WAPO op ed: Why white Christian nationalists are in such a panic

[lindysalsagal]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/19/poll-religion-christian-white/

Why white Christian nationalists are in such a panic

By Jennifer Rubin, Columnist March 19, 2023 at 7:45 a.m. EDT

This group feels besieged because they are losing ground. “The newly-released 2022 supplement to the PRRI Census of American Religion — based on over 40,000 interviews conducted last year — confirms that the decline of white Christians (Americans who identify as white, non-Hispanic and Christian of any kind) as a proportion of the population continues unabated,” writes Robert P. Jones, president of the Public Religion Research Institute. “As recently as 2008, when our first Black president was elected, the U.S. was a majority (54%) white Christian country.” By 2014 the number had dropped to 47 percent, and in 2022 it stood at 42 percent.

The group that has declined the most is at the core of the MAGA movement, the group most devoted to Christian nationalism. “White evangelical Protestants have experienced the steepest decline. As recently as 2006, white evangelical Protestants comprised nearly one-quarter of Americans (23%). By the time of Trump’s rise to power, their numbers had dipped to 16.8%,” Jones explains. “Today, white evangelical Protestants comprise only 13.6% of Americans.”

And that decline may yet accelerate, because they skew older than the population as a whole. Put differently, there are far more baby boomers in this group than Generation Z members. White evangelicals are “losing” people with each successive generation. (“White Christian subgroups have each lost approximately half their market share just across the generations who are alive today,” according to Jones.) If your business had lost half its market share, you would be panicking, too.

With those kind of numbers, the responsible thing to do would be to think about “fixing” what’s wrong by adapting to a changing market. Instead, many in this cohort have doubled down, becoming the foot soldiers in the red-hatted MAGA movement. The decline isn’t going to be reversed by angry, gray-haired folks demanding abortion bans and “don’t say gay” bills.

[wryter2000]

1. This white Christian boomer says

Good.

And I'm not in church this morning because the stupid marathon has all the streets blocked.

[yardwork]

2. That's because we don't want to have anything to do with them!

Even politically moderate folks don't want to be part of these crazy congregations. The vast majority of Americans want abortion to be safe and legal, they want access to birth control, they believe women deserve to be treated equally to men, etc.

[lame54]

11. Or the self righteous bullying...

Their minority opinion is all that matters

[multigraincracker]

3. May all of their grandchildren

have a beautiful year round tan and natural curly hair.

[mopinko]

5. lol

i see what u did there.
it’s funny. but it also sometimes melts them. so, either outcome is good w me.

[NickB79]

12. That's my family in a nutshell

My grandparents were so racist, my grandfather yelled at me for listening to, and I quote, "porch monkey music" when I was a teenager in the 90's rocking Snoop and Dre (I feel the need to apologize for just typing that phrase). My grandmother dropped the N-word so frequently it wasn't a real Christmas without her ranting about "the coloreds" screwing up this country.

So what do I, a small-town farmboy, go and do? Get good grades, get a scholarship, head to college and marry a black Puerto Rican woman 🤣 And then, we had a baby girl with that natural tan and curly hair.

Fast forward 13 years. My mom absolutely loves her granddaughter who looks nothing like me, but everything like her mom. My grandmother, currently dying in the hospital with heart and kidney failure, was telling us how kind and gentle all her non-white nurses and doctors treat her (she still called them colored though, old habits die hard I guess). And she specifically asked for my wife and daughter to come with to visit yesterday, and held their hands a long time.

[multigraincracker]

13. There is only

one race, the human race.

Love your story.

[GoCubsGo]

4. Doubling down on the very things that sent people fleeing from them...

What a way to win hearts and minds, eh?

[scarletlib]

6. Can't happen soon enough for me.

[lindysalsagal]

7. christianity drops 12 points in 14 years. That's 1 a year. in 10 years, it'll be 32%

Just keep the trend going.

[Bayard]

8. Funny to see these stats,

In terms of, "market share."

[Silent3]

9. Despite these declining numbers their "panic" has been effectively turned into outsized power

Our democracy is still at risk from these panicking people. Too many Americans either ignore their extremism, or buy into the ways they demonize Democratic, liberal, and progressive opposition to their power.

[hippywife]

10. Oh, so...

I guess I'll stop worrying about them then.

I'm sure those numbers also reflect those killed by their party's stance on vaccines and masks, as well.