The truth about Christian Nationalism in America has been revealed

A new landmark study has revealed the unnerving reality of Christian Nationalism in the United States and you may find the discoveries outlined concerning. Let’s take a look at what was found and why it matters for America. 

The American Values Atlas is a first-of-its-kind that set out to estimate levels of support for Christian Nationalism in every state in the union. Twenty-two thousand people were surveyed about their beliefs of the ideology. 

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. 

Researchers defined Christian Nationalism 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 that the Public Religion Research Institute discovered that 10% of the people surveyed were deemed to be Adherents of the belief while a further 20% were Sympathizers. 

However, a larger majority of individuals surveyed were opposed to Christian Nationalism and 37% identified themselves as Skeptics while 30% were categorized by researchers as Rejectors. But what else did we learn?

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 researchers 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,” the researchers noted. Adding that four in ten Adherents and one-third of Sympathizers believe violence is needed to save the country.