In a provocative new analysis of the fracturing American soul, Robert P. Jones warns that the United States is not merely experiencing political turbulence, but a systemic “backslide” into autocracy. The president of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) argues that a profound theological and demographic shift is facilitating a dangerous alliance between Donald Trump and a shrinking segment of white evangelicalism.
Jones, a former Southern Baptist with a master of divinity, contends that this movement has abandoned traditional religious morality in favour of a transactional pursuit of political dominance. In his latest work, *Backslide: Reclaiming a Faith and a Nation After the Christian Turn Against Democracy*, he draws a chilling parallel to the rise of the Nazi Party in 1933, noting how religious institutions provided the moral scaffolding for authoritarianism in Germany.
A Transactional Alliance of Necessity
The engine driving this shift is, according to Jones, a combination of demographic panic and political opportunism. As the percentage of white Christians in the US continues to plummet—from 54% in 2008 to just 41% today—the evangelical community has moved from a position of cultural hegemony to one of existential anxiety.
This decline has created a vacuum that Donald Trump has expertly filled. Jones describes the relationship as a “quid pro quo” deal: Trump offers the promise of a restored, culturally familiar America, while evangelicals provide the political muscle required to secure his power.
“His big appeal to them was less about policy and more anti-immigrant,” Jones explains. “I’m going to restore an America that looks like you, and I’m going to restore power to the Christian churches.”
Unlike the “Moral Majority” of the 1980s, which framed its agenda through the lens of traditional values, the current movement is, in Jones’s view, overtly anti-democratic. It is a movement less concerned with the sanctity of scripture and more focused on the acquisition of state power to protect a specific racial and religious identity.
The Language of Dehumanisation
A central pillar of Jones’s critique is the way Trump’s rhetoric has normalised language once reserved for the darkest chapters of history. He points specifically to the use of terms like “vermin” regarding immigrants and the recurring tropes regarding the “poisoning” of the nation’s blood.
“If they’re poisoning the blood, what’s the pure blood? We know where that story goes,” Jones says, warning that such rhetoric is a precursor to systemic violence and the erosion of civil liberties.
This radicalisation is not confined to campaign rallies. Jones observes that the influence of Christian nationalism is increasingly permeating the highest levels of the American security apparatus. He notes the symbolic alignment of figures like Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, whose use of Crusader iconography and proposals to rename the Department of Defense to the “Department of War” signal a shift toward a more militant, ideologically driven foreign and domestic policy.
The danger, Jones argues, lies in the marriage of religious certainty with military might. When leaders believe they are acting as divine instruments, the traditional checks and balances of a democracy become obstacles to be dismantled rather than safeguards to be respected.
Breaking the Cycle of Silence
Despite the grim diagnosis, Jones refuses to succumb to total fatalism. He suggests that the “backslide” is not an irreversible descent, provided that the American religious landscape can find its way back to a faith compatible with democratic pluralism.
He highlights a growing movement of “pro-democracy” theologians—pastors and seminarians who are actively challenging the nationalist narrative from within their own pews. These voices argue that true Christianity should be defined by its care for the marginalised—the immigrant, the widow, and the orphan—rather than its pursuit of exclusionary power.
The path to recovery, Jones suggests, requires a difficult period of reckoning. He compares the current moment to the historical regret of German pastors who failed to speak out against Hitler in his early years.
“Just as God asked Niemöller where he was between 1933 and 1937, God will ask us where we were between 2025 and 2028,” Jones writes.
Why it Matters
The implications of Jones’s warning extend far beyond the borders of the United States. As the world’s most significant democracy grapples with the tension between religious identity and secular governance, the outcome of this “backslide” will set a global precedent. If a major religious tradition can be successfully weaponised to dismantle democratic norms, it provides a blueprint for illiberal movements worldwide. The struggle currently unfolding in American churches is, in many ways, a struggle for the survival of the democratic model itself.
