A new survey found that less than a third of Americans (29%) qualify as Christian nationalists, and of those, two-thirds describe themselves as white evangelicals.
At 38%, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are more inclined toward Christian nationalism than the general population.
The survey of 6,212 Americans by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution is the largest yet to measure the size and scope of Christian nationalist beliefs.
It found that 10% of Americans claim to be Christian nationalists, which the survey calls “adherents,” while an additional 19% sympathize with Christian nationalist values.
Among white evangelical Protestants, nearly two-thirds are white Christian nationalism adherents or sympathizers. Support for Christian nationalism is less among Asian Americans, mixed race, Black and Hispanic Protestants.
According to the poll, Latter-day Saints (33% sympathizers and 5% followers) are also more likely to support Christian nationalism than the general population.
The majority of white mainline Protestants, Catholics, Jews, members of other non-Christian faiths and non-Americans, on the other hand, reject or largely reject Christian nationalism. (The survey calls them “skeptics” and “deciders.”)
Attention to Christian nationalism has grown rapidly in the past few years, especially in the aftermath of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. The term describes a religious and political belief system that argues that the United States was founded by God as a Christian nation. In the survey, supporters of Christian nationalism were identified by their responses to five statements, including: “The US should be declared a Christian nation,” and “God calls Christians to rule over all areas of the world.” American society.” They were then assigned a place on the Christian nationalism scale.
Unlike other studies that suggest Christian nationalists nominally attend church, the PRRI/Brookings survey found that Christian nationalists are significantly more likely than other Americans to be connected to churches and say religion is important to them. life.
“There is a strong positive correlation between the frequency of church attendance and the likelihood of becoming a Christian nationalism follower or sympathizer,” said Robert P. Jones, president and founder of PRRI. “Christian nationalism adherents are more than six times more likely to attend church each week than Christian nationalism rejecters.”
Christian nationalists also tend to be older, with about 6 in 10 Christian nationalists and their sympathizers in their 50s, the survey said. They are also less educated than other Americans. Only 18% of Christian nationalism supporters have a four-year college degree, compared to 36% of those labeled skeptics and 48% of Christian nationalism rejects.
Christian nationalism as a worldview is not new but the term is. In fact, a third of respondents said they had never heard of the term. For that reason, it is impossible to say whether the ranks of Christian nationalists have grown over time.
In their book “Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States,” sociologists Andrew Whitehead and Sam Perry found that about 20% of Americans strongly accept Christian nationalist ideas. The PRRI survey is more consistent with a 2021 Pew Research survey that found 10% of Americans identified by Pew as hard-core “faith and flag” conservatives.
Whatever the exact number, the survey proves that by a ratio of 2-to-1, Americans reject a Christian nationalist worldview.
A majority of Americans (70%) do not think the government should declare America a Christian country. And nearly 60% do not think that its laws should be based on Christian values.
Most Americans (73%) say they want a country made up of different faiths and not just Christianity.
However, Christian nationalists have had a great influence on American politics.
More than half of Republicans now identify as Christian nationalists or sympathizers, the survey concluded. Some members of Congress, especially Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, proudly endorses the label. Former President Donald Trump calls himself a nationalist, and the survey found that Christian nationalists have a more favorable view of Trump than the general population.
That makes the political power of Christian nationalists far greater than their actual population size.
“If we were in Europe and there were four or five political parties, we would have a Christian nationalist party and it would represent a quarter of the country or 30% of the majority,” Jones said. “But because we have this binary system, that group loads a political party. That’s why the country feels divided.”
The Christian nationalist influence was also felt in theology. Two-thirds of Christian nationalists believe that the Bible’s obligations to the poor are more about the acts of charity of individuals than the role of a just society. Americans as a whole are divided; 54% said that the Bible’s commands to care for the poor are about acts of charity for individuals, compared to 47% who believe that they mainly talk about our obligation to create a just society.
Those who identify as Christian nationalists increasingly rely on far-right news outlets such as One America News Network, Newsmax or Fox to deliver their news.
On issues such as race, immigration and Islam, their views differ significantly from the majority of Americans.
Four in 10 Americans (41%) agree that discrimination against white Americans is as big a problem as discrimination against Black Americans. But among professed Christian nationalists (85%) and white sympathizers (73%), large numbers agree that discrimination against whites is as big a problem as discrimination against Blacks.
About one-third of Americans affirm the core tenet of the so-called great replacement theory, the belief that immigrants are “invading our country and replacing our culture and ethnic origins.” But 71% of professed Christian nationalists and 57% of Christian nationalist sympathizers agree that the replacement theory is happening.
Fewer than 4 in 10 Americans (39%) believe that Islamic values are at odds with American values and the American way of life. But a majority of Christian nationalists say the Muslim faith is at odds with the American way of life, between 58% and 69%.
Not all Christian nationalists are white, the survey found, but white Christian nationalists have consistent views on race, immigration and Islam.
Speaking on the results of the survey at the Brookings Institution forum Wednesday, Jemar Tisby, a historian and author of “The Color of Compromise” and “How to Fight Racism,” concluded: “White Christian nationalism is the greatest threat to democracy and the witness to the church in the United States today.”
The survey was conducted online between November and December last year. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.6 percentage points.
The Salt Lake Tribune added this story.
(This story was reported with support from Stiefel Freethought Foundation.)