then hoping the children remain in that religion when they become adults. Another possibility would be trying to convert immigrants who are non- Christian over to Christianity. None of these are likely to happen at a level that would reverse these trends.
America is in a state of change. Of course, change has been taking place all around us since the founding of the nation, but in terms of religious beliefs, change is occurring at a faster clip than ever before. The End of White Christian America is a final curtain call for this segment of the population and a good read for those who want to better understand the changes and what they mean for the nation. Christians will continue to fight back and try to stop the inevitable. But they must eventually come to terms with the stark reality, be ready to make concessions, and realize that their heyday was in the past.
The overly provocative title (titles are chosen by publishers, not authors) refers to the “end” of WCA in the sense that White Christian America is no longer the de-facto societal paradigm of American culture and politics.
Sincere Republicans who wish to understand what has happened to their party should read this book. Christians who see, or at least sense, the loss of influence of the church on American life should read this book. In psychotherapy, recovery begins by having the patient see the truth behind their lives and motivations. This book contains great swaths of truth, often represented by data, and vivid analysis of great intellectual and personal value to any who wish an understanding of modern times in the United States.
Jones has provided the best non-fiction work I’ve encountered in many years. It’s a fairly short book, especially considering the last 40% is devoted to sources and documents. The writing is clear and fast-paced. While I’m not overly enamored with the author’s suggestions of how WCA might move forward, the vast majority of his book is spot-on. His analyses are accurate and the work is concisely written.
I found the subject material fascinating. I give this book a MUST READ rating.










