Sociologist and CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) examines the unholy relationship between American Christianity and white supremacy—drawing on research and his own experiences—and issues an urgent call for white Christians to reckon with this legacy for the sake of themselves and the nation.
Jones builds his case with evidence, drawing on an eclectic blend of history, theology, sociology and memoir. His use of autobiography works especially well. Before the cascade of data can turn his narrative into a detached analyst’s clinical dissection of the problem, Jones gets personal ... White Too Long convincingly reveals the myriad ways that white Christianity has cultivated the religious, political, economic and social superiority of white people despite all efforts, modest though they may have been, to fight these tendencies. If everything he says is true, there remains then a chilling question to address: Is there anything worth salvaging?
As well as a searing indictment, White Too Long is a passionate call to action ... If White Too Long has a shortcoming, at least for general readers, there are some slow patches, including one chapter and lengthy appendices with an abundance of supporting statistical data for his views. For a pollster, it’s an understandable weakness. But as this book demonstrates, Robert Jones is a man of conscience, raised as a Deep South evangelical, who is now a progressive and a committed anti-racist. Implicitly, his book raises compelling questions for Democrats in the upcoming election: Are there others like Jones, among the Sun Belt’s white evangelicals, a cohort constituting a redemptive minority?
... a wonderful book. Along with being required reading for white Americans (its intended audience), it’s also a resource for Americans of color, if only to learn about the contours of white America’s dialogue on race ... Not surprisingly, the book takes the form of a sermon delivered by author Robert P. Jones, a Southern Baptist theologian. But Jones is also a skillful number-cruncher, having degrees in the seemingly disparate fields of religion and computing science/mathematics ... One of the great strengths of this sermon lies in the fact that Jones draws on his own personal history along with a masterful mix of careful historical research and sophisticated statistical analysis to make a compelling case for the ugly truth of that tight embrace.
