Backslide

Reclaiming a Faith and a Nation After the Christian Turn Against Democracy

By: Robert P. Jones

Narrated by: Holter Graham

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy, a clear-eyed reckoning with the moral collapse of white Christianity and a call to protect American democracy.

What happens when the church trades faith for power, and democracy for dominion? In this searing book, Robert P. Jones names our moment for what it is: a great Backslide. White Christianity’s devotion to Donald Trump and Christian nationalism is not only a regression into authoritarian politics but a profound act of apostasy—a betrayal of the best of the Christian tradition.

Through reflections on history, his upbringing in the white evangelical South, and decades of social science research, Jones lays bare the roots of this collapse and the dangers it poses for our future. He takes us inside a faith tradition marked by an impoverished relationship to the Bible, a rejection of a genuine search for truth, and an upside-down world where empathy is considered a vice. Yet amid the wreckage, Jones finds signs of hope in efforts to remake our national holiday rituals and recover a Christianity that remains committed to democracy.

Timely and unflinching, Backslide is essential reading for anyone unwilling to surrender the soul of faith or the promise of democracy. A prophetic summons to moral responsibility, it reminds us that time is short for deciding which Christianity, and which America, will prevail.

Critic reviews

"An urgent call to save our democracy—and the Christian faith—from the scourge of religious nationalism. Robert P. Jones infuses his call for an American reawakening in the language of the faith so many of us grew up with—one that prioritizes brotherhood over separation, and care for the least of these over selfishness and hate.”
—Joy Reid, New York Times best-selling author and host of The Joy Reid Show

"Jones stands as one of the most important Christian voices in our time. He confronts, unflinchingly, the ugliness at the heart of the white evangelical embrace of Trumpism. He calls those who believe and live the Gospel to confront authoritarianism directly and to refuse to break bread with those who embrace it in the name of the Christian faith. Backslide is a powerful jeremiad for these dark days and clarion call for us all!"
—Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Princeton University; author of America, USA: How Race Shadows the Nation’s Anniversaries

"With history as a guide, Robert P. Jones issues a clarion call to American Christians: choose either the way of Christ or complicity with a movement that preys on the vulnerable and privileges the few. Every American Christian should read this book and take its message to heart. This is our 1933."
—Kristin du Mez, New York Times best-selling author of Live, Laugh, Love and Jesus and John Wayne