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Robert Jones, religion researcher, wins a Grawemeyer award

Jones received the honor for his book The End of White Christian America.

Robert P. Jones, founder and CEO of Public Religion Research Institute, won the 2019 Grawemeyer Award in religion for his book The End of White Christian America.

The award honors “creative and significant insights into the relationship between human beings and the divine.” It is given annually by the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and the University of Louisville and includes $100,000.

In the book, Jones cited data showing that in 2016—the year the book was published—white Christians were less than half of the U.S. population. He connected this fact to how Donald Trump as presidential candidate “cast himself as the last chance for Republicans and conservative white Christians to step back from the cliff, to preserve their power and way of life.”