Robert P. Jones's White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity — Excerpts Worth Noting

As I did recently with Sarah Posner's new book Unholy: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump, I'd like to share with you some excerpts from Robert P. Jones's book White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity (NY: Simon & Schuster, 2020), which I recently read. This book is very important, as Jones's Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) issues a report today entitled, "Summer Unrest over Racial Injustice Moves the Country, But Not Republicans or White Evangelicals." This reports summarizes recent PRRI polling findings which show that, even as other white Americans are gradually coming to see and admit the depths of racial injustice everywhere in American society, Republicans and white evangelicals — who are to a great extent one and the same — refuse to budge. These groups continue to want to claim that white citizens are the real victims of injustice.

"Good, Conservative People Who Reject Liberalism": White Southern Evangelical Attack on Social Contract & Why We Are Where We Are Now

John Sharp, "Alabama just elected 'one of the most conservative governments we've ever had'":

Not Even Close: Knowing Exactly Who Roy Moore Is, Majority of White Alabamians — and White Evangelicals Overwhelmingly — Tried to Put Him in Senate

8 in 10 white evangelicals & 6 in 10 white Catholics & Mormons elected Donald Trump, claiming "pro-life" motivation.

I will not forget.

— Bill Lindsey (@wdlindsy) November 6, 2017

Charlene White, "In Alabama, black women saved America from itself – as they've always tried to do":

Hot Takes on Moore Defeat: White Evangelicals Did It! It's All About Abortion! (And Why Masterpiece Cake Will Likely Prevail)

Some takes on the Alabama election I should have anticipated, but did not:

1. Though 80 percent of white evangelicals in Alabama cast their votes for Roy Moore, Doug Jones won because — are you ready for this spin? — white evangelicals abandoned Moore!

Roy Moore Defeated, But Polling Data Tell Us Why We Have Miles and Miles to Go Before We Jubilate — Fusion of White Nationalism and White Christianity Remains Potent Toxic Challenge

Roy Moore rides away on his horse after voting in the Alabama Senate election.

Here's what to watch in today's hotly contested race: https://t.co/iONlmtfGJd #alsen pic.twitter.com/WI2xoJbi6s

— POLITICO (@politico) December 12, 2017

Ezra Klein, "Why Doug Jones’s narrow win is not enough to make me confident about American democracy":

Roy Moore's Strongest Supporters? White Evangelicals — New Poll Results

1. New Washington Post poll out of Alabama has Democrat Doug Jones just leading Republican Roy Moore.

But WaPo did something new: they broke out white evangelicals vs. other white Christians.

It says quite a bit about Moore’s support. https://t.co/SAnbxGfG9n pic.twitter.com/7ZdEZiZnDg

— Jack Jenkins (@jackmjenkins) December 2, 2017

News just breaking: a Washington Post-Schar School poll shows that white evangelicals continue to stand by their man Roy Moore in the Alabama Senate race after all a number of women have come forth to tell their stories about how he sexually assaulted them when they were minors. Roughly the same percentage of white evangelicals in Alabama as the percentage of white evangelicals nationally who placed the moral monstrosity in the White House — 78% — say they intend to vote for Moore. Commentary on this:

Roy Moore's Attack on LGBT People at Baptist Church Yesterday: "They Are the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender" Folks Spearheading Resistance to Him — The Narrative Line We Must Not Miss

There is a narrative line in these disparate textual pieces. A narrative line emerges when you put them together, and it's a narrative line essential to spot for anyone trying to understand why the revelations that Roy Moore has preyed sexually on female minors have resulted in more — not less — support for him among white evangelicals in Alabama. This is a narrative line that implicates the 60% of white Catholics who voted for the moral monstrosity now occupying the White House, and the U.S. Catholic bishops who are the pastoral and moral leaders of those Catholics — though neither the bishops nor white Catholics want to admit that they are in any way implicated in this narrative.

In Today's News: "If Jesus Christ Gets Down Off the Cross and Told Me Trump Is with Russia, I Would Tell Him, 'Hold on a Second. I Need to Check with the President'"

Astead W. Herndon, "Why evangelicals are again backing a Republican despite allegations of sexual misconduct":

More Moore (Roy, That Is): Why White Evangelicals Can't Quit Their Man, and the Horrors Posed by "the Alabamization of This Country"

8 in 10 white evangelicals & 6 in 10 white Catholics & Mormons elected Donald Trump, claiming "pro-life" motivation.

I will not forget.

— Bill Lindsey (@wdlindsy) November 6, 2017

Steve Benen, "Roy Moore's survival strategy comes into focus":

More Commentary on Why Roy Moore's Evangelical Supporters Won't Abandon Him (Hint: Look at How They Reponded to Trump's Boasts About Sexual Assault of Women)

Alabama voters may send a serial child molester to the United States Senate simply because he claims to be a Christian and is not a Democrat. What a shameful, shameful time.

— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) November 14, 2017

As I said yesterday, the stories and commentary keep coming out, so I feel obliged to keep blogging about these matters, especially when they're so germane to the kind of discussions I've tried to stir on this blog site since I started it. What's happening with the Roy Moore story points us back to the choice of 8 in 10 — 8 in 10! — white evangelicals and some 6 in 10 — 6 in 10! — white Catholics and Mormons to place the moral monstrosity now occupying the White House there last November. We want to keep forgetting that fact, conveniently so, and the way in which that choice betrayed the most fundamental principles of morality for which these ostensibly "pro-life" voters claimed to stand, as long as those principles could be applied exclusively to Democratic presidents like Mr. Clinton.

New Accuser Comes Forward to Say Roy Moore Assaulted Her When She Was a Teen, 53 Pastors Sign Letter Supporting Moore

The stories keep coming along, and I think it's important to keep blogging about them:

"In the Darkest Timeline, Where Republicans Have No Shame": Top White Evangelical Leaders Stand by Their Man in Alabama

If true. If true. If true. All these men have opinions on my marriage and your uterus, sight unseen. But hand them a story told by a dozen women and suddenly it's the riddle of the goddamn sphinx.

— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) November 12, 2017

Kathryn Brightbill, "Roy Moore's alleged pursuit of a young girl is the symptom of a larger problem in evangelical circles":

Charles Pierce on Roy Moore as Exactly What Republicans Are All About Now: "Wake Up and Smell the White Supremacist Theocracy"

I'd rather have a pedophile in office rather than a democrat any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Pedophiles only screw kids while democrats screw everyone.

— Carroll Bryant (@CarrollBryant) November 10, 2017

This quote should be hung in museums of American history 50 years from now so people can remember why the Republican Party collapsed. https://t.co/P70omazXeD

— Matthew Chapman (@fawfulfan) November 10, 2017

Charles Pierce hits the nail squarely on the head:

Trending on Twitter: #RoyMooreChildMolester — "I Never Thought I’d See the Day When Pedophilia Became a Divisive Issue Within the GOP"

Democrats are divided on single payer healthcare. Republicans are divided on pedophilia. #RoyMooreChildMolester

— Dave Zirin (@EdgeofSports) November 10, 2017

Trending today on Twitter: #RoyMooreChildMolester. At the New Civil Rights Movement website right now, David Badash has a good assortment of tweets from this hashtag. The tweet above by Dave Zirin is one featured in David's article.

Trump and (White) Evangelicals: Commentary Continues in Holy Week

I think we can effectively laugh "faith-based" out of our politics now. https://t.co/2vzEZ6YLCP

— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) April 11, 2017

As I noted yesterday, perhaps because it's Holy Week and Passover has begun, there's a plethora of articles in the news right now about religion-and-politics matters. Here are a few from my morning reading, all about white evangelicals in the U.S. and their idolization of commitment to Republican leaders, to any Republican leaders, and that this is doing to the (white) evangelical brand:

Alan Blinder, "For Alabama Christians, Governor Bentley's Downfall Is a Bitter Blow": 

"If I Believe It Sincerely Enough, I Have the Right to Deny You Rights": Religious Freedom Argument Remains Alive and Well in 2016

Religious freedom (as in, "If I believe it hard and sincerely enough, I have the right to deny rights to you: because my God tells me so!") remains in the news as 2016 begins, and in all likelihood, will continue to be in the news this year, especially as the election cycle heats up:

The Confederate Flag: With One Great-Grandfather Who Was a CSA Soldier and Three Others Who Had Brothers in the CSA, I Could Not Be Happier to See It Come Down

To repeat myself: one of my great-grandfathers was a Confederate soldier in Alabama, and my other three great-grandfathers in Louisiana and Arkansas all had brothers who served in the Confederate army. And I could not be happier to see the racist Confederate battle flag taken down from public buildings and now recognized for what it always was and remains — a symbol of white supremacy.

First Same-Sex Couple Who Married in Alabama: "Being Gay in the South Is Just Being Brave"

An inspiring video from Mae Ryan and Andrea Morales in The Guardian, featuering Shanté Wolf-Sisson and Tori Wolf-Sisson, the first same-sex couple to marry in Alabama. (Thanks to Chris Morley for pointing us to this video in a comment here.)

Arkansas Chooses Wrong Side of History Again: Legislature Passes "Right to Discriminate" Bill

The Republican-controlled Arkansas legislature today passed a bill protecting faith-based discrimination against LGBT citizens of the state — a state that affords no legal protection to those citizens against discrimination in housing, employment, provision of medical services, etc. As Arkansas Times editor Max Brantley says in the video at the head of the posting, though the bill purports to be about protecting people's consciences, what it's really about is protecting discrimination against those who are gay. 

Visibility and the Alphabet Soup of Letters: Tori Wolfe-Sisson Talks to Juan González about Battle for Gay Rights in Alabama

Juan González asks Tori Wolfe-Sisson, who, with her partner Shanté, was a member of the first gay couple to marry in Montgomery, if she can talk about the long battle for marriage equality in Alabama. González asks what steps she and others have taken to gain equality.