Christian Nationalism in the U.S. is a bigger phenomenon among Americans than you know

In February 2024, the results of a groundbreaking study that looked at the changing nature of religious belief in America made a startling discovery about the rising tide of Christian Nationalism in the United States. 

The American Values Atlas is a first-of-its-kind online mapping tool from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) that has collected a variety of demographic, political, and religious data from across the United States in order to track different socio-political changes across the country.

Data from PRRI gathered in 2023 from 22,000 American adults from all across the United States provided stark insight into the growing levels of Christian Nationalism throughout the country.

Before looking at the results of the survey, it's important to define Christian Nationalism and what its adherents believe. Christianity Today defined Christian Nationalism as the intersection between faith and nationalism. 

Christian Nationalists believe that the United States is defined by Christianity and think the government should take an active role in keeping America a ‘Christian nation’ both now and in the future via law and policies. 

Some Christian Nationalists want the government to impose a specific cultural template on the nation. In contrast, others, like the scholar Samuel Huntington, have asserted that Anglo Protestant culture must be defended to protect democracy. 

PRRI analysts defined Christian Nationalism in their research by asking respondents to agree or disagree with five statements, including whether their governor should declare America a Christian nation and if laws should be based on Christian values. 

People were also asked if being Christian is an important part of being truly American; if God has called Christians to exercise dominion over all areas of American society; and if the U.S. moves away from our Christian foundations, would it end the country. 

With those questions in mind, it might be quite worrying to learn that PRRI discovered as many as 10% of the people surveyed were deemed to be Adherents of Christian Nationalism while a further 20% were found to be Sympathizers. 

However, a larger majority of individuals surveyed were actually opposed to Christian Nationalism. 37% identified themselves as Skeptics while 30% were categorized by researchers as Rejectors. This wasn't the only interesting finding PRRI uncovered. 

Red states were significantly more likely to have Christian Nationalist beliefs than blue states and researchers pointed out that the upper Midwest, deep South, and area along the Appalachian Mountains were the most affected. 

Five states stood out above the rest as having higher concentrations of individuals who were defined as Adherents or Sympathizers of Christian Nationalism: North Dakota (50%), Mississippi (50%), Alabama (47%), West Virginia (47%), and Louisiana (46%). 

At a national political level, Christian Nationalism was strongly linked to the Republican Party and Donald Trump. Republicans were twice as likely to be Christian Nationalists than independents and three times as likely than Democrats. 

Christian Nationalism Adherents or Sympathizers had a 55% favorable view of Trump while only 15% had a favorable view of Joe Biden, a result that certainly indicates the former president holds more sway with these Americans. 

More concerning than the political affiliation of perceived Christian Nationalists was the discovery that they view political struggles through what the PRRI defined as an “apocalyptic lens of revolution and to support political violence.”

The majority of Christian Nationalism Adherents (54%) and an almost near majority of Sympathizers (45%) reported that they believed “there is a storm coming soon that will sweep away the elites in power and restore the rightful leaders.”

“Christian nationalists are about twice as likely as other Americans to believe political violence may be justified,” PRRI noted. Adding that 4 in 10 Adherents and one-third of Sympathizers believed violence was needed to save the country.