I’ve been gearing up for the launch of my forthcoming book, BACKSLIDE, so it’s been a while since we’ve had an Author Salon. I’m thrilled to announce that the next RD Author Salon will be held with John Fugelsang via Substack+Live on Wednesday at 7:00 pm ET. (Note the different format—full instructions on joining below).

John Fugelsang will join me to talk about his New York Times bestselling book, Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds. Published last fall, John and this book have been causing a buzz everywhere. I hope you’ll join us for this engaging and upbeat conversation about the upside down era in which we’re living. And if you haven’t picked up his book yet, it’s available here from Bookshop.

Buy Separation of Church and Hate

As a reminder, these occasional live events are for paid subscribers only. But good news—I’m still offering a 25% discount on all annual paid subscriptions between now and my book publication date of September 8. You can upgrade to a discounted paid subscription with the button below and get access to future author salons throughout the year.

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I hope you’ll join John and me for this lively conversation at this important time of reflection about our nation’s history and future. If you’re a paid subscriber already, you’ll get an email when the event starts, or you can bookmark this link.

Onward,
Robby

About John Fugelsang

John Fugelsang is the New York Times bestselling author of Separation of Church and Hate. He’s a Drama League–nominated actor, comedian, and broadcaster who’s hosted many TV shows and podcasts, including the acclaimed Tell Me Everything series on SiriusXM Progress. He’s gotten George Harrison to give his final performance on VH1, debated Jerry Falwell and David Duke, and made many appearances on MSNBC, FOX News, and CNN. He has been murdered on CSI and picketed by the Westboro Baptist Church. His epic PBS road trip film on the American Dream, Dream On, directed by Roger Weisberg, was named Best Documentary at the New York Independent Film Festival. Fugelsang lives in New York City with his family. His new book is Fake Christians.

About Separation of Church and Hate

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * In the spirit of George Carlin and Christopher Hitchens, the son of a former Catholic nun and a Franciscan brother delivers a deeply irreverent and biblically correct takedown of far-right Christian hatred—a book for believers, atheists, agnostics, and anyone who’ll ever have to deal with a Christian nationalist.

For more than two centuries, the United States Constitution has given us the right to a society where church and state exist independently. But Christianity has been hijacked by far-right groups and politicians who seek to impose their narrow views on government, often to justify oppressive and unequal policies. The extremists who weaponize the Bible for earthly power aren’t actually on the side of Jesus—and historically they never have been. How do we fight back against those acting—literally—in bad faith?

Comedian and broadcaster John Fugelsang finally offers the answers. In this informative, perspective-shifting book, Fugelsang takes readers through common fundamentalist arguments on abor­tion, immigration, LGBTQ rights, and more—exposing their hypocrisy and inaccuracy through scripture, common sense, and deeply inappropriate humor. It offers practical tips on how to debate your loved one, coworker, or neighbor on the issues that divide us using that Bible they claim to follow.

But Fugelsang’s message is about more than just taking down hypocrites. It’s about fighting for the love, mercy, and service that are supposed to make up the heart of Christianity. Told with Fugelsang’s trademark blend of radical honesty, comedy, and deep political and religious knowledge, Separation of Church and Hate is the book every American needs today. It’s a rallying cry for compassion and clarity for anyone of any faith who’s sick of religion being used as a cloaking device for hate.

How to Join the Substack+Live Author Salon

I’ll be hosting a live conversation for paid subscribers on Wednesday, August 12 at 7:00 pm ET.

This will be a paid-subscriber-only event, held directly on Substack. Paid subscribers can join by clicking the live event link, by opening the reminder from Substack, or by going to the Substack app when the event begins. (Note: You do NOT have to pre-register as you have in the past).

How to join:

1. Make sure you are logged in to Substack with the account connected to your paid subscription.

2. Click the event link HERE. (https://open.substack.com/live-stream/315320?utm_source=live-stream-scheduled-upsell)

3. A few minutes before the event starts, open the link or check your Substack app/Activity notifications and join from there.

For the smoothest experience, I recommend installing or updating the Substack app and turning on Substack notifications so you receive the live reminder when the event begins.

Because this event is reserved for paid subscribers, free subscribers who would like to attend can upgrade with a 25% discount before the event here:

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I hope you’ll join us. You’ll have a chance to hear from John directly and to post questions in the chat. If you miss it, I’ll email a link to the conversation the next day.

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ICYMI live, I joined earlier this week to talk about my recent post revealing the strong Republican and white Christian nationalist support not only for ICE but for rounding up immigrants and putting them in concentration camps that are begin built on U.S. soil.

In our conversation, Waj quickly got to the heart of it: “It’s an ideology of cruelty.” Just take a look at this single chart. And let this reality sink in for a moment.

Three quarters of Republicans and white Christian nationalists (these are overlapping constituencies: a majority of Republicans qualify as Christian nationalists) agree that “the government should detain immigrants who are in the country illegally in internment camps until they can be deported.” That’s where Trump’s bigotry and his MAGA movement have brought us.

I hope you’ll listen to the whole conversation as Waj and I break it all down. We also talk about what my new book, BACKSLIDE, has to say about our current moment.

My New Book BACKSLIDE Drops in Just a Few Weeks

My new book BACKSLIDE is now available for pre-order, delivery 09/08. Here’s what had to say about the book:

As you may know, preorders play a big role in the success of a book. In fact, the single most important thing you can do to support an author is to pre-order his or her book. Pre-orders signal to retailers that they should have sufficient copies on hand on publication day and encourages them to promote it in their stores.

If you order now, BACKSLIDE will be delivered to your doorstep or device the day after Labor Day, September 8. What better way to kick off the fall as we look toward the consequential midterm elections? It’s available in hardcover, ebook, and audio book everywhere books are sold. (Note: Ordering through Bookshop or Amazon using the links below helps support this newsletter, while ordering a signed copy helps support my local independent bookstore, People’s Book).

Buy from Bookshop

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And click here if you’d like to hear a sneak preview of the audio book.

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If you want to dig into the numbers more, here’s the full post with the latest data.

I explore these harrowing and increasingly frequent Nazi echoes by Trump and MAGA leaders like Miller in my new book, Backslide: Reclaiming a Faith and a Nation After the Christian Turn Against Democracy (SHIPS SEPTEMBER 8, 2026). Here’s a short quote from chapter 2 of the new book on this point:

The greatest danger of the MAGA movement is that it taps the ancient subterranean stream of white supremacy and Christian nationalism that has fed, in different ways, the fascist movements of the early twentieth century and the authoritarian movements of the twenty-­ first. In the contemporary American transposition of fascism, whiteness stands in for Aryan ethnicity, and Christian nationalism substitutes for Hitler’s call for a new German Weltanschauung (worldview). Ultimately, the MAGAcall for a “glorious” ethno-religious state—­ with its toxic narrative of religious defilement and purity, racial resentment and revenge—­ is a warning sign of serious democratic backsliding. It is also the recognizable machinery that paves the road to fascism and political violence.

As you may know, pre-orders play a big role in the success of a book. In fact, the single most important thing you can do to support an author is to pre-order his or her book. (And thanks so much to those of you who placed those early orders to help land my previous book, The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy, on the New York Times bestseller list in its first week!). Pre-orders signal to retailers that they should have sufficient copies on hand on publication day and encourages them to promote it in their stores.

If you order now, BACKSLIDE will be delivered to your doorstep or device the day after Labor Day, September 8. What better way to kick off the fall as we look toward the consequential midterm elections? It’s available in hardcover, ebook, and audio book everywhere books are sold. (Note: Ordering through Bookshop or Amazon using the links below helps support this newsletter, while ordering a signed copy helps support my local independent bookstore, People’s Book).

Buy from Bookshop

Buy from Amazon

Buy SIGNED from People's Book

And click below if you’d like to hear a sneak preview of the audio book.

Related on Redeeming Democracy

Few of these critics of the term Christian nationalism have carefully engaged with the growing body of rigorous peer-reviewed evidence produced by sociologists Sam Perry, , Phil Gorski, , and others. Most either don’t understand or intentionally misrepresent the way that statistical scales comprised of multiple survey questions work.

They quibble with individual question wording without acknowledging the statistically robust way these batteries of questions hold together (e.g., confirmation with factor analysis and a very high 0.93 Cronbach’s alpha measure of internal consistency on a scale from 0.0 to 1.0), measures that indicate that these attitudes comprise a coherent underlying worldview. Moreover, they seldom grapple with the deeply troubling ways these Christian nationalist attitudes—particularly among white Christians—are strongly correlated to anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, antisemitic, anti-Black, and misogynistic beliefs that are anathema not only to liberal democracy but the fundamental Christian ethic of love.

Today, I want to focus on just one disturbing fact: the way white Christians who score high on the Christian nationalist scale support ICE and the building of concentration camps for immigrants on U.S. soil.

We all saw the violent behavior of masked ICE officers in Minneapolis, which resulted in the fatal shootings of Renée Nicole Goode and Alex Pretti, along with the shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis. During Trump’s second term, nine people have been shot and killed by federal officers from ICE and CBP. In 2025 alone, 31 people died in ICE custody. Just last week, we got this news:

ICE officers killed two people over the past week, in Houston and the coastal city of Biddeford, Maine, amid a recent surge in immigration arrests. Both were shot after agents tried to stop their vehicles, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

There was a brief window in which ICE was ordered to halt vehicle stops because they had lead to these deadly killings of innocent people, only to have President Trump quickly order them to resume.

The support for Trump’s mass deportation plans and violent tactics—almost exclusively targeting non-white immigrants (while putting out the welcome mat for white South Africans)—is increasingly unpopular among most Americans. But among the white Christian nationalist MAGA base, support remains remarkably high.

The following chart demonstrates that self-identified Republicans are “all in” on Trump’s mass deportation agenda and the buildup of ICE. Across four different questions, seven in ten Republicans support ICE, compared to less than one quarter of all other Americans.

More notable are the opinions of white Americans who score high on the Christian nationalism scale and qualify as Christian Nationalist Adherents or Sympathizers.

Here’s the rundown of support for ICE among white Christian nationalist Adherents and Sympathizers, compared to the rest of the country:

• Three quarters (75%) DISAGREE that the surge of ICE officers in places like Minnesota are making our communities less safe., compared to 29% of all other Americans.

• 77% favor the increase in funding for ICE to increase efforts to arrest, detain, and deport undocumented immigrants, compared to only one quarter (25%) of all other Americans.

• 71% DISAGREE that ICE officers should be prohibited from concealing their identity with masks or using unmarked vehicles when arresting people, compared to only 26% of all other Americans.

• 74% hold favorable views of ICE officers, compared to only 22% of all other Americans.

Notably, Christian nationalism is the decisive dividing attitude among whites. Whites who reject Christian nationalism (who qualify as Christian nationalism Skeptics or Rejecters) disagree with their Christian nationalist peers on all of these questions.

But the most chilling evidence for the threat white christian nationalism poses to American democracy is their support for concentration camps on U.S. soil.

Here, nearly identical patterns emerge. Approximately three quarters of both Republicans (73%) and white Christian nationalist Adherents/Sympathizers (77%) agree that the federal government should detain immigrants who are in the country illegally in internment camps until they can be deported. Less than one third of all other Americans agree with this sentiment.

And again, Christian nationalist sentiments starkly divide white Americans. Only 33% of whites who reject the Christian nationalist worldview support detaining immigrants in internment camps.

Taken together, this data paints an ominous portrait of the America that white Christian nationalists want to see. White Christian nationalists are not just supportive of their own rights to carry their beliefs into the public square. Ultimately, they want to purge the public square, and our cities and neighborhoods, of people who do not believe and look like them.

Even in the face of demonstrable violence by ICE and the deaths of innocent people including American citizens, those who qualify as white Christian nationalists enthusiastically support Trump’s masked enforcers whose rough appearance and thuggish behaviors resemble Hitler’s Brownshirts or vigilantes more than trained law enforcement. And if we still needed to see a clear line in the sand, the building of concentration camps across the land is a clear indicator of just how far they’ve cheered America down the path to authoritarianism.

ICYMI on Redeeming Democracy

Late yesterday afternoon, after our weekly taping of The Convocation Unscripted—our weekly video podcast with me, , , and — I threw out a wacky idea: What if we watched Trump’s speech about “election security” and we did it live on Substack?

Kristin and Jemar somehow agreed to the idea (Diana is five hours ahead of us in Ireland, so she was off the hook), and we responded in real-time to the speech.

For all the mirth we experienced planning this impromptu episode, the subject couldn’t be more serious. What we witnessed is nothing less than the President of the United States laying the groundwork to undermine and subvert the midterm elections.

In this episode, we give tons of book recommendations, practical steps for taking action, and our own analysis of the gravity of this moment.

Listen to the episode, but don’t stop there. Share this with someone you think needs to hear it, too. If you’d like to hear more real time analysis from us each week, please sign up for The Convocation Unscripted below (it’s free).

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The Convocation Unscripted

A collaborative Substack magazine and podcast featuring writing on faith, culture, and politics from award-winning authors Diana Butler Bass, Kristin Du Mez, Robert P. Jones, and Jemar Tisby.

By Robert P. Jones

What did you think of Trump’s speech? Let me know in the comments.

From time to time, we include guest posts at Redeeming Democracy. I’m grateful to theologians Rita Nakashima Brock and Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite for today’s insightful post.

The politics of hate does not fall from the sky. In the U.S., it is deliberately created and sustained by rituals and themes from Christian theology that date back to the time of the Crusades, when the idea of “holy” war replaced just war, and enemies, especially Jews and Muslims, were demonized as agents of Satan.

Recently, a Vacation Bible School skit at a Lexington, Kentucky, church drew national attention after a video showed men dressed as soldiers entering a sanctuary carrying airsoft-style rifles and “executing” a person who portrays the devil. The murder occurs on the chancel steps as a pastor presides over it. He leads the children to cheer repeatedly, “Take him out! Blow him up!” The “devil,” clothed in a black hoodie, writhes on the ground in agony, seems to die, and is carried out a side door by the shooters. Very young children, who often cannot distinguish a simulation from reality, are present in the crowd.

Children are not born haters; they have to be trained to believe that God sanctions violence against what they are taught to hate. Such graphic enactments groom children to accept lethal violence. While this particular event might seem shocking, it has deep roots in Christian atonement theology, the idea that someone must violently suffer for sin. God required Jesus to be tortured and murdered on the cross to redeem sinful humanity and save us from eternal torment in hell.

Atonement theology, however, was not the dominant form of soteriology in early Christianity. But it was heavily promoted in 1096 as war propaganda for the crusades, with Pope Urban II recruiting fighters by declaring “Deus Vult!” (God wills it!). Christians were supposed to be willing to die for Christ as he died for them—with an additional bonus: the remission of any debts, both financial and spiritual. (Notably, that violent Latin Crusader phrase is tattooed on Pete Hegseth’s upper arm.)

Once atonement theology established itself as orthodox doctrine, it created an expansive space within Christianity for violence. Medieval executions in parts of Europe were public events, attended by everyone in town, including children. Crowds reenacted the crucifixion by weeping as the victim ritually forgave them for the killing and then cheered the execution—capital punishment as ritual enactment and gruesome entertainment.

After the Civil War and into the 20^th century, public lynchings helped grow and sanctify the virulence of white racism, and not just in the South. Some local newspapers gave the time and place of lynchings so schools could close and families, dressed for a picnic, could attend. Bodies were often set on fire. In this news article from Delaware, it is clear northern white women could take a leading role in sanctifying lynching as a Christian act. “One minister’s wife is willing to apply the torch.”

Attendees, including children, collected charred bones and fabric as souvenirs. Photographers set up tents to take pictures and produce postcards for people to send to friends and family. Rita attended an exhibition of those horrifying postcards at the Ruth Horowitz Gallery in New York—some show smiling white children in them. They are collected in a book called “Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America” (Twin Palms Publishers, 2000).

These public lynchings were illegal and at the same time tacitly approved, as in this news article where Mississippi Governor Thomas Bilbo, a former Baptist preacher and purveyor of white supremacist Christianity, claims to be “powerless” to stop it.

More recently, Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” illustrated this strain of Christianity with an intense, hyper-violent depiction of Jesus’ final hours. The flogging of Jesus as sadistic theological porn goes on for fully forty minutes. Flecks of skin spatter the crowd while Satan looks on approvingly. When Susan went to see the film, the theater was filled by parents with young children, some of whom cried and screamed at what was being shown on the screen.

Against this backdrop, it is clear that the current attempt to merge violence and far right politics with Christianity is not an aberration. Atonement theology, which sanctifies execution as an act of grace and love, sits at the center of White Nationalist Christianity.

Right-wing, atonement-based Christianity adores religiously motivated violence, ritually repeated as habits of behavior and belief. The Vacation Bible School event, as horrible as it is, was just one iteration of an obsession with hate-filled violence. The church pastor, who led the enactment, defended it by saying Christians were forbidden to hate anyone, except the devil, so the lesson was to generate hate and direct violence toward the devil.

But these strong theological currents that run through white supremacist culture are not so easily tamed. They make violence not only permissible but inevitable, as a means of purging society of what is labeled “evil.” Atonement theology and ritually enacted violence groom children to hate, first the Devil and then, inevitably, the humans they are convinced are his agents.

Rita Nakashima Brock, Ph.D., is a theologian and co-author of Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering and the Search for What Saves Us and Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire. She offers courses on moral injury twice a year via the Soul Repair Center at Brite Divinity school.

The Reverend Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, Ph.D., is President Emerita and Professor Emerita of Chicago Theological Seminary. She is the author or editor of 17 academic books and 7 novels, and she has been a translator for two different translations of the Bible. She writes on Substack at “No Fear Religion and Politics.”

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Recently on Redeeming Democracy

As we wrap up a long summer week (could Independence Day have been just 6 days ago?), I’m looking ahead and realizing that we’re now within two months of the release of my new book, BACKSLIDE: Reclaiming a Faith and a Nation after the Christian Turn Against Democracy. After years of working on this book, I’m excited to see it coming into the world.

Right on cue, I received word that the audio book recording of BACKSLIDE has now been finalized, along with a sneak preview from the first chapter, entitled “Future Regret,” which I’m glad to be able to share with you here.

BACKSLIDE is available on all audiobook platforms, including the following:

Pre-Order from Libro.fm

Pre-Order from Audible

Pre-order from B&N

I also want to say a public “thank you” to the talented actor Holter Graham, who has now skillfully read each of my last four books. Graham has been all over film, television, and theatre since the 1980s. And he’s done narration work for the likes of Stephen King, Scott Turow, and Bob Woodward. My wife Jodi Kanter is a theatre professor at George Washington University, so the considerable skill involved in delivering polished audio is not lost on me. It’s odd to owe a debt over a span of a decade to someone I’ve never met, so I at least wanted to express my gratitude and admiration to Graham for his craft.

Review of BACKSLIDE from Library Journal

I posted this positive early review of BACKSLIDE from Publisher’s Weekly a few weeks ago:

“Bracing—Jones presents a vision of America as “fallen into... apostasy.” But he remains hopeful, noting that “backsliding is not irreversible,” as “repentance is possible... with confession” and the “acknowledging of difficult truths.” It’s a potent reckoning."—Publishers Weekly

This week, another early review dropped at Library Journal:

Jones (The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy), the founder and president of Public Religion Research Institute, was raised a white Southern Baptist in Jackson, MS. Steeped in the faith, he remembers training for witnessing but never straying into Black neighborhoods to save new souls. In fact, it was not until he attended a Baptist seminary that he discovered his denomination had split from Northern Baptists to justify keeping Black people enslaved. His church used the term “backslide” to refer to a lapse in religious belief or conduct. Such a lapse would require a personal realization of the need to return to God. In his latest book, Jones connects white Christian nationalism to the backsliding, or deterioration, of democracy in the U.S. He sees a link between the push for a Christian theocracy and a decline in liberal democracy. The book’s chapters use terms that describe the Christian need to examine one’s souls: intention, examination, formation, confession, transformation, and redemption. The epilogue brings his thesis into the current political situation, exhorting Christians in the U.S. to oppose cruelty under the Trump administration.

VERDICT: A thoughtful critique of current politics from a Christian perspective.

ICYMI at Redeeming Democracy

In honor of this season of critical patriotism between Juneteenth and Independence Day, and in recognition of our nation’s 250th anniversary, I’m making available a 25% discount off of all annual paid subscriptions activated by today, July 5th.

If you are able, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to my newsletter as we work to strengthen our democracy together.

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Your paid subscription helps sustain my work, keeps most content free for everyone, and gives you full access to engaging community conversations and author salon webinars. It also represents your commitment to supporting unflinching writing and analysis on religion, racial justice, and democracy. That’s never been more critical.

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Here’s what recent paid subscribers have had to say about why they support Redeeming Democracy. Thank you all!

ICYMI on Redeeming Democracy

Thanks to the more than 300 of you who joined us last week for our RD Author Salon with Greg Garrett ( ) about his new book, White Lies: Dismantling 10 Cultural Myths about Race. Paid subscribers get access to these author salons throughout the year.

In honor of Independence Day weekend, I’m offering a discount for all new paid annual subscriptions made by tomorrow, July 5th. In addition to supporting my work, you’ll get exclusive access to author salons and other paid-only events throughout the year.

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I’ll be honest. With the current diminished state of democracy in our nation, I’ve had to dig deep to write a piece celebrating America’s 250th anniversary. Near my home in DC, the algae blooms and peeling paint in the reflecting pool near the Lincoln Memorial, the lackluster “Great American State Fair,” and the heat wave canceling the DC parade and fireworks show all seem fitting testimonies to our national malaise.

As ’s recent America250 survey shows, I’m not alone. When we put our finger on the pulse of the nation last month, here’s what we found:

• Just half of Americans are extremely or very proud of being an American (51%) or of America’s 250-year history (49%). More than eight in ten Republicans (83% and 82%, respectively) are extremely or very proud of their national identity and our history. But they are extreme outliers to the national mood. Less than half of Independents (43% and 44%) and fewer than one third of Democrats (31% and 28%) agree.

• Even fewer Americans are extremely or very proud of America’s economic achievements (34%), America’s good moral example for the world (24%), and the way democracy is working in America today (18%).

  

• Nearly six in ten (59%) Americans—including 65% of independents—agree that “President Trump is a dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy”, up from 52% in March 2025.

• And two-thirds (68%) of Americans agree that “we are in real danger of losing important democratic rights and freedoms we have had in this country.”

As you know from my recent post ahead of Juneteenth, I’ve been thinking a lot during these last two weeks—a period I propose in my forthcoming book BACKSLIDE should be “a season of critical patriotism”—about Frederick Douglass’s magisterial Independence day speech in which he asked the piercing question, “What to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?”

Today, I’m thinking particularly about the third movement of the speech, which Douglass marks with this remarkable transition line: “Notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country.” He want on to honor the memory of the “statesmen, patriots and heroes…for the good they did, and the principles they contended for.”

So today, I’m conjuring the spirit of Douglass against despair and celebrating one of the most important gifts the founders of our nation have given us: the principle of religious freedom embedded in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. That guarantee of individual liberty and state non-establishment has allowed religious diversity to flourish in the U.S. And that is something to celebrate.

Here are just a few notable findings from PRRI’s Census of American Religion, the largest ongoing demographic survey of U.S. religion. The map below is based on random probability surveys of over 400,000 interviews of Americans from all walks of life. If you go to the link above, you can explore the interactive maps for yourself and see the religious diversity of your own home county.

To measure religious diversity in the United States, the PRRI Census of American Religion uses an index developed to measure variations in the concentration of global religious populations. The index is calculated so that a score of 1 signifies complete diversity — every religious group is of equal size — and a score of 0 indicates a complete lack of diversity and one religious group comprises the entire population of a given county. Here’s what this project allows us to see.

At the national level:

• While Christians of European descent comprised the majority of the nation for most of its history, today only four in ten Americans identify as white and Christian.

• Christians of color comprise one in four Americans.

• Nearly one in ten Americans identify with a religion other than Christianity.

• Latino Catholics are nearly as numerous today as white Catholics.

• Nearly three in ten Americans today claim no religious affiliation.

At the county level:

• The average religious diversity score by county in the U.S. is 0.615.

• Religious diversity is highest in major urban centers. Of the 10 counties with the highest religious diversity scores, most are near cities that have served historically as immigration centers: four are in New York, three are in California, and one in Massachusetts. But there are some surprises: Montgomery County, Maryland, actually tops the list (0.89) and Montgomery Country, Pennsylvania, comes in at number 4 (0.88).

So even as I lament the decline of democracy in our nation as we mark our 250th anniversary, I’m leaning on the beacons like Douglass and refusing to despair of our country. We can see and celebrate the outcomes of our best principles like religious liberty. But these days are also a reminder that if we want our children and our children’s children to be able to celebrate these achievements, we will need to be prepared to defend them.

Three Resources from Redeeming Democracy on Independence Day

And here’s a link to my guest post from earlier this week over at .

What I Had to Say About White Lies

“As our nation revisits and revivifies America’s story in 2026, White Lies helps us discern both the truth of our challenging past and the shape of a hopeful future where we might live into the promise of racial equality and justice for all. Greg Garrett has given us an indispensable gift, a clear-eyed guide for navigating this challenging era of cultural change and backlash.”

Join Me For the Next RD Author Salon

As a reminder, these occasional live author salon events are for paid subscribers only. But good news—I’m still offering a 25% discount on all annual paid subscriptions through July 4th. You can upgrade to a discounted paid subscription with the button below and get access to future author salons throughout the year.

Get 25% off for 1 year

You can watch the full conversation above, and there’s more about Greg and his new book below! And, if you buy Greg’s book using one of the links from this newsletter, a portion of your purchase goes to support the Redeeming Democracy newsletter.

Buy White Lies at Bookshop

Onward,
Robby

About Greg Garrett and White Lies

Buy White Lies at Bookshop

But White Lies at Amazon

About Greg

Greg is a long-time collaborator and friend. Formally, he is the Carole McDaniel Hanks Professor of Literature and Culture at Baylor University and Canon Theologian for the American Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Paris, France. Some of you may remember my conversation with him at the American Cathedral in Paris or our last author salon conversation on his last book, The Gospel According to James Baldwin. He has published over thirty books, including A Long, Long Way: Hollywood’s Unfinished Journey from Racism to Reconciliation (2020). Greg also writes the Good Trouble substack newsletter.

About White Lies

For centuries, white men in the West have cultivated and perpetuated a set of false narratives about Black people in order to subjugate and maintain power over them. Some of these myths originated abroad but flourished in America, while others were cultivated solely on American soil. All of them, however, continue to find expression in the present as white supremacy strains to maintain its privilege.

White Lies analyzes ten of the most dangerous and pervasive of these myths and observes how they still emerge in political discourse, legislation, pop culture, and religion. This racist rhetoric is present in the words of Abraham Lincoln, George Wallace, and Donald Trump, and the power of white Christian nationalism often evokes these myths, sometimes so subtly listeners may not be conscious of how they are being manipulated. White Lies connects the dots between past narratives, images, and ideas, and present speech about violence, urban life, the suburbs, voter and welfare fraud, and white saviors. It explores myths that individuals and communities may employ to avoid confronting racism, including the notion that America is either post-racial or that white people are the group most liable to suffer discrimination. While these myths continue to spread, White Lies also notes some of the powerful competing narratives which seek to correct them.

ICYMI at Redeeming Democracy

Because I’ve been busy wrapping up the manuscript to my forthcoming book, BACKSLIDE, it’s been a while since we’ve had an Author Salon. I’m thrilled to announce that the next RD Author Salon will be held via Substack+Live on Tuesday at 12pm ET. (Note the different format—instructions on joining below).

My good friend and colleague Greg Garrett will join me to talk about his important new book, White Lies: Dismantling Ten Cultural Myths about Race, which will be published by Oxford University Press on July 1. It’s available for preorder now, so you can join us for the conversation on Tuesday and have the book arrive at your front door the next day.

Buy White Lies at Bookshop

As a reminder, these occasional live events are for paid subscribers only. But good news—I’m still offering a 25% discount on all annual paid subscriptions through July 4th. You can upgrade to a discounted paid subscription with the button below and get access to future author salons throughout the year.

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I hope you’ll join Greg and me for this lively conversation at this important time of reflection about our nation’s history and future.

Robby

How to Join the Substack+Live Author Salon

I’ll be hosting a live conversation for paid subscribers on Tuesday, June 30, 2026, at 12:00 p.m. Eastern.

This will be a paid-subscriber-only event, held directly on Substack. Paid subscribers can join by clicking the live event link below, by opening the reminder from Substack, or by going to the Substack app when the event begins. (Note: You do NOT have to pre-register as you have in the past).

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I hope you’ll join Greg and me live on Tuesday. You’ll have a chance to hear from Greg directly and to post questions in the chat. If you miss it, I’ll email a link to the conversation the next day.

About Greg Garrett and White Lies

Buy White Lies at Bookshop

About Greg

Greg Garrett is the Carole McDaniel Hanks Professor of Literature and Culture at Baylor University and Canon Theologian for the American Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Paris, France. Greg’s also become a friend, and some of you may remember my conversation with him at the American Cathedral in Paris or our last author salon conversation on his last book, The Gospel According to James Baldwin. He has published over thirty books, including A Long, Long Way: Hollywood's Unfinished Journey from Racism to Reconciliation (2020). Greg also writes the substack newsletter.

What I Had to Say About White Lies

"As our nation revisits and revivifies America's story in 2026, White Lies helps us discern both the truth of our challenging past and the shape of a hopeful future where we might live into the promise of racial equality and justice for all. Greg Garrett has given us an indispensable gift, a clear-eyed guide for navigating this challenging era of cultural change and backlash."
-- Robert P. Jones, president and founder, PRRI; NY Times bestselling author of Backslide: Reclaiming a Faith and a Nation after the Christian Turn Against Democracy

About White Lies

For centuries, white men in the West have cultivated and perpetuated a set of false narratives about Black people in order to subjugate and maintain power over them. Some of these myths originated abroad but flourished in America, while others were cultivated solely on American soil. All of them, however, continue to find expression in the present as white supremacy strains to maintain its privilege.

White Lies analyzes ten of the most dangerous and pervasive of these myths and observes how they still emerge in political discourse, legislation, pop culture, and religion. This racist rhetoric is present in the words of Abraham Lincoln, George Wallace, and Donald Trump, and the power of white Christian nationalism often evokes these myths, sometimes so subtly listeners may not be conscious of how they are being manipulated. White Lies connects the dots between past narratives, images, and ideas, and present speech about violence, urban life, the suburbs, voter and welfare fraud, and white saviors. It explores myths that individuals and communities may employ to avoid confronting racism, including the notion that America is either post-racial or that white people are the group most liable to suffer discrimination. While these myths continue to spread, White Lies also notes some of the powerful competing narratives which seek to correct them.

ICYMI at Redeeming Democracy

First, thanks to those of you who have taken advantage of the 25% discount on a paid annual subscription to Redeeming Democracy—welcome! If you’re a free subscriber and would like to support my writing and get access to paid subscriber benefits like live book salons with amazing authors throughout the year, the 25% discount offer will be available through July 4th.

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Second, Barnes & Noble is running a four-day flash sale for my new book. Preorder BACKSLIDE at bn.com from 6/23-6/26 and get 25% off with code PREORDER25.

Details on both offers are below. (Note: If you take advantage of both discounts, you’ll get BACKSLIDE for just $5 compared to the full price.)

In the meantime, the first official review of BACKSLIDE has just posted over at Publisher’s Weekly. I’m so grateful for those of you who have supported my writing over these past three years as I’ve been working on the new book. And I’m excited it’s almost here.

In solidarity,
Robby

Publishers Weekly Review of BACKSLIDE (Excerpt)

I’m thrilled to see this strong review of BACKSLIDE that just posted yesterday at PW:

Bestselling religious scholar Jones (The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy) examines the connection between the rise of right-wing extremism and evangelical Christianity in his bracing latest. Jones grounds his critique in the dual theological and political roots of the term “backslide.” Jones sees this dual sense of backsliding as the core of Trumpism, arguing that “we are now living in a... backslidden nation.” Jones is adamant: “We can no longer pretend we do not know where this path will lead.” Jones presents a vision of America as “fallen into... apostasy.” But he remains hopeful, noting that “backsliding is not irreversible,” as “repentance is possible... with confession” and the “acknowledging of difficult truths.” It’s a potent reckoning.

Read the full review here.

B&N 25% Discount Offer - Flash Sale

Preorder BACKSLIDE at bn.com from 6/23-6/26 and get 25% off with code PREORDER25. Note, this discount is only available to B&N members but free memberships are available - learn more at barnesandnoble.com/membership/.

Get 25% Off BACKSLIDE at B&N

Redeeming Democracy 25% Discount Offer for the 250th Anniversary

In honor of Juneteenth and Independence Day, and in recognition of our nation’s 250th anniversary, I’m making available a 25% discount off of all annual paid subscriptions to Redeeming Democracy activated by July 4th.

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If you are able, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to my newsletter as we work to strengthen our democracy together.

Your paid subscription helps sustain my work, keeps most content free for everyone, and gives you full access to engaging community conversations and author salon webinars. It also represents your commitment to supporting unflinching writing and analysis on religion, racial justice, and democracy. That’s never been more critical.

*Note: If you’d like to receive the benefits of being a paid subscriber but cannot afford it, drop me a note at robertpjones.substack@pm.me and I can arrange a complimentary paid subscription.

Note: This post is an excerpt from a chapter entitled “Juneteenth” in my forthcoming book, Backslide: Reclaiming a Faith and a Nation After the Christian Turn Against Democracy, which will be published September 8 and is now available for pre-order.

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In 1852, the Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society of Rochester, New York, invited Frederick Douglass to give a speech at Corinthian Hall, the city’s most prestigious public venue, on the 76th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. That speech—delivered deliberately on July 5^th to emphasize the theme of his message—became known by Douglass’s central piercing question, “What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?”[ii]

After a prayer and a reading of the Declaration of Independence by two white ministers, Douglass stepped onto the familiar high speaker’s platform without an introduction, cradling his 30-page text. Douglass drew on the tradition of the Hebrew prophets, prepared to deliver an American jeremiad. But he did not merely unleash anger at the hypocrisy of white celebrations of independence in a nation where chattel slavery remained legal. Douglass crafted a piece of art, what historian David Blight describes as a rhetorical “symphony in three movements.”

In the first movement, Douglass established common ground with his white audience. He praised the genius of the founding fathers and referred to the Fourth of July as an American Passover, a holiday that holds a narrative we performatively tell ourselves about our origins, journey, and identity. But he also warned that all was not well. The nation’s two largest white religious bodies, the Baptists and the Methodists, had each split into northern and southern factions over the issue of slavery in 1845; southern politicians had succeeded in passing the brutal Fugitive Slave Act in 1850; and Harriett Beacher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, published just three months prior to his speech in 1852, had fanned the flames of the abolitionist movement, deepening divisions among the country’s white population.

When Douglass spoke of “dark clouds…above the horizon…portending disastrous times,” he was describing a gathering of forces his audience palpably sensed. Yet, Douglass said, the nation’s destiny was still malleable. There was still time to avoid calamity, but only if its citizens would cling fiercely to its founding principles of freedom and equality.

Douglass then shifted to the middle portion of the speech, a crescendo he sustained for fourteen pages. He shifted his possessive pronouns from “our” to “your,” forcefully highlighting the distance between himself and his white audience. In wave after wave of powerful prose, filled with memorable metaphors, he exposed the hypocrisy of slavery in a republic founded on the Declaration of Independence. “Fellow citizens,” he finally asked, “pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence?”

As he elaborated on this question, he pulled no punches:

I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me.

This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day?[iii]

He closed the second movement of the speech with an unflinching indictment of complacent white churches, declaring that slavery “brands your republicanism as a sham, your humanity as a base pretense, and your Christianity a lie.” In a harrowing final image, Douglass warned that slavery was “a horrible reptile,” a “venomous creature…nursing at the tender breast of your youthful republic.” [iv] The nation and its ideals, Douglass insisted, would only survive if its white citizens ripped slavery from its intimate place in their lives and cast it aside.

Douglass paused to allow the echoes of his baritone voice to fade in the still hall.

In the final movement of the speech, he again held out hope that the United States might yet live to be a nation worthy of its professed values. “Notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented of the state of the nation,” he declared, “I do not despair of this country.” Even while exposing their blind spots and contradictions, Douglass thought it appropriate to honor the memory of the “statesmen, patriots and heroes…for the good they did, and the principles they contended for.” In this masterful performance, Douglass was asking his white audience to hold their naive patriotism up next to his dissonant reality, not to cast shade but to light the road yet to be traveled.

As he wrapped up the speech, the 600 mostly white listeners spontaneously rose to their feet and let out a cheer accompanied by “a universal burst of applause.”[v] Through this ovation, the audience acknowledged the truth of Douglass’s experience. The Fourth of July was an incomplete version of the American story; it was their story, perhaps, but it was not his story and, therefore, could not be the nation’s story.

Growing up, the Fourth of July was the nation’s great official summer holiday. It provided a break between the three months separating the other two federal holidays that bookend the summer: May’s Memorial Day and September’s Labor Day. But on June 17, 2021, the status of Independence Day as the nation’s lone summer holiday changed. President Joe Biden signed legislation adding a second official summer holiday, Juneteenth, to the calendar—the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was designated in 1983.

In short, Juneteenth marks the day that enslaved African Americans in Texas finally received the news that they were free. Juneteenth celebrates the date—June 19, 1865—when the Union Army’s Major General Gordon Granger issued General Orders No. 3, an order that notably went beyond even the language of Lincoln’s declaration, specifying that the new arrangement stipulated “an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves.”[vi]

The holiday is the oldest continuous celebration of African Americans’ emancipation from slavery in the country. It is the day African Americans themselves have most celebrated, first in Texas, and then, spreading with the Great Migration, in the rest of the nation. As Texas-born Pulitzer-Prize winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed notes, the holiday is also a fitting addition to the national pantheon because it originates in a state where all the strands of the American story—“a story of Indians, settler colonists, Hispanic culture in North America, slavery, race, and immigration”—are manifest.[vii] At the 2021 bill signing ceremony, President Biden declared, “By making Juneteenth a federal holiday, all Americans can feel the power of this day, and learn from our history, and celebrate progress, and grapple with the distance we’ve come but the distance we have to travel.”[viii] Biden issued a similar proclamation marking the new federal holiday in each of the four years of his presidency.

But the re-election of Donald Trump to the presidency in 2024 marked an aggressive reversal. Consistent with his broad attempts to erase Black history from the American story, President Trump refused to issue the customary presidential proclamation recognizing Juneteenth during the first year of his second term and removed it from the list of free admission days at the more than 100 national parks across the country. Instead, on the evening of June 19, 2025, Trump posted a not-so-subtle message on Truth Social complaining that there were “too many non-working holidays” in the country and that they are “costing our Country $BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to keep all of these businesses closed.”[ix] Notably, this message echoed racist Senator Jesse Helms’s disingenuous objection to the establishment of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983. During a failed filibuster attempt to derail the bill, Helms protested that the cost of a new national holiday would be $12 billion in lost productivity.[x]

Clearly, the holiday, and the nation, are at a crossroads. We’ve had just five short years—with the first mired in the Coronavirus pandemic—to practice celebrating Juneteenth as a nation. White Americans, especially, were just beginning to connect with the holiday. And now, a white supremacist president is telling us it need not be acknowledged.

In a conversation about my own uncertainty about how to appropriately celebrate Juneteenth as a white American, my friend Rev. Jacqui Lewis, the innovative African American senior minister of Middle Collegiate Church in New York City, suggested that because of its proximity to Independence Day, both temporally and conceptually, our newest federal holiday has great potential to help rehabilitate the Fourth of July from the jingoistic Christian nationalism it all too often evokes. As I reflected on that insight, I realized that one way to more securely incorporate Juneteenth into mainstream American culture would be to cultivate what we might call a “season of critical patriotism” between the two holidays.

Among the many gifts of being in an interfaith marriage is the ongoing invitation to experience and learn from a tradition that is not your own. As I’ve celebrated the Jewish High Holidays as a Christian over the last 20 years, I’ve been moved by the power of the moral space that opens in the ten days between a celebration of the promise of the new year on Rosh Hashanah (the head of the year) and lament over the failings of the past year at Yom Kippur (the day of atonement). The sweetness of apples and honey foreshadows the bitterness of fasting and repentance. On the calendar, these holidays occur in a line. But conceptually, they orbit one another like binary stars, generating a contemplative space between them known in Judaism as the “days of awe.”

The period of 15 days that span the space between Juneteenth and Independence Day could similarly function as an enduring season of critical patriotism for our time. Alongside the celebratory fireworks and other well-established practices surrounding the Fourth of July, we could develop a new civic liturgy that include the creative interplay of lament and celebration, reckoning and repair, truth-telling and hope. Borrowing from the High Holidays model, Juneteenth could function like Yom Kippur, recalling our struggles to overcome our shortcomings and achieve freedom, while Independence Day could echo Rosh Hashanah, recommitting us to shared national ideals.

Such a practice could also embrace a conviction that is deeply engrained in Judaism, Christianity, and indeed most religious traditions—that no people can live with integrity into the future if they cannot face their past failures to live up to their principles. Douglass saw this truth clearly, noting that any nation who was false to the past also “solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.” And President Biden observed this truth when he signed the legislation making Juneteenth a federal holiday, “Great nations don’t ignore their most painful moments. They don’t ignore those moments of the past. They embrace them…. And in remembering those moments, we begin to heal and grow stronger.”[xi]

Bringing the Juneteenth and the Fourth of July together in a creative mutual orbit, where each is embraced by the gravitational force of the other, can also help us develop other rituals that are honest about our country’s failings while also being hopeful about its possibilities.

Even amid our divisions, most Americans still want to embrace the vision of a pluralistic society. We need new rituals now more than ever. The attacks on the celebration of Juneteenth are testimony to their vital importance today. If we’ll let them, the proximity of Juneteenth to Independence Day can provide a civic space that helps us cope with the dilemma created by the gap between our highest principles and our historical contradictions. The creative energy generated by these pairings holds considerable promise for generating a new spirit of critical patriotism we sorely need.

Fairy-tale narratives of impossible national innocence are thankfully no longer credible, particularly to nonwhite or non-Christian Americans, or, as polling data consistently shows, to most Americans under the age of 40. But we ought not allow the harsh light of historical indictment to eclipse the noble principles still waiting to be realized.

So, as Ralph Ellison’s Black preacher says in this chapter’s epigraph, “let’s us tell ourselves our story,” one of America as a flawed but precious work in progress. White Christian nationalist protestations to the contrary, such a critical patriotism is not divisive; it is what may finally allow us to be whole.

25% Discount Offer for the 250th Anniversary

In honor of Juneteenth and Independence Day, and in recognition of our nation’s 250th anniversary, I’m making available a 25% discount off of all annual paid subscriptions activated by July 4th.

Get 25% off for 1 year

If you are able, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to my newsletter as we work to strengthen our democracy together.

Your paid subscription helps sustain my work, keeps most content free for everyone, and gives you full access to engaging community conversations and author salon webinars. It also represents your commitment to supporting unflinching writing and analysis on religion, racial justice, and democracy. That’s never been more critical.

*Note: If you’d like to receive the benefits of being a paid subscriber but cannot afford it, drop me a note at robertpjones.substack@pm.me and I can arrange a complimentary paid subscription.

[i] Ralph Ellison et al., Juneteenth, First Vintage International edition (Vintage International, 2021), 117.

[ii] For a moving account of Douglass’ speech, see David W. Blight, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom (Simon & Schuster, 2018), 229–36.

[iii] Frederick Douglass, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?,” Speech, Rochester, NY, July 5, 1852, https://archive.org/details/Douglass_July_Oration/page/2/mode/2up.

[iv] Blight, Frederick Douglass, 234–35.

[v] Blight, Frederick Douglass, 236.

[vi] Gordon Granger, “General Orders, No. 3,” Galveston Tri-Weekly News (Galveston, TX), June 20, 1865, https://web.archive.org/web/20200622014256/https://www.cah.utexas.edu/db/dmr/image_lg.php?variable=di_01803.

[vii] Gordon-Reed, On Juneteenth, 14.

[viii] Joseph Biden, “Remarks by President Biden at Signing of the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act,” Speech, Washington, DC, June 17, 2021, https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/06/17/remarks-by-president-biden-at-signing-of-the-juneteenth-national-independence-day-act/.

[ix] Aishvarya Kavi, “Juneteenth Goes Uncelebrated at White House as Trump Complains About ‘Too Many’ Holidays,” The New York Times (New York, NY), June 19, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/us/politics/juneteenth-white-house-slavery.html.

[x] Lily Rothman, “How MLK Day Became a Holiday,” TIME, January 20, 2020, https://time.com/3661538/mlk-day-reagan-history/.

[xi] Biden, “Remarks by President Biden at Signing of the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act.”

Signs of Disillusionment and Distress

Asked to choose between two statements, Americans are more than twice as likely to agree that “we are in real danger of losing important democratic rights and freedoms” than to agree that “the important democratic rights and freedoms we have will remain protected” (68% vs. 29%). In a pattern that repeats itself throughout the survey, overwhelming numbers of Democrats (86%) and independents (70%) agree with the first statement, while Republicans are divided between the two statements (51% vs. 47%).

“The fact that nearly 7 in 10 Americans believe we are in danger of losing critical rights and freedoms should set off alarm bells,” remarked PRRI CEO Melissa Deckman at the survey’s release.

The partisan divides are even stronger over perceptions of Donald Trump. Trump’s favorability is down from 41% just two years ago to 34% among the general population. But even as Trump’s favorability is slipping among most subgroups, it remains strong among the MAGA base: 79% among Republicans and 67% among white evangelical Protestants.

Notably, Americans are increasingly seeing Trump as a threat to democracy. When asked to choose between two statements, nearly 6 in 10 Americans agree that “President Trump is a dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy” (59%), up from 52% in March 2025, compared with 38% who agree “President Trump is a strong leader who should be given the power he needs to restore America’s greatness.” Most Democrats (91%, up from 87% in March 2025) and independents (66%, up from 56% in March 2025) agree with the first statement, while most Republicans agree with the second statement (78%, down from 81% in March 2025).

These partisan divides—with Democrats and independents perceiving one reality and Republicans decidedly perceiving another— represent a profound threat to the democratic experiment at 250.

The Country Most Americans Want:
A Pluralistic Democracy at Home and a Good Neighbor Nation Abroad

At home, most Americans reject the vision of America as a white Christian nation and remain committed to a vision of America that is religiously and racially diverse.

Nearly eight in ten Americans prefer the U.S. to be a nation made up of people from all over the world (77%) rather than one primarily made up of people of Western European heritage (20%). And nearly two-thirds of Americans prefer the U.S. to be a nation made up of people belonging to a wide variety of religions rather than one primarily made up of people who follow the Christian faith (64% vs. 34%). However, white evangelical Protestants and Republicans are outliers, preferring to live in a nation primarily made up of Christians (68% and 60%, respectively).

Abroad, Americans are far more likely to say they would prefer the U.S. “to be a reliable neighbor that cooperates with other nations and only uses military force as a last resort” than “to be known as a mighty nation that does not hesitate to use military force to defend our interests” (70% vs. 27%). However, slim majorities of white evangelical Protestants (52%) and Republicans (52%) agree with the second statement. Solid majorities of both independents (75%) and Democrats (90%), as well as all other major religious groups, prefer the U.S. to cooperate with other nations.

As we near time of reflection precipitated by the observance of our nation’s 250th anniversary, there are clear signs of disillusionment and distress. The nation is deeply divided along lines of party, race, and religion. Indeed, our partisan divides are now expressions of our racial and religious divides, with the Republican Party increasingly becoming the party of conservative white Christians (self-identified Republicans are 68% white and Christian in a country that is 40% white and Christian) and Christian nationalist ideology.

But the survey also generates some hopeful light. Most Americans still embrace—as Abraham Lincoln eloquently put it in his first inaugural address to his fellow citizens standing on the brink of a civil war—“the better angels of our nature.” Even amid the disorienting fog produced by the MAGA machine, more of us, and hopefully enough of us, are still keeping our eyes fixed on the unfulfilled promise of becoming a truly pluralistic democracy.

25% Discount Offer for the 250th Anniversary

In honor of Juneteenth and Independence Day, and in recognition of our nation’s 250th anniversary, I’m making available a 25% discount off of all annual paid subscriptions activated by July 4th.

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If you are able, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to my newsletter as we work to strengthen our democracy together.

Your paid subscription helps sustain my work, keeps most content free for everyone, and gives you full access to engaging community conversations and author salon webinars. It also represents your commitment to supporting unflinching writing and analysis on religion, racial justice, and democracy. That’s never been more critical.

*Note: If you’d like to receive the benefits of being a paid subscriber but cannot afford it, drop me a note at robertpjones.substack@pm.me and I can arrange a complimentary paid subscription.

Here’s what some recent readers have said about why they chose to become paid subscribers:

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• Unlike opinionators like myself you engage in an immense amount of research and polling that clears the air about much of what is going on at the intersections of our history and slavery, evangelical and Christian belief, and politics in America that impacts our lives.

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ICYMI, today , , and I unpack the latest PRRI data showing Trump’s favorability in free fall across the political and religious landscape. The key findings are below, and you can find more details at PRRI here.

Over a year into the second Trump administration, the latest survey from finds that just 34% of Americans hold favorable views of Donald Trump, down from 41% just ahead of the 2024 presidential election, compared to six in ten Americans who hold unfavorable views of the president (62%).

Chart 1. Trump Favorability by Party Affiliation

Trump’s vulnerability becomes clear when his declining popularity is examined across a 7-part partisan scale. Notably, the sharpest drops in Trump favorability are among independents and soft Republicans.

Among “strong Republicans,” Trump’s favorability remains high and stable, standing at around 91%. However, support among less committed Republicans has weakened significantly, with favorability among “not very strong Republicans” dropping 7 points, from 70% to 63%.

Since the 2024 election, Trump’s favorability among independents who “lean Republican” has fallen 17 points, from 65% to 48%. And it has fallen 21 points among “true independents” (those who don’t lean toward either party), from 35% to 14%. Trump’s favorability among independents who lean Democrat and both strong and not strong Democrats remains in the single digits and is virtually unchanged over the last two years.

Chart 2. Trump Favorability by Religious Affiliation

Among religious groups, Hispanic Christian groups have experienced the steepest decline in Trump favorability over the last two years (14 points), with Hispanic Protestants down to 37% and Hispanic Catholics down to 23%. Non-Christian religious Americans follow, with a 9 percentage-point decline from 27% in 2024 to 18% today. Favorability of Trump among all white Christians declined by 5 percentage points, while religiously unaffiliated support of the president dropped by 4 points and now stands at 21%.

White evangelical Protestants are now the only religious group in which a majority (67%) view Trump favorably, and Trump’s popularity has dropped 5 points even among this group since the 2024 election, and 9 points from an all-time high of 76% in May 2025.

Similarly, a slight majority of white Catholics (51%) viewed Trump favorably in September 2024. Today, that number has dropped to 46%, with the majority of white Catholics (54%) holding unfavorable views. In addition, Trump’s favorability dropped 8 points among white mainline/non-evangelical Protestants from 53% in September 2024.

Since 2015, Donald Trump’s favorability among Black Protestants has remained relatively stable, never reaching higher than 19%. Trump favorability among Black Protestants stands at 13% in May 2026.

The bottom line: As this administration continues to run roughshod over democratic norms and entangle our nation in unjust wars of choice, only one-third of Americans hold a favorable view of President Trump. And with the lone exception of white evangelical Protestants, he has now lost the support of all other religious groups in the country, including those groups who gave a majority of their votes to him in 2024.

Related at Redeeming Democracy

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Public opinion is the lifeblood of democracy. As the pioneering political scientist Harold Lasswell observed, “the open interplay of opinion and policy is the distinguishing mark of popular rule.” In a representative system, public opinion connects leaders to the people they serve — ideally acting as a check against the abuse of power.

But rigorous, independent research doesn’t sustain itself. At a moment when serious public-interest journalism and evidence-based research are increasingly under threat, your support is what keeps this work going.

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How To Get Your Copy of BACKSLIDE

I’m so excited that my new book, BACKSLIDE: Reclaiming a Faith and a Nation after the Christian Turn Against Democracy, is now available for pre-order wherever books are sold.

As you may know, pre-orders play a big role in the success of a book. In fact, the single most important thing you can do to support an author is to pre-order his or her book. It signals to retailers that they should have sufficient copies on hand on publication day and encourages them to promote it in their own stores.

If you order now, the book will be delivered to your doorstep or device the day after Labor Day, September 8. What better way to kick off the fall as we face the consequential midterm elections? It’s available in hardcover, ebook, and audio book everywhere books are sold. (Note: Ordering through Bookshop or Amazon using the links below helps support this newsletter, while ordering a signed copy helps support my local independent bookstore, People’s Book).

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I can’t wait for this book to make its way into the world and to share it with you all.

Join me and TODAY at 1pm ET for my first public in-depth conversation about my forthcoming book, Backslide: Reclaiming a Faith and a Nation After the Christian Turn Against Democracy. My book is now available for pre-order wherever books are sold, and signed copies are available from my favorite local bookstore (see details below).

I hope you can join us! I’ve been working on this book for the last three years. It’s the most personal, the most unflinching, and the the most urgent book I’ve written. And this will be my first in-depth public conversation about it.

You do not need to register ahead of time. When the livestream begins, Substack should notify you by email or app push notification, depending on your notification settings. You can join from your phone or computer. When the livestream starts, tap the Substack notification, or open the Substack app and look for the live video in your Home feed / reading queue. Tap the video to watch, and use the chat/comment area below the video to participate. If you miss it, I’ll send around the video afterward.

Hope to see you soon!

Robby

More about BACKSLIDE

I’m so excited to be sending this official post that my new book, BACKSLIDE: Reclaiming a Faith and a Nation after the Christian Turn Against Democracy, is now available for pre-order wherever books are sold.

As you may know, pre-orders play a big role in the success of a book. In fact, the single most important thing you can do to support an author is to pre-order his or her book. It signals to retailers that they should have sufficient copies on hand on publication day and encourages them to promote it in their own stores.

If you order now, the book will be delivered to your doorstep or device the day after Labor Day, September 8. What better way to kick off the fall as we face the consequential midterm elections? It’s available in hardcover, ebook, and audio book everywhere books are sold. (Note: Ordering through Bookshop or Amazon using the links below helps support this newsletter, while ordering a signed copy helps support my local independent bookstore, People’s Book).

Buy from Bookshop

Buy from Amazon

Buy SIGNED from People's Book

Here’s what Joy and some other fellow travelers have had to say about the book:

I can’t wait for this book to make its way into the world and to share it with you all.

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ICYMI: My Ongoing Series with Joy Reid on Countering White Christian Nationalism

In this latest episode of our series, Joy and I recount the White House religious festival (on the taxpayer dime) as a day of apostasy and right wing extremist politics.

Watch the segment:

Catch the whole Countering White Christian Nationalism series here.

I’ve had a busy weekend. I spent half the day on Sunday down on the National Mall attending Rededicate250, an event sponsored by the White House as part of the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the nation (Shout out to my friend Dr. Steve Livingston, Professor of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University, who came with me and shared his own astute observations). Today, I’ve talked to both NPR and CNN about what I saw and what I think it means.

You can watch my interview on CNN Situation Room above or here at CNN. And you can listen to the interview on NPR’s “Morning Edition” below. And scroll down for a photojournalism-style account of my encounter with the bad faith on the National Mall.

Postcards from My Visit to the Rededicate250 White Christian Nationalist Event on the DC National Mall

My wife Jodi Kanter is a performance studies scholar. Over the years, she’s taught me how to read a stage. As I made my way onto the green grass of the National Mall in Washington, DC, even before I could make out the audio and hear the words of any speakers, I was struck by the setting.

The stage itself was strategically placed in the shadow of the majestic Washington monument. It was framed vertically by four 40-foot fluted columns (Trump is obsessed with columns) and a faux stone cornice with dental molding, evoking a federal government building.

The backdrop featured a different faux stone wall, this one mimicking a church with three arched stained-glass windows. The largest window, dominating the stage, contained a 30-foot white cross—notably not a crucifix that would be found in Catholic spaces but an empty cross that would be familiar sight in evangelical Protestant services.

The content followed the setting. When I first arrived, someone near me jokingly but enthusiastically exclaimed, “Look, Jesus is speaking!” On stage was actor Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus on the series “The Chosen.” Even beyond his TV fame, Roumie is a familiar figure and hero to this audience, having also appeared at Christian Right events such as the 2023 March for Life in DC. One couple with whom I spoke travel all over the country to hear Roumie speak when they’re not volunteering as crowd extras on the set of “The Chosen” (making their own costumes and giving a donation of $1,200 each to the show for the privilege).

But I couldn’t stop thinking about the layers of theological distortions on the stage. Evangelical Christianity as the glowing heart of the government. The absurdity of a bespoke-suited Jesus, wearing a shiny lapel pin depicting the instrument of his execution painted with the stars and stripes.

The speaker lineup also made it clear that this event was in no way intended to represent the rich diversity of America. All of the featured public officials were Republicans in Trump’s close orbit. Nearly all the religious leaders were Christian, many drawn from Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission or his so-called “faith advisory group.” The overwhelming majority were from the white evangelical Protestant world—a group that comprises only 13% of the public and only 20% of American Christians.

As someone who has studied religion in the public square for more than two decades, this event marks yet another bright line being crossed by the Trump administration, a further crass instrumentalization of religion for political ends. In the MAGA world, the gentler spirit of a more inclusive civil religion—present in my memories of the public celebrations of the bicentennial in 1976—has been exorcised in favor of the malevolent militancy of Christian nationalism. The call for salvation of individuals and the nation, not just through God but through “our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” came not just from the likes of Franklin Graham but U.S. government cabinet member Pete Hegseth.

Overall, the vibe of Rededicate250 was somewhere between an evangelical outdoor revival meeting and a Trump rally. As you can see in the photos I took below, the attendees represented an exceedingly narrow slice of the American public and even American Christianity. I’d estimate the crowd was 95% white. While there were some families in attendance, most participants seemed to be in their 50s or 60s. You were just as likely to encounter folks decked out in Christian t-shirts as Trump merch (or both). Of the dozens I talked to, all but one (a young Catholic man who was wary of this mixing of partisan politics and faith) were some variety of white evangelical Protestant.

It was deflating to see an official event celebrating the 250th anniversary of the nation clearly taking aim at one of our most cherished and hard-one achievements, the separation of church and state that ensures a government free of religious establishment and a people free to practice a wide variety of religions or none.

As I exited past “The Freedom Truck,” however, I found hope in remembering what the data clearly show: that this narrow Christian nationalist vision is one rejected not only by two-thirds of the country by even by most Christians.

My New Book, BACKSLIDE, Now Available.

My new book, BACKSLIDE: Reclaiming a Faith and a Nation after the Christian Turn Against Democracy, is now available for pre-order wherever books are sold.

I’ve been working on this book for the last three years, wrestling with this Christian nationalist movement that was on display at the Rededicate250 event. It’s the most personal, unflinching, and urgent book I’ve written. And it’s almost here.

BACKSLIDE is available in hardcover, ebook, and audio book everywhere books are sold. (Note: Ordering through Bookshop or Amazon using the links below helps support this newsletter, while ordering a signed copy helps support my local independent bookstore, People’s Book).

Buy from Bookshop

Buy from Amazon

Buy SIGNED from People's Book

As you may have seen, the Trump administration is sponsoring a Christian nationalist event called “Rededicate 250” this Sunday on the National mall here in Washington, DC. I’ll be attending as a witness. And I’m inviting you to join me for an inspiring event Sunday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. ET, which will provide an alternative vision of a pluralistic democracy. Details below.

Here’s how a recent piece in The Guardian describes Sunday’s event:

Rededicate 250, billed as the faith-based component of America’s semiquincentennial, features speakers including a Detroit pastor who has called the Democratic platform “demonic” and launched his own memecoin after praying at Trump’s second inauguration; a rabbi who has defended the use of torture and authored an essay titled “The Virtue of Hate;” and a Christian author and radio host who said in 2020 he would die in the fight to keep Joe Biden out of the White House and was later named in a defamation suit over 2020 election fraud claims.

Hegseth, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and House speaker, Mike Johnson, are also scheduled to appear. The lineup includes no Muslims, no representatives of historically Black churches, no Indigenous faith leaders and no mainline Protestants.

I’ve been busy this week helping the media make sense of this blatant attempt to ignore America’s rich religious diversity, rewrite American history, and pretend that white evangelical Protestants stand in for all Christians and even for all religious Americans.

I have an exciting invitation to extend to everyone. I’m participating in an alternative event that you can tune into right here on the Redeeming Democracy substack channel. Here are the details from the Save America Movement, which is sponsoring the event:

Today, while Christians across America observe their holy day, thousands will gather on the National Mall to worship at a very different altar — Donald Trump’s. Join us live at 4pm ET for a screening of Bad Faith 2026: Christian Nationalism in Power, followed by a live discussion at 5:15pm ET with Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, Rev. Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Lisa Sharon Harper and Dr. Robert P. Jones – four faith leaders unafraid to call out the threat that Christian nationalism poses to our democracy. While the White House is calling it “Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving”, we’re calling it what it really is: blasphemy dressed in the garments of faith. Don’t miss this important conversation and don’t forget to check out Bad Faith here as well.

Participants:

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II
Founder and President, Repairers Of The Breach
Co-Chair, Poor People’s Campaign

Rev. Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
Board Chair, Repairers Of The Breach
Yale University’s Center for Public Theology and Public Policy

Lisa Sharon Harper
Author, “Evangelical Does Not Equal Republican…or Democrat”
Host, Freedom Road Podcast

Dr. Robert P. Jones
Founder and President of PRRI
Author, Backslide: Reclaiming a Faith and a Nation after the Christian Turn Against Democracy

How to Watch

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ICYMI on Redeeming Democracy

“Only a coward survives the absurd.”
-Omar El Akkad, What Strange Paradise (2021)

Last Thursday, the federal government’s “Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias” released a massive 500-page report, which allegedly “details the Biden Administration’s radical efforts to punish Christians and highlights President Trump’s efforts to restore religious liberty.” The task force—involving 17 federal agencies and headed by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche (who took over after Pamela Bondi’s ouster) was created by President Trump’s Executive Order 14202 (issued shortly after Trump took office in February 2025).

I won’t try your patience by detailing the litany of half-truths, cherry-picked details, and misleading stories that pepper the report. But here’s just one example—my favorite—of the flimsy scaffolding on which this report is built. The report makes this claim in “Key Finding 14”: “The Biden Administration regulated and suppressed religious speech that it did not like and curtailed Christians’ ability to jointly worship and study the Bible.” As evidence of this claim, the report makes this assertion: “In 2023, a Catholic hospital in Oklahoma was told to extinguish the flame of a religious candle or risk losing its participation in Medicare and Medicaid, including Children’s Health Insurance Program funding.”

Sounds terrible, right? But what’s the real story? Saint Francis Health System, a Catholic hospital system in Tulsa, kept a sanctuary candle burning in its chapel as a Catholic devotional practice. A 2023 accreditation review cited “a lit candle with open flame burning unattended 24/7” in a hospital environment with oxygen equipment as a fire safety issue. The devotional candle was never targeted by the government as a religious practice. The government’s concern was with the safety of patients at the Catholic hospital.

Moreover, as the task force’s own report notes on p. 139, after legal and public pressure, and additional safeguards put in place by the hospital, the government ultimately issued a waiver to allow the candle remain. It was never “snuffed out.” Rather, the Biden administration and the hospital reached a reasonable agreement that ultimately balanced religious liberty concerns with safety concerns. This is how government regulation is supposed to work. But in the hands of Trump’s disingenuous task force, this episode is twisted into a blatant account of anti-Christian bias. I could go on and on with such misleading examples.

If we take a few steps back, you can see just how absurd the entire project is. I wrote the following in an article for just after Trump rolled out his original executive order:

Notably, while Trump’s executive order is peppered with references to religious liberty, it makes no mention of any other religious groups. Only Christians—who comprise approximately two thirds of the U.S. population—are singled out as particular victims deserving special protections. Never mind that according to the 2023 Hate Crimes Report compiled by the FBI, out of 2,833 hate crimes motivated by religious bias, only 10% (290 cases) were motivated by anti-Christian bias. By contrast, 71% (2,006 cases) were motivated by antisemitism, and 19% (537 cases) involved bias against members of other non-Christian/non-Jewish religions and atheists/agnostics. In other words, adjusting for their smaller percentage of the population, Jews were more than 200 times more likely than Christians to be the target of a hate crime in the US in 2023. Trump’s executive order is clearly not about protecting the religious liberty of a persecuted minority or the religious groups actually experiencing the most violence.

Moreover, I pointed out Trump’s own hypocrisy. He himself has attacked a number of Christian groups who aren’t his favored group of conservative white evangelical Protestants (Reminder: white evangelical Christians comprise only 13% of the general population and only one in five Christians).

Trump’s ludicrous posturing as the defender of the Christian faith has already been undermined by his own administration’s actions in the opening weeks of his presidency, which have explicitly targeted Christian leaders and groups. Trump called Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde “nasty” (his favorite epithet for women he finds threatening) for preaching at the Washington National Cathedral a sermon about mercy, and he allowed Elon Musk to disparage and gut funding from Lutheran and Catholic groups who have provided social services to immigrants and refugees for decades. His encouragement of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to pursue arrests of undocumented immigrants even in sensitive locations like churches and synagogues has made his Department of Homeland Security the target of a lawsuit filed by 27 Christian and Jewish organizations, and his inhumane mass deportation program has earned him a rare pointed rebuke from Pope Francis, who called it “a disgrace.”

Finally, the report uses the term “traditional Christians” and “people of faith” throughout as if these terms refer to some identifiable majority of Christians. But even a cursory look at contemporary survey data shows that the actual views of American Christians are far from what Trump’s Anti-Christian Bias Task Force assumes.

• First, the premise of the entire project—that discrimination against Christians is as big a problem as discrimination against other groups—is an idea that only has majority of support among white evangelical Protestants.

• Even on so-called culture war issues, white evangelicals are outliers. Most other Christians support the legality of abortion in all or most cases, support allowing gay and lesbian couples to legally marry, and reject patriarchal conceptions of hierarchical gender roles.

• Even more telling, while Trump’s favorability remains at nearly seven in ten among white evangelical Protestants, only 37% of all other Christians hold a favorable view of the president.

Actual American Christians also hold views at odds with Trump’s obsession issue, immigration.

• While white evangelicals are more sympathetic to Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda, about six in ten Christians say they believe that the U.S. immigration system should allow immigrants who are living in the country illegally a way to become citizens, provided they meet certain requirements.

• And nearly seven in ten Christians say they oppose allowing Immigration, Customs, and Enforcement (ICE) officers to regularly conduct surveillance and arrests at sensitive locations like schools, hospitals, places of worship, and social service locations. Even a slim majority of what evangelicals oppose such a radical policy, which Trump unleashed the first week of his presidency.

Put another way, given what American Christians actually believe, policies that outlaw abortion and marriage equality, or use the power of the state to favor traditional hierarchical gender roles, cannot be accurately characterized as Christian. Nor can inhumane immigration policies that deny undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship or that target them for arrest at places of worship or other sensitive locations.

It’s clear that we won’t see Trump’s Department of Justice showing any concern for these Christian values, even if they do comprise the majority views of Americans who identify as Christian.

However, in this administration, one uniquely at war with the truth, advancing the bold absurdity—the Big Lie—is the point. It is a predictable strategy for advancing authoritarianism and suppressing public criticism. In the coming days, if this vision is embraced, we will almost certainly see heads of institutions and even private citizens forced to testify before Anti-Christian Bias government committees. And we are likely to see many forced to choose between affirming this irreality and being labeled domestic terrorists because of their alleged anti-Christian bias.

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Watch My Take: Press Conference Hosted by Georgetown’s Center for Faith & Justice

The Center on Faith and Justice hosted a press briefing to discuss concerns about a Department of Justice report on anti-Christian bias, with panelists arguing the report was politically motivated and fundamentally flawed. Former White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships Executive Director Melissa Rogers testified that the Biden administration worked extensively with Christian leaders and communities, contradicting the report's claims of anti-Christian bias. Amanda Tyler from the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty criticized the report's misunderstanding of religious freedom principles and constitutional law, while Guthrie Graves Fitzsimmons from Interfaith Alliance highlighted the report's hypocrisy and noted their organization's legal challenges against the administration's Religious Liberty Commission. Robert Jones from Public Religion Research Institute presented data showing that while Christians make up a majority of Americans, there is significant diversity within Christian beliefs, with white evangelical Protestants being the only group supporting the report's claims of anti-Christian bias. The panelists argued that the report incorrectly characterized "traditional Christians" and failed to consult with former Biden administration officials before publication.

ICYMI, Announcing My Forthcoming Book, BACKSLIDE

An Invitation

Come join The Convocation Unscripted team for our monthly LIVE webinar, where we’ll discuss the ongoing threats to our democracy, bringing our combined expertise in religion, history, and politics to the discussion. We hope you can join us LIVE on May 7 at 5:00 PM ET. It’s free, but you’ll need to register below to receive the Zoom link.

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3 months ago · 7 likes · Robert P. Jones