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Summary
Summary
Drawing on history, public opinion surveys, and personal experience, Robert P. Jones delivers a provocative examination of the unholy relationship between American Christianity and white supremacy, and issues an urgent call for white Christians to reckon with this legacy for the sake of themselves and the nation.
As the nation grapples with demographic changes and the legacy of racism in America, Christianity's role as a cornerstone of white supremacy has been largely overlooked. But white Christians--from evangelicals in the South to mainline Protestants in the Midwest and Catholics in the Northeast--have not just been complacent or complicit; rather, as the dominant cultural power, they have constructed and sustained a project of protecting white supremacy and opposing black equality that has framed the entire American story.
With his family's 1815 Bible in one hand and contemporary public opinion surveys by Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) in the other, Robert P. Jones delivers a groundbreaking analysis of the repressed history of the symbiotic relationship between Christianity and white supremacy. White Too Long demonstrates how deeply racist attitudes have become embedded in the DNA of white Christian identity over time and calls for an honest reckoning with a complicated, painful, and even shameful past. Jones challenges white Christians to acknowledge that public apologies are not enough--accepting responsibility for the past requires work toward repair in the present.
White Too Long is not an appeal to altruism. Drawing on lessons gleaned from case studies of communities beginning to face these challenges, Jones argues that contemporary white Christians must confront these unsettling truths because this is the only way to salvage the integrity of their faith and their own identities. More broadly, it is no exaggeration to say that not just the future of white Christianity but the outcome of the American experiment is at stake.
Author Notes
Robert P. Jones is the president and founder of Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and a leading scholar and commentator on religion and politics. Jones writes regularly on politics, culture, and religion for The Atlantic , TIME , and Religion News Service. He is frequently featured in major national media, such as MSNBC, CNN, NPR, The New York Times , The Washington Post , and others. He holds a PhD in religion from Emory University and a MDiv from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity , which won a 2021 American Book Award, and The End of White Christian America , which won the 2019 Grawemeyer Award in Religion. He writes a regular Substack newsletter at RobertPJones.substack.com.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Sociologist Jones (The End of White Christian America), founder and CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute, offers in this vociferous work a refreshing blend of historical accounting, soul-searching reflection, and analysis of white supremacy within the American Christian identity. "White Christian churches have not just been complacent; they have not only been complicit... as the dominant cultural power in America, they have been responsible for constructing and sustaining a project to protect white supremacy at the expense of black equality." He challenges white Christians to see how white supremacy operates in their religious lives; learn its history, theology, and physical presence; to understand how racism has become "constitutive of white Christian identity"; and to take antiracist action. Woven throughout is the author's personal story of growing up white in a Southern Baptist community in Jackson, Miss., his journey toward a fuller understanding of his family and faith history in relation to racism, and his efforts to chart a more just path forward. Only with honest assessment, followed by deliberate individual and collective reparative justice work, Jones argues, can white Christian Americans do the necessary work of addressing structural racism within their faith and nation. Jones's introspective, measured study is a revelatory unpacking of influence and history of white Christian nationalism. (June)
Booklist Review
In this important book, Jones (The End of White Christian America, 2016) methodically lays out the source of American racism's origins and its continued flourishing: white evangelical churches. Drawing on his own southern background, he explores the culture that inculcated white social dominance and control, but his personal story is only a framing device for the extensive historical and sociological research that comprises the bulk of the book. Beginning with the schism over slavery in the Baptist denomination, Jones details how other white Protestant denominations and, eventually, Catholicism also came into the fold. Although scientists were also culpable in advancing notions of white supremacy, religion's role is the primary focus of this book. Jones holds a mirror to white religious culture, cautioning those who "read their worldview back into the Bible." Leaders must own up to their history, confess the deep hurt they have caused African Americans, and make reparations. This book is a marvel. It manages to quietly excoriate the insidious, entrenched attitudes that continue to sow racial hatred and division and to show the large and small ways that they continue. Devoid of moralizing, this powerful, heavily researched and annotated book is a must-read for religious leaders and academics.
Choice Review
Jones, the founder of the Public Religion Research Institute (PPRI), offers a kind of sequel to his previous book, The End of White Christian America (CH, Jan'17, 54-2181). Both rely on survey data drawn largely from PRRI's own work. This volume tells more of the history of how white Christian churches explicitly constructed the institutions of white supremacy up until the Civil Rights Movement. To address the present, Jones also offers quantitative data showing how white Christians, while feeling warmly toward African Americans personally, are much more likely to support social structures that sustain white domination of American society. Throughout the text Jones interweaves his personal story of growing up a devout Southern Baptist and fully embracing symbols of white supremacy without realizing the contradiction. The book ends with examples of white Christians trying to face and change the legacy of white supremacy, mostly in the South. A solid work, though with less quantitative data than one would expect given the author's previous work and current occupation. Summing Up: Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty. --Beau Weston, Centre College
Kirkus Review
A scholar and commentator raised in the Southern Baptist Church clearly demonstrates "how intractably white supremacy has become embedded in the DNA of American Christianity." Growing up amid a religious tradition that believed "chattel slavery could flourish alongside the gospel of Jesus Christ," Jones approaches his subject matter from both a personal and historical perspective. His book--a concise yet comprehensive combination of deeply documented religious history, social science research about contemporary religion, and heartfelt memoir--traces a path that began in the narrow world of Macon, Georgia, and other Jim Crow--infested Southern towns. He received a master of divinity degree from the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, but it wasn't until he entered the doctorate program at Emory University that he understood "the brutal violence that white Christians deployed to resist black enfranchisement after the Civil War." As Jones points out, those Christians were not limited to the Baptist faith. The author located race hatred embedded in the doctrines of other Christian churches, including Methodist, Episcopalian, Catholic, and countless other heavily white congregations. Even though he was shocked and disgusted by his discoveries, Jones held back from sharing those disturbing realizations widely, first conducting studies through his work at the organization he founded, the Public Religion Research Institute. Those consistently illuminating studies, mentioned throughout the book, paint a damning portrait. One example: "For all white Christian subgroups," writes the author, "there is a positive relationship between holding racist attitudes and white Christian identity among both frequent (weekly or more) and infrequent church attenders." The most hopeful case study focuses on his hometown of Macon, where there are efforts between white and black Baptist churches to pull together. As Jones has sought various paths out of the morass, he has often turned to the writings of James Baldwin about "the white problem" in U.S. society. An indispensable study of Christianity in America. (b/w images) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Is there a connection between America's churches and white supremacy? Jones (CEO, Public Religion Research Inst.; End of White Christian America) considers this question in this examination of white Christian America. In this wide-ranging work, Jones covers several time periods: from "Redemption" in the South following the end of Reconstruction through Jim Crow apartheid to the current issue of Confederate statues in public spaces. Jones finds examples of white Christians legitimizing and enforcing white supremacy, from lynchings in the South to housing restrictions in the North. Jones documents the disconnection between the official progressive denominational stances on race to the racism perpetuated by individuals. While much time is spent on white supremacy among Southern Baptists, Jones also has examples from Methodist, Catholic, and other churches. Though the scope of the book is far-reaching, survey data are presented throughout, showing differences on racial issues between white and black Christians. Especially illustrative is a chart tabulating the number of Confederate statutes erected in each decade. VERDICT Jones provides hard figures and historical examples illustrating racial relations in the United States, and how people can work toward reconciliation. An ideal complement to Sarah Posner's Unholy.--Jeffrey Meyer, Mt. Pleasant P.L., IA
Table of Contents
| 1 Seeing: Our Current Moment | p. 1 |
| 2 Remembering: Christianity as the Conductor of White Supremacy | p. 25 |
| 3 Believing: The Theology of White Supremacy | p. 73 |
| 4 Marking: Monuments to White Supremacy | p. 107 |
| 5 Mapping: The White Supremacy Gene in American Christianity | p. 155 |
| 6 Telling: Stories of Change | p. 189 |
| 7 Reckoning: Toward Responsibility and Repair | p. 223 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 237 |
| Appendices | p. 243 |
| Notes | p. 255 |
| Bibliography | p. 279 |
| Index | p. 293 |
