Embracing Division: Robert P. Jones on Unity, Justice, and the Lines We Have to Draw

Homebrewed Christianity · Sep 10, 2026 · 1h 28m

Robbie Jones wrote a book called Backslide, and I went in expecting a chronicle of every way a Southern Baptist kid from Jackson, Mississippi cursed or lusted in middle school. That is not what this book is. Robbie takes a word that in our shared upbringing was entirely personal and entirely theological, and puts it next to the way political scientists now use the same word to describe what is happening to American democracy. The two stories are not separate. He can prove it with the word white Christians used to name their victory over Reconstruction: redemption. This is the fourth book in…