Dear Redeeming Democracy readers,
It’s official. I now have the advance galley copies of my new book in hand. And I’m so excited to be sending this post to let you all know 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.
I’ve been working on this book for the last three years. It’s the most personal, unflinching, and urgent book I’ve written. And it’s almost here.
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, 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 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).
This book is my effort to speak into this perilous moment in American history; to reckon with the moral collapse among white Christians—two thirds of whom supported Donald Trump for a third consecutive time at the ballot box in 2024; and to issue an urgent call to protect American democracy. The stark jacket cover—with its upside down American flag (an appropriate display, according to the U.S flag code, “in instances of extreme danger”)—signals the gravity of our time.
As we’ve witnessed the indefensible willingness of conservative white Christians to shed their core values like inconvenient loads along the road to supporting Donald Trump, I’ve been brought back to two words from my evangelical upbringing: backslide and apostasy. It’s notable that political scientists are also now using the term “democratic backsliding” to describe the process by which a democracy— including democracy in the U.S.—slips into authoritarianism. These powerful terms help us describe our situation succinctly: We are now living in a democratically backslidden nation, abetted by an apostate white Christianity.
In the new book, through reflections on history, my upbringing in the white evangelical South, and decades of social science research, I lay bare the roots of this collapse and the dangers it poses for our future. I take readers inside a faith tradition marked by an impoverished relationship to the Bible, a rejection of a genuine search for truth, and an upside-down world where empathy is considered a vice. Yet amid the wreckage, I also find hope in growing efforts to resist the backsliding, to remake our national holiday rituals, and to recover a Christianity that remains committed to a pluralistic democracy.
This book will speak particularly to those like me who grew up part of white Christian churches, but it is also for anyone who wants to understand how we got here, with so many white Christians trading faith for power and democracy for dominion. This book is for all who are unwilling to surrender the soul of religion or the promise of democracy. And it is a reminder that the time is short for deciding which Christianity, and which America, will prevail.
Here’s what some fellow travelers have had to say about the book:
“An urgent call to save our democracy―and the Christian faith―from the scourge of religious nationalism. Robert P. Jones infuses his call for an American reawakening in the language of the faith so many of us grew up with―one that prioritizes brotherhood over separation, and care for the least of these over selfishness and hate.”
―Joy-Ann Reid , New York Times best-selling author and host of The Joy Reid Show
“Jones stands as one of the most important Christian voices in our time. He confronts, unflinchingly, the ugliness at the heart of the white evangelical embrace of Trumpism. He calls those who believe and live the Gospel to confront authoritarianism directly and to refuse to break bread with those who embrace it in the name of the Christian faith. Backslide is a powerful jeremiad for these dark days and clarion call for us all!”
― Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Princeton University; author of America, USA: How Race Shadows the Nation’s Anniversaries
“With history as a guide, Robert P. Jones issues a clarion call to American Christians: choose either the way of Christ or complicity with a movement that preys on the vulnerable and privileges the few. Every American Christian should read this book and take its message to heart. This is our 1933.”
―Kristin Du Mez , New York Times best-selling author of Live, Laugh, Love and Jesus and John Wayne
I can’t wait for this book to make its way into the world and to share it with you all. Please help me spread the word today about the new book to folks in your circles.
