Christian Nationalism vs. Christian Political Participation
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Christian Nationalism vs. Christian Political Participation
Christianity has long influenced political thought, public debate, social movements, voting, public service, and civic organizations. Christian participation in politics, however, is not necessarily the same thing as Christian nationalism. The distinction is central to contemporary debates about religion and public life.
Across theological, journalistic, legal, and academic sources, Christian political participation generally refers to Christians exercising ordinary civic rights and responsibilities while allowing their religious convictions to inform their political choices. This can include voting, lobbying, running for office, discussing public policy, participating in demonstrations, advocating legislation, serving in government, organizing voters, or speaking about moral questions.
Christian nationalism is generally presented in the literature as a more specific political outlook connecting Christian identity with national identity and, in stronger versions, seeking governmental recognition, protection, promotion, or privileging of Christianity. Exactly where ordinary religious political participation ends and Christian nationalism begins remains disputed.
This distinction matters because religious conviction has always played a role in democratic politics. Labeling every instance of Christian political activity as Christian nationalism can obscure important differences among religious belief, patriotism, political activism, civil religion, religious conservatism, and proposals for explicitly Christian government. At the same time, critics of Christian nationalism argue that political programs seeking governmental preference for Christianity raise different questions from ordinary participation by religious citizens.
Definitions and Distinctions
One of the most persistent themes in discussions of Christian nationalism is disagreement over terminology. Some scholars and religious organizations define Christian nationalism as an ideology or cultural framework that seeks to fuse Christianity with national identity. Under this understanding, simply being Christian, patriotic, politically conservative, politically progressive, or active in public affairs does not by itself make someone a Christian nationalist.
Other commentators argue that the term is sometimes applied too broadly. They contend that defending religious liberty, acknowledging Christianity's historical influence, advocating policies for religious reasons, expressing patriotism, or seeking Christian cultural influence should not automatically be described as nationalism.
Still others openly defend versions of Christian nationalism, defining it as a political project in which Christian moral traditions should contribute directly to national identity and public institutions. These writers sometimes reject descriptions equating Christian nationalism with theocracy and instead present it as a form of national solidarity shaped by Christianity.
Consequently, "Christian nationalism" can refer to somewhat different ideas depending on the speaker. Discussions may involve cultural Christianity, national identity, civil religion, Christian political theology, establishment of religion, governmental promotion of Christianity, patriotism, or more comprehensive proposals for Christian political order.
Precision is therefore important. Christian nationalism and Christian political participation overlap in the sense that both involve religion and politics, but they are not synonymous concepts.
Christian Political Participation and Citizenship
The collected material documents many traditions of Christian political participation that do not necessarily depend on Christian nationalism.
Christians may vote according to religiously informed moral judgments, campaign for policies, hold public office, petition government, participate in demonstrations, organize communities, advocate religious liberty, discuss public issues in churches, or participate in political parties and civic organizations.
Christian political traditions have also produced widely differing political conclusions. Catholic social teaching, evangelical political activism, Black church political organizing, Anabaptist approaches, the Social Gospel tradition, Christian democratic movements, conservative Protestant activism, progressive Christian movements, and other traditions have approached politics differently.
Religious participation in democratic politics therefore does not produce a single Christian political program. Christians can disagree about taxation, immigration, abortion, civil rights, poverty, war, criminal justice, environmental policy, healthcare, education, religious liberty, and many other questions while drawing on religious principles.
Several sources emphasize humility and pluralism as important elements of Christian civic engagement. Under these approaches, religious citizens may advocate strongly for their beliefs while accepting that people of other religions or no religion possess the same political rights.
The institutional activities of churches are also distinct from the political rights of individual Christians. Religious leaders and congregants may personally participate in political life even where laws governing nonprofit organizations impose particular restrictions on institutional electoral activity.
Christian Nationalism and Political Power
The defining issue in many accounts of Christian nationalism is not simply whether Christians participate politically but how Christianity relates to national identity and governmental authority.
Stronger forms of Christian nationalism may support the idea that the nation has a specifically Christian identity, that government should affirm Christianity in a special way, or that public institutions should preserve distinctly Christian values, symbols, historical narratives, or legal principles.
Some advocates describe such ideas as legitimate expressions of a nation's religious heritage and cultural continuity. Others argue that a government can acknowledge Christian influence without creating formal ecclesiastical rule.
Critics, however, argue that governmental preference for Christianity can disadvantage citizens belonging to other religions or no religion and can blur distinctions between religious communities and the state. Some scholars also investigate relationships between Christian-nationalist attitudes and views concerning national belonging, immigration, race, gender, political authority, minority rights, and democratic institutions.
The literature therefore distinguishes persuasion from coercion. A Christian citizen attempting to persuade other citizens on the basis of religious convictions represents one form of political activity. Government enforcing, privileging, or officially endorsing a religious identity raises a different set of political, constitutional, and theological questions.
Religious Liberty and Church-State Boundaries
Religious liberty occupies an important position in the debate because it protects both political participation by religious citizens and freedom from governmental religious coercion.
Many of the sources argue that Christians have the same rights as other citizens to speak, vote, organize, lobby, run for office, petition government, advocate legislation, and introduce moral or religious arguments into public debate.
At the same time, American debates about Christian nationalism frequently involve the Establishment Clause, church-state separation, public education, government-sponsored religious displays, religious exercises in public institutions, and proposals for greater governmental recognition of Christianity.
These disputes often turn on the difference between private religious expression and government action. A private citizen displaying a religious symbol, praying, quoting Scripture, or advocating a religiously informed policy presents different legal and political questions from a government institution mandating religious observance or officially preferring one religion.
Religious-liberty debates therefore illustrate why Christian political participation and Christian nationalism cannot automatically be treated as identical.
Patriotism, Civil Religion, and National Identity
Another recurring distinction involves patriotism.
Christians may feel affection, gratitude, responsibility, or loyalty toward their country without regarding the nation as sacred or believing that Christianity should receive privileged governmental status. Several Christian writers describe patriotism as compatible with religious faith provided national loyalty does not replace religious commitments.
American civil religion further complicates the issue. References to God in public ceremonies, religious language in political speeches, prayers at national events, national hymns, monuments, and traditional expressions such as "In God We Trust" can combine religious and national symbolism without fitting neatly into a single ideological category.
Scholars therefore distinguish civil religion, Christian nationalism, patriotism, religious conservatism, and ordinary religious participation even though these phenomena can overlap.
Historical interpretation is also important. Arguments about whether the United States was founded as a "Christian nation" often depend on different understandings of constitutional history, religious demographics, political philosophy, and the role Christianity played in American culture.
Public Opinion and Social-Science Research
Survey research demonstrates that attitudes toward Christianity's political role cannot easily be reduced to a single question.
Researchers separately examine whether Americans believe the United States is a Christian nation, whether government should promote Christian moral values, whether Christianity should become an official religion, how much influence the Bible should have on law, whether church-state separation should be maintained, and whether respondents identify positively or negatively with the phrase "Christian nationalism."
Different answers to these questions do not necessarily represent identical political positions.
Social scientists have also developed scales intended to measure Christian-nationalist attitudes independently from church attendance, denominational identity, biblical belief, personal religious practice, or general religiosity.
This methodological distinction is important. Research increasingly treats Christianity, religiosity, Christian nationalism, partisanship, racial identity, ideology, and demographic characteristics as separate variables that can interact rather than assuming that religious Christians form a politically uniform population.
Studies examine associations between Christian-nationalist attitudes and subjects including political participation, voting rights, national belonging, immigration, public education, attitudes toward science, policing, taxation, healthcare, gender roles, political violence, executive power, racial attitudes, and democratic norms.
Researchers also debate the measurements themselves. Questions remain about what Christian-nationalism scales capture, whether respondents interpret survey statements consistently, how racial and denominational differences affect results, and whether the concept sometimes combines distinct religious and political orientations.
Diversity Within Christian Nationalism
Christian nationalism itself is not necessarily a single unified ideology.
Scholars have identified differing theological and political traditions sometimes placed under the Christian-nationalist label, including charismatic or dominionist movements, Reformed or Calvinist approaches, Catholic integralist ideas, civil-religious nationalism, and other forms of Christian political thought.
Research also finds differences across racial, ethnic, denominational, regional, and partisan groups. Political consequences associated with Christian-nationalist beliefs may therefore vary according to social context.
Some people who endorse certain Christian-nationalist statements simultaneously express support for religious pluralism. Others may understand the idea of a "Christian nation" primarily in cultural or historical terms rather than as a demand for formal governmental establishment of Christianity.
This variation is another reason researchers caution against assuming that every person associated with Christian nationalism holds the same beliefs or favors the same policies.
Contemporary Church Debates
Christian churches themselves are actively debating Christian nationalism.
Some denominations and religious organizations have issued statements opposing Christian nationalism while strongly affirming Christians' right to participate in democratic politics. Their concern centers on separating Christian faith from exclusive national identity or governmental religious privilege.
Other Christian commentators believe criticisms of Christian nationalism sometimes stigmatize conservative Christians or treat ordinary religious political activity as inherently threatening. They call for narrower definitions and clearer distinctions among religious liberty, patriotism, cultural Christianity, political conservatism, and nationalism.
Still other Christian writers defend forms of Christian nationalism and argue that Christian moral principles should play a larger role in national political life.
These disagreements show that the debate is occurring not simply between religious and secular Americans but also within Christianity itself.
Christianity Across the Political Spectrum
Faith-based political participation is not confined to a single political party or ideology.
Conservative Christians have organized around issues such as abortion, religious liberty, education, family policy, sexuality, and judicial appointments. Progressive Christians have organized around civil rights, poverty, healthcare, immigration, environmental protection, voting rights, peace, and economic justice.
Politicians across ideological lines invoke Scripture, religious teachings, church traditions, and Christian moral language.
The use of religious language in politics therefore does not by itself establish that a politician, organization, or voter is engaged in Christian nationalism. The broader political program, understanding of national identity, treatment of religious pluralism, and proposed relationship between religion and state power are also relevant.
Democracy, Rights, and Pluralism
Much contemporary research focuses on the relationship between Christian nationalism and democratic institutions.
Researchers have investigated attitudes toward voting rights, executive authority, political violence, minority religions, constitutional protections, public education, and the rule of law. Some studies report associations between particular Christian-nationalist measures and less pluralistic or more authoritarian political attitudes, while other scholarship warns against treating religion itself as the cause or assuming that all Christians holding culturally conservative views share the same political orientation.
The distinction between correlation and identity is important. Finding that a measured Christian-nationalist worldview is associated with a political attitude does not mean that Christianity generally, religious practice generally, or Christian political involvement necessarily produces that attitude.
Research increasingly examines how Christian nationalism interacts with political party, race, perceived cultural threat, education, gender, and social identity.
Why the Distinction Matters
Distinguishing Christian nationalism from Christian political participation improves the clarity of debates about religion and democracy.
If the definition is too broad, ordinary religious expression, advocacy, patriotism, or voting can be incorrectly treated as nationalism. If the definition is too narrow, political projects explicitly seeking privileged governmental status for Christianity may be difficult to analyze as a distinct phenomenon.
A useful distinction therefore focuses less on whether political participants are Christian and more on the relationship they propose among Christianity, national identity, citizenship, political authority, and government.
Questions that help clarify the difference include whether equal citizenship depends on religious identity, whether government should privilege Christianity over other religions, whether political authority should enforce specifically Christian doctrine, and whether citizens of other faiths or no faith are understood as equally legitimate members of the political community.
These questions do not eliminate disagreement, but they provide more precise ways to discuss competing political and theological positions.
Conclusion
Christian political participation is a broad phenomenon encompassing voting, advocacy, public service, protest, persuasion, policymaking, and other forms of civic involvement by Christians. Such participation can occur across political parties, theological traditions, and ideological movements.
Christian nationalism is a narrower and more contested concept involving some degree of connection between Christian identity and national political identity. Definitions range from relatively broad ideas about Christian cultural influence to stronger programs favoring governmental recognition or privileging of Christianity.
The available scholarship therefore cautions against treating Christianity, Christian political engagement, patriotism, religious conservatism, civil religion, and Christian nationalism as interchangeable categories. At the same time, it examines circumstances in which religious identity becomes connected to governmental power, national belonging, or political exclusion.
Understanding these distinctions allows debates about Christianity and politics to focus more precisely on the institutions, beliefs, policies, and forms of political authority actually being proposed rather than assuming that all religious political participation represents the same phenomenon.
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Definitions, Boundaries, Patriotism, and Competing Conceptions
| Thinking Christian | Thinking Christian | Current
"How Should Christians Think About Christian Nationalism?" argues that Christian political engagement is legitimate while questioning efforts to fuse the church's mission with coercive state power.
| Christians Against Christian Nationalism | Christians Against Christian Nationalism | Current
This overview distinguishes Christianity itself from an ideology that seeks to merge Christian identity with American national identity and political power.
| Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty | BJC | Current
BJC's overview explains that ordinary religious belief, worship, charity, and participation in public life are not themselves Christian nationalism; the organization defines nationalism as a political project seeking to merge Christian and American identities.
| Jesse Smith and Jonathan Tran | Religious Studies Review | September 5, 2026
"On Christian Nationalism" surveys contemporary scholarship while considering alternative traditions of Christian democratic engagement, public theology, Black church activism, and political participation.
| Christian Forums | Christian Forums | September 2026
"Should Christians Be Involved in Politics?" contrasts advocacy based on religious convictions with efforts to give a particular religious identity privileged political status.
| Diana Chandler | Baptist Press | July 2, 2026
Chandler presents competing Baptist definitions of Christian nationalism and explores disagreements over whether love of Christianity and country alone justify use of the term.
| Presbyterian Church in America Ad Interim Committee | Presbyterian Church in America | June 2026
The PCA report affirms voting, public service, advocacy, and civic participation as legitimate Christian activities while maintaining theological distinctions between the church, the nation, and civil government.
| Scott A. Leadingham | Freedom Forum | Updated May 21, 2026
"What Is Christian Nationalism? The Complete Guide" places Christian nationalism within First Amendment debates over free exercise, establishment, political advocacy, and government endorsement of religion.
| Christianity Today | Christianity Today | May 2026
"Not Everything Is Christian Nationalism" cautions against treating conservative Christian advocacy, religious-liberty arguments, or public expressions of Christian convictions as inherently nationalist.
| Kevin Schaal | Proclaim & Defend | March 8, 2026
The Foundations Baptist Fellowship statement rejects government-imposed Christianity while affirming that believers may vote, hold public office, serve in the military, pray for rulers, and influence public policy from their religious convictions.
| R. R. Reno | First Things | March 5, 2026
Reno presents an explicit argument in favor of Christian nationalism, defining it as a project of national solidarity shaped and restrained by Christian moral commitments rather than simply as formal theocracy.
| Amanda Tyler and Holly Hollman | BJC | February 19, 2026
"But … Is It Christian Nationalism?" discusses examples including faith-based advocacy, voter assistance, flags in churches, and statements about America's religious heritage to explore where nationalism begins and ordinary civic participation ends.
| James Spencer | Thinking Christian | 2026
Spencer distinguishes Christian discipleship from particular political activities, arguing that voting and similar forms of participation are civil rights rather than universal sacred duties.
| Joe Carter | The Gospel Coalition | December 4, 2025
Carter uses debates about historical narratives and national identity to argue for clearer definitions of Christian nationalism and greater separation between historical claims, patriotism, and governmental religious authority.
| Rachel Ferguson | Christianity Today | November 4, 2025
This review of Daniel Darling's work presents patriotism, civic duty, and participation in political life as potentially compatible with Christian faith without requiring a Christian-nationalist political theology.
| Andrew T. Walker | The Gospel Coalition | October 16, 2025
Walker distinguishes love of one's nation, culture, ancestry, and civic community from making ethnicity or nationality an overriding Christian obligation.
| Harold Ristau | Christian Culture | Summer 2025
Ristau presents a Lutheran argument for an active Christian voice in public affairs and contends that criticism of Christian nationalism should not become a rationale for removing Christian convictions from public debate.
| Ivica Šola and Nikola Bižaca | Religions | April 9, 2025
"Catholic Involvement in Politics" develops a theological case for individual Christian political participation within a pluralistic society while distinguishing that participation from clerical control of government.
| Nilay Saiya | Harvard Divinity School | February 27, 2025
Saiya places Christian nationalism in comparative international perspective and distinguishes it from the much broader phenomenon of churches and Christians participating in political life.
| James Spencer | Baptist News Global | September 19, 2024
"Putting Christian Political Participation in Proper Place" explicitly argues that not every politically active Christian is a Christian nationalist and examines where the distinction should be drawn.
| Multiple Authors | Sojourners | August 22, 2024
"How Christians Can Counter Christian Nationalism" argues that resisting nationalism does not require excluding Christians or other religious believers from civic and political participation.
| Miranda Zapor Cruz | InterVarsity Press | August 20, 2024
"Faithful Politics" compares ten approaches to Christian citizenship—including Anabaptist, social-gospel, pluralist, and Christian-nationalist models—rather than assuming there is a single Christian approach to politics.
| Jonathan Tran | The Christian Century | July 2024
"What Does ‘Christian Nationalism’ Even Mean?" examines competing definitions and questions whether public discussions sometimes group significantly different political and theological phenomena under one label.
| Joe Carter | The Gospel Coalition | June 20, 2024
This article argues from a Baptist religious-liberty perspective that Christian political participation differs from giving government authority to establish or police Christian doctrine.
| Brian Kaylor and Beau Underwood | University of Chicago Divinity School | June 20, 2024
The authors examine the boundary between American civil religion and Christian nationalism, focusing on national rituals and Christian language incorporated into civic identity.
| Brooklyn Walker and Donald P. Haider-Markel | Politics and Religion | June 5, 2024
This experimental study distinguishes Christian nationalism from civil religion while examining how racial attitudes can affect support for public expressions of both.
| Peter J. Leithart | First Things | April 12, 2024
Leithart offers a comparatively sympathetic account of the concept of a Christian nation and argues that Christian cultural influence on national institutions does not necessarily amount to direct ecclesiastical government.
| Scott Waller, Darren Patrick Guerra and Tim Milosch | Christianity Today | March 4, 2024
Three evangelical political scientists argue that Christian engagement in public life should not itself be treated as Christian nationalism and explicitly reject an established church or restrictions on non-Christian religious liberty.
| Christianity Today | Christianity Today | March 2024
"How (Not) to Talk About ‘Christian Nationalism’" argues that religious arguments, political advocacy, and Christians bringing faith into democratic debate should not automatically be labeled Christian nationalism, while identifying more coercive forms of religious nationalism as a distinct concern.
| James Spencer | Baptist News Global | 2024
"Why America Needs the Church, Not Christian Nationalism" distinguishes Christian participation in civic life from stronger forms of nationalism that seek to fuse Christianity with state authority.
| John Heathershaw | International Studies Review | November 9, 2023
"What Is Christendom to Us?" distinguishes several historical and contemporary forms of Christian political order and contrasts state-centered neo-Christendom with post-Christendom approaches to Christian public engagement.
| Paul D. Miller | Christianity Today | September 13, 2023
"The Problem with Anti-Anti-Christian Nationalism" cautions against using the nationalist label indiscriminately while also distinguishing ordinary patriotic Christians from more explicitly fusionist political projects.
| Joe Carter | The Gospel Coalition | June 24, 2023
Carter argues that Baptist commitments to freedom of conscience and religious liberty conflict with political programs that would empower government to establish Christianity.
| Gillian Richards Augros | Heritage Foundation | May 9, 2023
"The Dog Whistle of ‘Christian Nationalism’" presents a conservative critique of the term, arguing that vague definitions can cause conventional Christian positions on politics and culture to be classified as nationalism.
| Patrick Schreiner | The Gospel Coalition | April 27, 2023
Schreiner divides Christian nationalism into several forms, distinguishing ordinary Christian cultural influence and persuasion from stronger projects of church-state fusion or political domination.
| Obbie Tyler Todd | Desiring God | April 8, 2023
Todd examines competing early Baptist approaches to church-state separation, illustrating that Christian political thought has historically included multiple models of religious liberty.
| Christianity Today | Christianity Today | March 2023
"People Are Still Confused About Christian Nationalism" examines definitional problems surrounding the term and asks how Christian nationalism can be differentiated from legitimate Christian political engagement.
| Brad Littlejohn | Ethics & Public Policy Center | December 7, 2022
"Christian Nationalism or Christian Commonwealth? A Call for Clarity" separates several meanings of nationalism, patriotism, Christian political theology, and the idea of a Christian magistracy.
| Jesse Smith | Religion News Service | September 1, 2022
This commentary warns that applying "Christian nationalist" to nearly all conservative Christian political participation can reduce the term's descriptive value and reinforce polarization.
| Christianity Today | Christianity Today | June 2022
"Is There a Wholesome Alternative to Christian Nationalism?" considers patriotism and Christian republicanism as alternatives to a fusion of Christianity and national identity.
| Andrew T. Walker | Ethics & Public Policy Center | 2022
"Religious Liberty Is Not ‘Christian Nationalism’" argues that defending the institutional autonomy and religious freedom of Christian organizations should not be conflated with defining the nation itself as exclusively Christian.
| Robert K. Vischer | Word&Way | February 13, 2021
"Getting Serious (& Precise) About Christian Nationalism" distinguishes Christian nationalism from patriotism and Christian political engagement and argues for greater precision in applying the label.
| Paul D. Miller | Christianity Today | February 2021
"What Is Christian Nationalism?" directly distinguishes Christian political engagement from Christian nationalism, arguing that Christians may advocate policies informed by faith without seeking privileged political status for Christianity or defining national membership in Christian terms.
| Thomas Kidd | The Gospel Coalition | December 18, 2020
"Christian Nationalism vs. Christian Patriotism" argues that Christians can legitimately love their country while warning against treating the nation as a uniquely chosen instrument of God's purposes.
| Matthew Lee Anderson | Christianity Today | July/August 2020
Anderson argues that conventional patriotism, acknowledgment of Christian historical influence, and defense of religious liberty can be distinguished from stronger forms of Christian nationalism.
Christian Citizenship, Voting, Advocacy, and Public Engagement
| Internal Revenue Service | IRS | Current
The IRS distinguishes lobbying about legislation—which 501(c)(3) organizations may conduct within limits—from direct intervention for or against candidates, which is prohibited for those organizations.
| Internal Revenue Service | IRS | Current
This guidance distinguishes prohibited partisan campaigning from permitted nonpartisan voter education, voter registration, and get-out-the-vote activities.
| Internal Revenue Service | IRS | Current
The IRS explains that clergy and other nonprofit leaders retain individual political-expression rights even though tax-exempt organizations face limits on partisan candidate intervention.
| Internal Revenue Service | IRS | Current
IRS guidance explains the federal tax-law restrictions governing candidate campaign intervention by churches and other 501(c)(3) organizations.
| Daniel Silliman | Christianity Today | April 8, 2026
"The Rise of the Religious Right" revisits Christianity Today's historical discussion of evangelical political participation and its warnings against simplistic equations between biblical teaching and electoral choices.
| Kim Daniels | Georgetown University Berkley Center | March 31, 2026
"The Culture of Encounter and the Crisis of American Democracy" describes Catholic participation in public life while warning against using faith primarily as an instrument of partisan power.
| John Carr | America Magazine | February 24, 2026
Carr argues that churches should engage political questions without becoming partisan institutions and should remain principled without becoming captive to political ideologies.
| Baptist Joint Committee | BJC | Updated 2026
BJC's election resources state that religious citizens retain the same rights as others to preach, teach, lobby, vote, run for office, and advocate policy while maintaining institutional church-state boundaries.
| Chris Butler | Christianity Today | December 23, 2025
Butler argues that Christian political participation can be active without becoming coercive, performative, or centered on accumulating political power.
| Church Life Journal | University of Notre Dame | 2025
This historical essay describes Pier Giorgio Frassati's Catholic political participation, including his opposition to both political quietism and authoritarian movements that instrumentalized Christianity.
| Harvard Divinity School | Harvard Divinity School | December 10, 2024
This discussion describes work with religious leaders on political theology and civic participation, including encouraging voting without instructing congregants which candidates to support.
| Justin Giboney | Christianity Today | October 8, 2024
"You Are the Light of the Public Square" presents Christian civic engagement centered on moral conviction, neighborliness, humility, and participation within a diverse democracy.
This discussion focuses on how pastors can address political issues, encourage citizenship, and model disagreement without turning congregations into extensions of political parties.
| Philip Yalla | The Gospel Coalition India | June 5, 2024
This India-focused article illustrates Christian political participation outside the American Christian-nationalism debate and discusses voting and advocacy within a religiously diverse democracy.
| Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission | ERLC | May 30, 2024
The discussion presents voting, advocacy, public service, persuasion, and concern for neighbors as forms of Christian citizenship while cautioning against allowing partisan identity to become controlling.
| ERLC Research Staff | Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission | February 7, 2024
The ERLC introduces a framework encouraging Christians to participate politically without treating politics as either the ultimate Christian mission or an activity Christians should simply abandon.
| Episcopal Health Foundation | Episcopal Health Foundation | 2024
"Citizen: Faithful Discipleship in a Partisan World" presents Christians as participants in civic life whose primary religious allegiance remains distinct from their national and partisan identities.
| Church & Ministry Alliance | Church & Ministry Alliance | 2024
This legal guide explains ways churches and individual Christians may engage political issues while distinguishing personal civic participation from institutional candidate campaigning.
| Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission | ERLC | 2024
"A Christian Guide to Political Engagement" provides an evangelical framework for voting, citizenship, political disagreement, civic relationships, and participation beyond election campaigns.
| Bonnie Kristian | Christianity Today | September 21, 2022
"Should Christians Vote?" examines voting and political participation as questions of Christian discipleship while emphasizing that faithful Christians may reach different political conclusions.
| Christianity Today | Christianity Today | May 19, 2022
"Should Your Church Get Political?" explores legal, theological, and pastoral boundaries surrounding churches addressing public issues and participating in political life.
| Heather Thompson Day and Justin Giboney | Christianity Today | March 10, 2022
"Love and Truth in the Public Square" discusses politically engaged Christianity that resists automatically identifying Christian faith with either conservative or progressive political platforms.
| Wheaton College | Wheaton College | 2022
Wheaton's "Living Faithfully in the Public Square" discussion examines the responsibilities and challenges faced by Christians holding or seeking political office.
| Daniel D. Miller | Method & Theory in the Study of Religion | 2022
"American Christian Nationalism and the Meaning of Religion" examines how scholars conceptualize religion within Christian-nationalism research and raises questions about where religious identity ends and nationalist ideology begins.
| Jordan Wootten | Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission | July 26, 2021
Wootten argues that political participation should be shaped by Christian ethical commitments and relationships rather than merely by the goal of gaining political power.
| Joshua Wu | Asian American Christian Collaborative | March 4, 2021
Wu develops a framework for Asian American Christian civic participation based on justice, public advocacy, religious conviction, and engagement with democratic institutions.
| John Pletcher | Institute for Faith and Culture | November 2, 2020
Pletcher presents participation in politics as a means of serving neighbors and pursuing the common good while arguing against making political victory or control the central Christian objective.
| Wonho Jung | Korean Journal of Christian Social Ethics | August 31, 2020
"Between the Candlelight Rally and the Taegeukgi Rally" argues that church-state separation does not require Christian political passivity and examines how religiously informed participation can operate in democratic politics.
| Family Research Council | Family Research Council | June 2020
This conservative Christian resource explicitly advocates voting and political involvement, providing a useful example of political participation framed as Christian civic responsibility rather than a scholarly definition of Christian nationalism.
| Berkley Center | Georgetown University | January 23, 2020
"Experts Explore Religious Freedom, Christians in American Public Life" examines clergy, political advocacy, religious liberty, polarization, and Christian involvement in public affairs.
| Church Life Journal | University of Notre Dame | 2019
This theological essay examines ways Christians can think about political authority without collapsing divine authority into the authority of particular states or political programs.
| Joseph H. Sherrard | Themelios | 2018
This review considers Reformed approaches to church-state relations and the distinction between the institutional church's mission and Christians' broader participation in civic affairs.
| Christianity Today | Christianity Today | October 26, 2016
"The Christian Case for Talking Politics" discusses responsible Christian participation in the public square without reducing Christianity to partisan political identity.
| Amy E. Black | Wheaton College | September 2014
"Breaking the Unwritten Rules" discusses Christian voting and civic participation through a framework of humility, political disagreement, and Christian responsibility.
| The Gospel Coalition | The Gospel Coalition | 2012
This article presents citizenship as a sphere of Christian stewardship and argues against equating faithful Christianity either with political withdrawal or with a particular political party.
| Sandra F. Joireman | Oxford University Press | June 4, 2009
The introduction to "Church, State, and Citizen" emphasizes that Christianity has produced numerous approaches to voting, lobbying, protest, public service, and relations with government rather than a single uniform political program.
| Christianity Today Editors | Christianity Today | September 2006
"God's Will in the Public Square" considers how believers can bring religious convictions into democratic argument while communicating across religious and nonreligious differences.
| Southern Baptist Theological Seminary | SBTS | 2003
This report on Russell Moore's remarks presents Christian political involvement as part of broader public discipleship while emphasizing that the church's identity cannot be reduced to politics.
| Beth Spring | Christianity Today | November 21, 1986
"Christians in the Public Square: Time to Rethink?" documents longstanding evangelical debates about political activism, prudence, civic responsibility, and partisan entanglement.
| Christianity Today Institute | Christianity Today | April 1985
"The Christian as Citizen" argues that Christians may seek justice, order, freedom, and good government while cautioning against using governmental authority to establish Christianity.
Polling and Social-Science Research
| Lauren Horn Griffin, Charles McCrary and Jelani Ince | PRRI | August 3, 2026
This research examines how progressive Christians themselves participate politically while mobilizing against what they define as white Christian nationalism.
| Becka A. Alper | Pew Research Center | May 27, 2026
Pew documents what regular worship attenders report hearing from clergy about social and political issues, illustrating how issue discussion differs from formal partisan endorsement.
| Chip Rotolo and Gregory A. Smith | Pew Research Center | May 14, 2026
Pew examines Christian nationalism, church-state separation, Bible influence on law, candidate endorsements by congregations, and public attitudes toward religion's political role.
| Paul A. Djupe and Brooklyn Walker | Politics and Religion | March 26, 2026
This study finds that some Americans who score highly on Christian-nationalism measures simultaneously endorse religious pluralism, especially until they perceive Christianity as threatened.
| Amy Brooke Grauley | Political Behavior | September 29, 2025
"We Should All Be Christian Nationalists" studies how political and religious elite messages influence Christians' willingness to identify explicitly with the Christian-nationalist label.
| John Ishiyama | Politics and Religion | September 15, 2025
This cross-national study extends Christian-nationalism research beyond the United States and investigates relationships between religious nationalism, democratic attitudes, and tolerance.
| Seungju Kim, Peter J. Jankowski, David C. Wang et al. | Pastoral Psychology | July 28, 2025
"Patterns of Christian Nationalist Engagement and Connections to Spirituality" examines varieties of Christian nationalist attitudes among emerging religious leaders rather than assuming a single uniform profile.
| Nilay Saiya | Politics and Religion | May 13, 2025
"The Varieties of American Christian Nationalism" distinguishes charismatic dominionist, Calvinist nationalist, and Catholic integralist strands rather than treating the movement as monolithic.
| Brock Lewis | Discover Education | May 7, 2025
This study examines Christian nationalism in education, including disputes over public-school curricula and efforts to use governmental institutions to advance particular religious understandings.
| Scholars in Perspectives on Politics | Cambridge University Press | 2025
"Religion Is Sometimes Raced" examines Christian nationalism among white, Black, and Latino Christians and finds that its political associations vary depending on the issue and group.
| Baylor Religion Survey | Baylor University | 2025
Baylor survey research measures support for government promotion of distinctly Christian beliefs and practices and compares stronger supporters with those favoring greater church-state separation.
| Mackenzie Dobson and Tyler Leigh | Rooney Center, University of Notre Dame | December 13, 2024
"Christian Nationalism and Democracy" examines attitudes toward universal voting rights, representation, and democratic participation among Americans who support declaring the United States a Christian nation.
| Chip Rotolo, Gregory A. Smith and Jonathan Evans | Pew Research Center | March 15, 2024
This survey separates opinions about Christian nationalism, promoting Christian moral values, making Christianity an official religion, Bible influence on law, and church-state separation.
| Politics and Religion | Cambridge University Press | 2024
This study examines how Christian nationalism and partisan identity influence perceptions of whether political parties and institutions are friendly or hostile toward religion.
| Shaoqing Zhou | International Journal of Anthropology and Ethnology | December 6, 2023
"American Evangelical Nationalism" traces the historical development of evangelical political mobilization and examines its relationship to nationalism.
| Scholars in Politics and Religion | Cambridge University Press | 2023
"Which Civil Religion?" finds that American civil religion contains dimensions distinct from Christian nationalism and explores how partisan identity shapes each.
| Long Li and Paul Froese | Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion | 2023
"The Duality of American Christian Nationalism" distinguishes religious traditionalism focused largely on civil society from Christian statism seeking governmental religious dominance.
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | October 27, 2022
This analysis examines Americans' views on churches speaking about political issues, religious organizations' political influence, and the role of Scripture in lawmaking.
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | October 27, 2022
Pew's open-ended responses demonstrate the wide range of meanings Americans attach to "Christian nation" and "Christian nationalism."
| Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | October 27, 2022
Pew finds that people who describe the United States as a "Christian nation" mean significantly different things by the phrase, complicating attempts to equate the label automatically with one political program.
Democracy, Religious Liberty, History, and Church-State Boundaries
| Christians Against Christian Nationalism | Christians Against Christian Nationalism | Current
The FAQ gives examples intended to differentiate Christian-nationalist political projects from ordinary religious belief and participation.
| Christians Against Christian Nationalism | Christians Against Christian Nationalism | Current
Church and community resources distinguish normal Christian ministry and civic involvement from attempts to use Christianity as a basis for exclusive national belonging.
| Christians Against Christian Nationalism | Christians Against Christian Nationalism | Current
These advocacy resources explicitly encourage Christians to petition officials, testify, organize, and participate politically while opposing the fusion of Christianity and national identity.
| Good Faith Media | Good Faith Media | Current
The Faith & Democracy initiative advocates religious participation in democracy while opposing the use of Christianity to justify authoritarian or exclusionary government.
| Baptist Joint Committee | BJC | Current
The Christians Against Christian Nationalism statement argues simultaneously for Christian engagement in constitutional democracy and against merging religious and American identities.
| Associated Press | AP | 2026
AP examines how the traditional Christian statement "Christ is King" can function as ordinary religious confession in some contexts and as a politically charged nationalist slogan in others.
| Stephen Healey | The Christian Century | April 2025
This review of "Baptizing America" examines how mainline Protestant participation in American civic religion historically helped blur boundaries between Christianity and national identity.
| ACLU and Partner Organizations | ACLU | 2025
This case concerns the constitutional distinction between private religious expression and government-mandated religious displays in public schools.
"Faith, Nationalism, and the Future of Liberal Democracy" examines how religious communities can contribute constructively to democratic public life while resisting exclusionary religious nationalism.
| Reuters | Reuters | August 7, 2024
Reuters examines state efforts concerning the Ten Commandments and Bible instruction in public schools, illustrating legal disputes over religious expression versus government establishment.
| Laura Flanders & Friends | PBS | April 5, 2024
This program discusses the documentary "God & Country" and arguments that Christian nationalism should be distinguished from Christianity itself and from non-coercive political engagement by Christians.
| Laura Barrón-López and Sam Lane | PBS NewsHour | February 1, 2024
PBS examines definitions of Christian nationalism and debates over how the ideology differs from Christian belief and ordinary participation by religious citizens.
| Brookings Institution and PRRI | Brookings Institution | February 8, 2023
This discussion presents national survey research concerning Christian nationalism, political identity, pluralism, authoritarian attitudes, and democratic institutions.
| Paul Billingham | Notre Dame Law Review | 2023
"Religious Political Arguments, Accessibility, and Democratic Deliberation" examines whether citizens may legitimately introduce explicitly religious arguments into democratic political debate.
| Steven D. Smith | Notre Dame Law Review | 2023
"Christians and/as Liberals?" explores historical and theological debates about Christianity, liberal democracy, religious freedom, and political authority.
| Laura Barrón-López | PBS NewsHour | October 11, 2022
This segment examines growing links between some Christian political organizations and nationalist ideas while discussing church-state separation.
| Michelle R. Smith | AP/FRONTLINE | September 7, 2022
This investigation examines a political organizing network explicitly using Christian-nationalist themes, providing a case study that can be compared with ordinary religious civic participation.
| Scott Hibbard | University of Notre Dame | August 11, 2022
"Religion, Politics, and Trump's Christian Nationalism" contrasts an inclusive framework for religion in a pluralistic democracy with efforts to privilege a dominant religious community through state authority.
| Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons and Maggie Siddiqi | Center for American Progress | April 13, 2022
An interview with Amanda Tyler presents the view that religious freedom includes everyone's right to participate in public affairs while rejecting government favoritism toward Christianity.
| Taylor Mooney | CBS News | March 4, 2021
"Is America a Christian Nation?" presents pastors with differing views about Christianity, national identity, religious liberty, and the appropriate political role of churches.
Contemporary Church Debates and Competing Perspectives
| Noah Berlatsky | Sojourners | September 15, 2026
This commentary uses a Christian politician's explicitly theological rhetoric to ask why invoking Christianity in political debate does not by itself constitute Christian nationalism.
| Ray Kirstein / Robert P. Jones | Religion News Service | September 5, 2026
This discussion examines how Christians themselves can participate politically and defend democratic institutions while opposing Christian nationalism.
| Paul A. Djupe and Brooklyn Walker | Religion News Service | August 21, 2026
The authors summarize research showing that some Christian nationalists express genuine pluralist commitments but become less tolerant when they perceive Christians as threatened.
| Katherine Stewart | Religion News Service | August 18, 2026
This interview presents a nonreligious political perspective emphasizing that opposition to an established Christian political identity need not mean opposition to Christians participating in democracy.
| Megan Fowler | Christianity Today | July 30, 2026
"The Summer of Taking Christian Nationalism Seriously" reports on several denominations studying how to distinguish faithful public engagement from efforts to combine Christianity and governmental power.
| Juan Garcia | Baptist News Global | June 29, 2026
Garcia contrasts Christian civic witness with coercive religious politics in which the state privileges or enforces a Christian identity.
| Steven Waldman | The Christian Century | June 16, 2026
"Whose Christian Nationalism?" examines claims about America's Christian founding and asks which Christian traditions would actually be privileged by the concept of a Christian nation.
| Russell Moore | Christianity Today | June 15, 2026
This discussion examines how congregations can address Christian nationalism without turning political disagreement itself into a reason for breaking church unity.
| Andrew T. Walker | Ethics & Public Policy Center | April 7, 2026
Walker criticizes politicians across the political spectrum for instrumentalizing Christianity and argues that Christian public engagement should remain accountable to Christian teaching rather than partisan needs.
| Reuters | Reuters | February 17, 2026
Reuters reports on Democratic candidates using Christian Scripture and religious convictions in political campaigns, illustrating that faith-based political participation spans partisan lines.
| George Yancey | Christianity Today | January 2026
Yancey argues that some behavior commonly labeled Christian nationalism may be better understood as conservative identity politics and urges more precise distinctions.
| Christian Post Staff | The Christian Post | Updated 2026
The "Politics in the Pews" series examines evangelical electoral engagement from the Moral Majority era through contemporary voter mobilization, providing broader context for distinguishing activism from nationalism.
| Greg Carey | Word&Way | September 10, 2025
Carey examines common definitional mistakes and emphasizes that Christian nationalism involves particular claims about political power rather than simply Christians expressing political opinions.
| Daniel Holcomb | Baptist News Global | August 28, 2025
Holcomb describes pastors wrestling with how to oppose Christian nationalism while remaining active in civic life and public moral debate.
| Ian M. Giatti | The Christian Post | September 14, 2024
This report presents competing evangelical perspectives over whether Christian nationalism represents a meaningful threat, an imprecise label, or a fusion of Christianity and state power.
| Brian Kaylor and Beau Underwood | Word&Way | August 27, 2024
"Church Conversations About Christian Nationalism" discusses ways churches can address nationalism without turning worship or Christian witness into campaigning for particular candidates.
| Ronald S. Cava | Baptist News Global | July 2, 2024
This Baptist analysis evaluates Christian nationalism theologically and considers how churches can engage public affairs without becoming instruments of political movements.
| Ron Duncan Hart | Baptist News Global | June 16, 2024
"Christian Nationalism: Religion or Politics?" examines historical efforts to create explicitly Christian government and distinguishes these from religion operating within civil society.
| H. Stephen Shoemaker | Baptist News Global | June 5, 2023
This essay considers how Christians of differing political perspectives can remain politically engaged without allowing partisan conflict or national identity to displace their religious commitments.
| Jeff Brumley | Baptist News Global | October 31, 2022
This report juxtaposes Christian conservatives who argue the term stigmatizes ordinary religious political activity with Christian critics who view nationalism as a threat to church-state separation.
Empirical Research Distinguishing Christian Nationalism from Religiosity
"Christian Nationalism as a Social Identity" distinguishes identification with the Christian-nationalist label from a broader worldview measured through survey questions.
| Christopher H. Seto | Sociology of Religion | May 24, 2026
"In God We Trust" examines Christian nationalism, political identity, ethno-racial identity, and distrust of immigrants rather than treating Christianity alone as the explanatory variable.
| Kimberly H. Conger | Politics and Religion | January 14, 2026
Conger studies Project Blitz and distinguishes organized Christian-nationalist policy efforts from the broader Christian Right and from individual religious beliefs.
| Joshua Hordern | Political Theology | 2026
"On Public Commands, Affections and Christian Nationalism" examines Christian public theology and asks how religious commitments should shape political action without reducing Christianity to national ideology.
| Mahesh Somashekhar and Ian Kennedy | Sociology of Religion | 2026
"The Business of Christian Nationalism" studies how businesses participating in a conservative Christian online marketplace describe their religious and political identities.
| Christopher H. Seto | Sociology of Religion | 2026
"The Faces of God's Country" studies Christian nationalism and implicit perceptions of Asian faces as foreign, adding evidence about the national-belonging component of the ideology.
| Atsuko Kawakami, Derek Lehman and Emily Poplawski | Sociological Inquiry | November 14, 2025
"Would a Christian Nation Have Universal Healthcare?" tests whether Christian nationalism predicts healthcare-policy attitudes independently of other religious and political characteristics.
| David Sikkink | Sociology of Religion | November 3, 2025
"The Gathering Storm in the Evangelical Field" examines differences among evangelicals themselves, including how education and Christian-nationalist commitments correspond with views of racial inequality.
This methodological study cautions against automatically interpreting statistical differences between worship attendance and Christian nationalism as evidence that ordinary religiosity has an inherently opposite political effect.
"White or Woke Christian Nationalists?" finds that relationships between Christian nationalism and political attitudes can vary substantially by race rather than functioning identically across Christian populations.
| Samuel L. Perry | Social Forces | April 27, 2025
"Order Begins at Home" studies Christian nationalism and attitudes toward parental control over children, providing another example of research separating nationalist ideology from religious commitment generally.
| Samuel L. Perry and Ruth Braunstein | Social Forces | April 7, 2025
"Not Paying unto Caesar" analyzes Christian nationalism, race, politics, and opposition to taxation, distinguishing the nationalist worldview from ordinary religiosity.
| Paul A. Djupe and Brooklyn Walker | Sociology of Religion | March 8, 2025
"Jesus and John Wayne Wannabes" examines how Christian nationalism interacts with ideas about gender and masculinity in predicting political attitudes among men.
| Samuel L. Perry and Joshua B. Grubbs | Social Forces | February 23, 2025
"The Religion of White Identity Politics" examines the relationship between Christian nationalism and white racial solidarity while distinguishing nationalism from religious practice more broadly.
| Kerby Goff, Eric Silver and John Iceland | Sociology of Religion | October 25, 2024
"The Moral Foundations of Christian Nationalism" analyzes the moral dimensions associated with Christian nationalism and provides evidence that different forms of religious-political orientation should not automatically be treated as one phenomenon.
| Stephanie N. Shady, Liesbet Hooghe and Gary Marks | Politics and Religion | October 3, 2024
Research on Republican pastors finds substantial differences among conservative Christian clergy and distinguishes theological fundamentalism from Christian nationalism, racial grievance, election distrust, and support for political force.
| Brooklyn Walker and Donald P. Haider-Markel | Public Opinion Quarterly | April 4, 2024
"Fear and Loathing" experimentally examines how information about religious and racial demographic change influences support for Christian nationalism.
| Jessica Liberman, Derek Lehman and Atsuko Kawakami | Sociology of Religion | November 18, 2023
This study examines Christian nationalism and opposition to shifting police funding toward social services while controlling for other political and religious orientations.
"Controlling the Past to Control the Future" studies Christian nationalism and support for mandatory patriotic education in public schools.
| Joshua T. Davis, Samuel L. Perry and Joshua B. Grubbs | Sociology of Religion | May 8, 2023
"Liberty for Us, Limits for Them" examines Christian nationalism and views of constitutional and civil rights, including voting, speech, religious freedom, gun rights, and due-process protections.
| Miles T. Armaly, David T. Buckley and Adam M. Enders | Political Behavior | January 4, 2022
"Christian Nationalism and Political Violence" examines Christian nationalism alongside religiosity, racial identity, perceived victimhood, conspiracy beliefs, and attitudes toward the January 6 Capitol attack.
| Samuel L. Perry, Andrew L. Whitehead and Joshua B. Grubbs | Sociological Forum | January 3, 2022
"'I Don't Want Everybody to Vote'" examines whether Christian nationalism predicts support for voting restrictions independently of religiosity, partisanship, and other characteristics.
"Save the Economy, Liberty, and Yourself" analyzes Christian nationalism and attitudes toward COVID-19 restrictions separately from general religious commitment.
| Joseph O. Baker, Samuel L. Perry and Andrew L. Whitehead | Sociological Forum | August 6, 2020
"Crusading for Moral Authority" analyzes Christian nationalism and attitudes toward science while separately measuring religious practice and belief.
| Darren E. Sherkat and Derek Lehman | Social Science Quarterly | September 26, 2018
"Bad Samaritans" analyzes the relationships among religious identities, religious practices, anti-immigrant attitudes, and anti-Muslim sentiment, useful for comparing ordinary religiosity with nationalist exclusion.
"God's Country in Black and Blue" examines Christian nationalism and perceptions of police treatment of Black Americans.
| Andrew L. Whitehead, Landon Schnabel and Samuel L. Perry | Socius | July 23, 2018
"Gun Control in the Crosshairs" analyzes the relationship between Christian nationalism and gun-policy attitudes while statistically separating nationalism from other forms of religious belief and practice.
| Joshua T. Davis | Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion | June 22, 2018
"Enforcing Christian Nationalism" examines how Christian-nationalist group identity relates to punitive attitudes while controlling for other religious and political factors.
"Make America Christian Again" treats Christian nationalism as a measurable cultural framework separate from standard measures of religious practice and analyzes its relationship with voting in the 2016 election.
| Samuel L. Perry and Andrew L. Whitehead | Sociological Perspectives | April 6, 2015
"A More Perfect Union?" examines Christian nationalism and views of same-sex unions while controlling for conventional religious measures.
| Samuel L. Perry and Andrew L. Whitehead | Ethnic and Racial Studies | March 6, 2015
This study examines Christian nationalism and white opposition to interracial marriage while separating nationalist beliefs from religious identification more generally.
Democracy, Rights, Social Identity, and Political Mobilization
| Kazusa Okaya | Christianity Today | June 12, 2026
"Nationalism Can Be Prophetic" uses Japanese Christian leader Kanzo Uchimura to explore how Christians may love and participate in their nation while retaining the theological independence needed to criticize national policy and nationalist ideology.
"An Army for God" examines gun ownership, Christian nationalism, and attitudes toward political violence.
| Samuel L. Perry | Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion | March 14, 2026
"The Right Kind of Children" makes an especially useful distinction between general pronatalism associated with religious commitment and selective pronatalism associated more strongly with Christian nationalism.
| PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 17, 2026
PRRI maps support for its Christian-nationalism measures across U.S. states and demographic groups, providing current survey data rather than assuming politically active Christians hold identical views.
| PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | 2026
"Competing Visions of America" examines religion, national identity, pluralism, citizenship, and Christian nationalism during the United States' 250th-anniversary period.
| Jesse Smith | Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion | December 26, 2025
Smith tracks partisan and racial sorting of Christian nationalism from 1996 through 2022 and notes that changing political alignment can affect how Christian-nationalist measures should be interpreted.
| Joel Day | Terrorism and Political Violence | September 11, 2025
"Christian Nationalism as a Social Practice" examines how prayer and other religious rituals can become incorporated into nationalist political mobilization, distinguishing the political function of those practices from prayer generally.
| PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 4, 2025
PRRI's 2024 American Values Atlas examines geographic and demographic variation in support for Christian-nationalist ideas across the United States.
| Politics, Religion & Ideology Researchers | Politics, Religion & Ideology | 2025
This historical study examines Christian-nationalist rhetoric in British-Israelism and Christian Identity movements and traces connections between particular nationalist narratives and organized white supremacy.
| Sean F. Everton | Frontiers in Social Psychology | November 6, 2024
"Not All Christian Nationalists Are White" challenges assumptions that Christian nationalism and white Christianity are interchangeable and examines demographic, religious, and political predictors separately.
| PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | October 30, 2024
This state-level survey research documents substantial numbers of Christians who reject Christian-nationalist propositions, underscoring that Christian identification and Christian nationalism are not synonymous.
| Samuel L. Perry and Joshua B. Grubbs | Politics and Religion | September 19, 2024
The authors study whether Christian-nationalist beliefs correspond with support for expanded executive powers such as suspending elections or bypassing institutional checks during emergencies.
| PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | September 10, 2024
This report studies the statistical relationship between Christian-nationalist attitudes and measures of authoritarianism while separately reporting religion, party, race, and other demographic characteristics.
| Nilay Saiya and Stuti Manchanda | Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion | September 2, 2024
This study examines whether political expressions of Christian nationalism correspond with violence against religious minorities, treating such nationalism as distinct from Christianity generally.
| PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 28, 2024
This survey categorizes respondents according to a set of Christian-nationalism questions and shows that attitudes vary substantially among Christians as well as across religiously unaffiliated populations.
| Darren E. Sherkat, Derek Lehman and Nabil Bill Julkif | The Sociological Quarterly | 2024
"Mooring Christian Nationalism" examines how religious institutions, participation, and beliefs contribute to Christian-nationalist attitudes rather than treating nationalism as completely detached from organized religion.
| Politics and Religion Researchers | Politics and Religion | 2024
This experimental research examines whether Christian-nationalist attitudes affect reactions to legal treatment of Christian and non-Christian groups.
| Jesse Smith | Sociological Forum | 2024
"Old Wine in New Wineskins" critically evaluates explanations of Christian nationalism and authoritarianism and warns against overly essentialist interpretations of religion and political conflict.
| PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 8, 2023
PRRI examines Christian-nationalist beliefs alongside views about democracy, political leadership, cultural change, immigration, race, and political violence.
| Nicholas T. Davis | Politics and Religion | 2023
"The Psychometric Properties of the Christian Nationalism Scale" evaluates the survey instrument frequently used in Christian-nationalism research and discusses what the measure does and does not capture.
| Baptist Joint Committee and Freedom From Religion Foundation | BJC/FFRF | February 9, 2022
This joint report examines the presence of Christian-nationalist symbols, organizations, rhetoric, and participants surrounding January 6 while distinguishing those phenomena from Christianity as a religion.
| Samuel L. Perry | Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion | December 7, 2021
"Historical Fundamentalism?" finds that Christian nationalism and ordinary religiosity can have different relationships with factual knowledge about religion in American political history.
| Breanne Leigh Grace and Katie Heins | Ethnic and Racial Studies | June 2, 2020
"Redefining Refugee" analyzes how white Christian-nationalist narratives influence refugee policy and political discourse.
| Jack Delehanty, Penny Edgell and Evan Stewart | Social Forces | 2019
"Christian America?" examines national belonging and secularized evangelical discourse, helping distinguish overt theological belief from cultural ideas about Christianity and American identity.
