The Effects of Christian Nationalism on Religious Minorities
The Effects of Christian Nationalism on Religious Minorities
Christian nationalism is a political and cultural ideology that connects national identity with Christianity and generally holds that Christianity should occupy a privileged position in the nation's public institutions, laws, culture, or understanding of citizenship. Research on Christian nationalism distinguishes these ideas from ordinary Christian religious belief, patriotism, or the participation of Christians in democratic politics. The central concern examined in research on religious minorities is what happens when belonging to the nation is defined, explicitly or implicitly, in religious terms.
A substantial body of research reviewed here finds that stronger Christian nationalist beliefs are associated with more negative attitudes toward several groups outside the dominant Christian tradition. These include Muslims, Jews, atheists and agnostics, as well as Hindus, Buddhists and members of other minority religions. The effects range from attitudes about who properly belongs in American public life to support for government policies that give Christianity a special institutional position.
The research does not suggest that every person who expresses Christian nationalist ideas holds hostile views toward religious minorities, nor does every form of Christian nationalism take the same form. Some scholars distinguish among varieties of Christian nationalism, and other writers argue that a Christian-influenced national identity can coexist with constitutional pluralism. Nevertheless, much of the empirical research identifies recurring relationships between Christian nationalism, religious boundary-making, perceptions of threat and diminished acceptance of religious outsiders.
Religious Nationalism, Belonging, and Equal Citizenship
One of the most consistent themes in the literature is the connection between Christian nationalism and ideas about who constitutes an authentic member of the nation. Christian nationalism tends to merge religious and national identities, making Christianity more than a private or communal faith and treating it instead as an important marker of American identity.
Research on national belonging shows that people strongly supportive of Christian nationalism are considerably more likely to prefer a country culturally dominated by Christianity. Survey research has found that Christian nationalism Adherents are much more likely to prefer a nation composed primarily of Christians rather than one characterized by many different religions.
This distinction has significant implications for religious minorities. In a civic conception of citizenship, Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists and people of other beliefs possess the same national standing regardless of religion. A religious-nationalist conception can instead create an implicit hierarchy in which Christians are regarded as the cultural core of the nation while other groups remain citizens legally but are treated as less representative of its authentic identity.
National surveys consistently show comparatively low levels of support for Christian nationalism among Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Unitarian and religiously unaffiliated Americans. These same groups are often among the strongest supporters of religious pluralism and separation between government and religion.
Christian nationalism therefore raises a question broader than religious prejudice alone: whether national membership should rest principally on civic commitments shared across religions or on a historically dominant religious identity.
Jews and Antisemitism
The relationship between Christian nationalism and antisemitism has received significant scholarly attention. Survey and experimental research has found that stronger Christian nationalist beliefs are associated with greater endorsement of antisemitic stereotypes and attitudes.
This relationship can appear contradictory because some Christian nationalist organizations and political movements strongly support Israel or form political alliances with conservative Jewish organizations. Political cooperation, however, does not necessarily eliminate religious hierarchy. A political system defined as fundamentally Christian can still place Judaism outside the religion considered constitutive of national identity.
Researchers have also examined connections among Christian nationalism, conspiratorial beliefs and antisemitism. Studies following the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol identified overlaps among Christian nationalist ideas, QAnon beliefs, antisemitic imagery and broader far-right political networks.
Jewish commentators consequently distinguish between Christian participation in politics and a system in which Christianity possesses governmental or cultural supremacy. Their concern is not generally Christianity itself but the possibility that the state might formally or informally establish Christians as the normative citizens of the country.
Some contemporary nationalist organizations have attempted to construct political alliances between conservative Christians and Jews. These efforts illustrate the diversity within nationalist movements, but they also generate debate over whether a political identity organized around two favored religious traditions can be considered genuinely pluralistic when Muslims and other religions remain outside that framework.
Muslims and Islamophobia
Muslims are among the religious minorities most consistently associated with exclusion in research on Christian nationalism.
Foundational studies of religious nationalism found a statistically significant relationship between Christian nationalist beliefs and unfavorable attitudes toward Muslims and Islam. Subsequent research has continued to identify Muslims as one of the groups most likely to be regarded as incompatible with a Christian conception of American identity.
Religious and national identities frequently overlap with debates about immigration, terrorism, national security and cultural change. Consequently, hostility toward Muslims may involve both religious and ethnic or national stereotypes.
Contemporary controversies have included claims that Christianity enjoys a constitutionally superior status to Islam, warnings that Muslim immigration threatens American culture, and assertions that Islamic law could replace American law. Civil-rights organizations have documented rhetoric portraying Muslims as fundamentally incompatible with American society.
Comparative international research reinforces this pattern. Where national identity is closely tied to a historically dominant religion, minority religious practices may become political controversies. Mosque construction, religious clothing, halal practices and other expressions of Muslim religious identity can be treated not merely as exercises of religious freedom but as challenges to the cultural identity of the majority population.
The research therefore suggests that Islamophobia within Christian nationalist politics is often connected to a broader question of national belonging: whether Muslims can be understood as fully American without assimilating into a Christian cultural identity.
Atheists, Agnostics, and Secular Americans
Religiously unaffiliated Americans occupy an important place in the study of Christian nationalism because they challenge the premise that religious belief—particularly Christian belief—is an essential component of American identity.
Research specifically examining anti-atheist attitudes has found that Christian nationalism independently predicts more negative attitudes toward atheists. Other studies of religion in public life likewise find particularly strong resistance among Christian nationalists to atheists occupying prominent or legitimate positions within their conception of American public life.
Atheists and agnostics, in turn, are among the groups most strongly opposed to government promotion of Christianity, declaring Christianity an official religion, or giving biblical teachings formal authority over American law.
The growing religiously unaffiliated population also creates an important demographic context. As the United States becomes less uniformly Christian, political efforts to reinforce Christianity's public position may intensify. Some researchers interpret Christian nationalism partly as a response to the declining cultural dominance of Christianity rather than simply as an expression of personal religious devotion.
The resulting conflict is therefore not merely between religious and nonreligious individuals. It concerns competing models of government: one in which the state reflects the country's historic Christian traditions and another in which government remains institutionally neutral among religious and nonreligious worldviews.
Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Other Minority Faiths
Although Jews, Muslims and atheists have received the greatest attention in American research, the implications of Christian nationalism extend to many other religious traditions.
Research discussing interreligious relations identifies Hindus, Buddhists and nonconforming Christian traditions among communities that may be marginalized when national belonging is defined primarily through Christianity. Surveys also show very low levels of Christian-nationalist identification among Hindus and Buddhists.
Sikh and Hindu perspectives are particularly useful comparatively because religious majoritarianism is not unique to the United States or to Christianity. Scholars studying Christian nationalism have compared it with Hindu nationalism and other movements in which majority religions become closely intertwined with state identity.
These comparisons reveal a recurring problem. When national identity becomes associated with one religious tradition, minority religions may remain legally tolerated while nevertheless being portrayed as culturally foreign, insufficiently patriotic or outside the historical identity of the nation.
Interfaith organizations consequently argue that genuine religious pluralism requires more than toleration. It requires treating citizens of minority religions as equally representative members of the political community.
Perceived Threat and Religious Tolerance
Recent experimental research provides an important explanation for how Christian nationalism can affect attitudes toward religious minorities.
Some Christian nationalists express support for religious freedom and pluralism in the abstract. However, researchers have found that these tolerant attitudes can weaken substantially when individuals are told or led to believe that Christianity is culturally, politically or demographically threatened.
Perceived threat therefore appears to play an important mediating role. A person may support general principles of religious liberty while simultaneously supporting restrictions against a particular religious or ideological group believed to threaten Christianity or the nation.
This finding helps explain why Christian nationalism does not always produce simple or uniformly hostile attitudes. Individuals can simultaneously endorse constitutional religious freedom and support policies that disadvantage groups they regard as threatening.
The distinction between abstract principles and responses to perceived threats is therefore important for understanding the political consequences of Christian nationalism.
Public Schools and Government-Sponsored Christianity
Public education is one of the principal arenas in which disputes over Christian nationalism and minority rights become concrete.
Recent controversies have included requirements to display the Ten Commandments, proposals for Bible-centered curricula, officially sponsored prayer and efforts to introduce explicitly Christian teachings into public schools.
Supporters frequently describe such measures as restoring American history, morality or religious freedom. Critics argue that public schools serve children from many religious traditions and that official endorsement of Christianity can communicate that Christian students possess a preferred relationship with the state.
For Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, atheist and other students, government-sponsored Christian symbolism can therefore raise questions of equal citizenship even when students are not directly required to participate in religious exercises.
The distinction between teaching about religion and government promotion of religion is particularly important. Religious history, biblical literature and Christianity's influence on American society can be studied academically without establishing those teachings as religious truth.
Church-state advocates argue that governmental neutrality protects everyone, including Christians, because it prevents whichever religious group possesses political power from using public institutions to impose its beliefs on others.
Government, Law, and Religious Liberty
Religious liberty occupies a complicated position in debates about Christian nationalism because both supporters and opponents frequently claim to be defending it.
Christian nationalist movements may emphasize protections for Christian individuals and institutions that believe secular government has become hostile toward religion. Critics respond that religious liberty becomes unequal when government concentrates primarily on the grievances of one religious tradition.
The key dispute is therefore often whether religious liberty means freedom from governmental interference for all religious and nonreligious citizens or whether it also permits government to actively preserve the country's historic Christian character.
Some advocacy organizations argue that initiatives framed as combating anti-Christian discrimination can become mechanisms for granting Christianity preferred governmental status. Similar disagreements surround religious exemptions, public prayer, government religious commissions and state support for religious institutions.
The source material also includes contrasting assessments. Some scholars emphasize that constitutional protections for religious minorities remain substantial and that American religious-liberty law frequently protects Muslims, Jews and other minority communities. Others propose models in which a biblically influenced national tradition can coexist with constitutional pluralism.
These arguments demonstrate that debates about Christian nationalism are not simply disputes between religion and secularism. They also involve competing Christian, Jewish, Muslim, secular and constitutional interpretations of religious freedom itself.
The Military and Religious Equality
Religious equality within the armed forces presents a particularly sensitive issue because military institutions represent the federal government and include service members from many religious traditions.
The material reviewed here raises concerns about Christian nationalist influence within military networks, government-linked religious events and military religious policy. Critics argue that preferential identification of the military with Christianity could place Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, atheist and other service members in an unequal symbolic position.
Some reporting has also examined connections among military experience, Christian nationalist activism, militias and armed political organizations.
These controversies do not demonstrate that the American military as an institution embraces Christian nationalism. Rather, they illustrate why governmental neutrality becomes particularly important in institutions where citizens must cooperate regardless of religion and where commanders exercise substantial authority over subordinates.
Immigration, Race, and Religious Outsiders
Christian nationalism frequently overlaps with attitudes about immigration, ethnicity and cultural change.
Research finds that Christian nationalist beliefs predict greater distrust of immigrants even after accounting for other political and racial variables. Survey data also show strong relationships between Christian nationalism and rhetoric describing immigration as an invasion or as replacement of American culture.
These attitudes affect religious minorities because contemporary immigration has increased the number of Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and members of other traditions in the United States.
Religious exclusion therefore often operates simultaneously with racial, ethnic and national exclusion. A Muslim immigrant, for example, may be perceived as culturally foreign for reasons involving religion, ethnicity and nationality at the same time.
At the same time, Christian nationalism cannot simply be equated with white identity. Research documents Christian nationalist beliefs among Black and Hispanic Americans as well, with important differences in theology, history and political meaning between demographic groups.
The evidence therefore points toward a more complex relationship in which religion, race, ethnicity, immigration and national identity interact rather than operating independently.
Political Violence and Minority Safety
The most serious findings in the source material concern political violence.
Quantitative research using state-level data has found that stronger political expressions of Christian nationalism are associated with higher levels of physical attacks against religious minorities. This does not mean that Christian nationalist beliefs automatically cause individuals to commit violence, but it indicates a statistically significant relationship worthy of attention.
Other research and reporting examines overlaps among Christian nationalism, white nationalism, antisemitism, replacement theories, QAnon and extremist political networks.
The January 6 Capitol attack became an important case study because Christian symbols and language appeared alongside secular antigovernment, conspiratorial and white-nationalist symbols. Researchers have examined how Christian nationalist rhetoric can provide a common ideological framework connecting otherwise different political movements.
Research on violence therefore distinguishes between ordinary religious conservatism, Christian nationalism and explicitly violent extremism. Treating these categories as identical would exaggerate the evidence. The concern is instead that some forms of religious nationalism can provide narratives of existential conflict—portraying the nation or Christianity as under attack—that may increase tolerance for extreme political action.
For religious minorities, such rhetoric has practical consequences when political opponents are characterized not simply as people with different beliefs but as enemies threatening the survival of the nation or its religious identity.
Religious Pluralism and Alternative Models of National Identity
The literature presents several alternatives to Christian nationalist understandings of national identity.
One model is secular constitutionalism, in which government maintains strong institutional separation from religion. Another is pluralistic civil religion, which allows religious language and traditions to influence public culture without granting any particular religion exclusive ownership of the nation.
A third approach described in the literature is covenantal pluralism. This framework attempts to combine strong religious identities with constitutional commitments to equal citizenship and reciprocal religious freedom.
These distinctions matter because opposition to Christian nationalism does not necessarily imply opposition to Christianity in public life. Christians can participate fully in politics, advocate laws based partly on moral or religious convictions, speak publicly about faith and organize politically without claiming that Christians possess greater national legitimacy than other citizens.
Likewise, a pluralistic society does not require religious citizens to weaken their theological commitments. It instead requires political institutions to recognize equal rights for people whose ultimate beliefs differ.
Religious-Minority Resistance and Interfaith Responses
Religious minorities are not merely passive subjects of Christian nationalist politics. The material documents substantial resistance to Christian nationalism among Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, religiously unaffiliated Americans and many Christian communities.
National surveys find that roughly two-thirds of Americans fall into categories resistant to Christian nationalism, with particularly strong opposition among non-Christian populations.
Interfaith organizations have responded by developing coalitions that include minority religions, nonreligious organizations and Christian denominations opposed to Christian nationalism.
Progressive Christian resistance is particularly significant because it challenges the assumption that opposition to Christian nationalism represents hostility toward Christianity. Christian ministers, theologians and organizations frequently argue that Christian nationalism distorts Christianity by placing political power, national identity or ethnic hierarchy above Christian theological commitments.
Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and secular organizations have consequently found common ground around church-state separation and equal citizenship even while retaining profound theological differences.
This form of coalition-building represents an alternative vision of national belonging: citizens need not share a religion in order to share political institutions and obligations.
Christian Nationalism in Comparative Perspective
The effects of religious nationalism on minorities are not limited to the United States.
Comparative studies examine religious nationalism across dozens of countries and identify similar tensions whenever national identity becomes strongly associated with the religion of the majority.
Christian nationalism can therefore be compared with Hindu nationalism, Buddhist nationalism, Islamic nationalism and other forms of religious majoritarianism. The theological content of these movements differs greatly, but each raises a similar political question: whether members of the historically dominant religion possess a special claim to the nation.
Research from Europe and other regions likewise suggests that Christian civilizational identity can be associated with negative attitudes toward Muslims, immigrants and religious minorities even in societies where actual religious observance is relatively low.
This demonstrates that religious nationalism does not necessarily depend upon high levels of personal religiosity. Christianity can function as a cultural identity or marker of national civilization even among people who rarely participate in religious practice.
Important Distinctions and Counterarguments
The research requires several important qualifications.
First, Christianity and Christian nationalism are not synonymous. Christian nationalism represents a particular understanding of the relationship between Christianity and national identity rather than Christianity as a religion.
Second, Christian political participation is not automatically Christian nationalism. Christians may advocate political positions grounded in their faith while recognizing equal political legitimacy for people of other religions.
Third, Christian nationalism itself contains different ideological tendencies. Some versions emphasize cultural heritage, others explicit governmental preference for Christianity, and still others combine Christianity with racial, authoritarian or populist politics.
Fourth, correlation does not establish that every Christian nationalist will engage in discriminatory or violent behavior. Studies demonstrating statistical relationships describe aggregate patterns rather than determining individual conduct.
Fifth, the source material contains arguments that existing American constitutional protections remain strong and that forms of Christian national identity may be compatible with religious pluralism. These perspectives challenge claims that Christian cultural influence necessarily results in religious oppression.
The central disagreement is therefore less about whether Christianity may contribute to American culture than about whether the state or national identity should privilege Christianity in ways that affect the political status of people outside that tradition.
Conclusion
The research collected on Christian nationalism and religious minorities identifies a recurring tension between religious nationalism and pluralistic citizenship.
Across studies of Jews, Muslims, atheists, Hindus, Buddhists and other religious communities, stronger Christian nationalist beliefs are frequently associated with narrower definitions of national belonging, greater distrust of religious outsiders and greater support for giving Christianity a privileged place in public institutions.
For Jewish Americans, these patterns include documented relationships between Christian nationalism and antisemitic attitudes. For Muslims, research repeatedly identifies connections with Islamophobia, immigration restriction and perceptions that Islam is incompatible with American identity. For atheists and agnostics, Christian nationalism is associated with particularly strong resistance to their inclusion in a religiously defined conception of public life. Other minority religions face similar questions concerning whether belonging to the nation implicitly requires identification with Christianity.
The implications extend beyond interpersonal prejudice. Disputes concerning public schools, government prayer, religious-liberty policy, the military, immigration and public law demonstrate how competing definitions of national religious identity can become institutional questions.
The most serious research also identifies associations between political expressions of Christian nationalism and violence directed toward religious minorities. These findings should not be generalized to all Christians or all people expressing nationalist sentiments, but they show the potential consequences when religious identity, political power and narratives of existential threat become closely connected.
At the same time, the research documents substantial opposition to Christian nationalism among both non-Christians and Christians. Interfaith coalitions, constitutional church-state protections and pluralistic models of national identity offer alternative frameworks in which citizens can maintain strong religious convictions without making religious identity a condition of full national belonging.
Ultimately, the debate concerns the meaning of equal citizenship in an increasingly religiously diverse society. A pluralistic democracy does not require religion to disappear from public life. It requires that Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, atheists and people of other convictions participate in that public life as political equals rather than as members of a religious hierarchy.
141. The Effects of Christian Nationalism on Religious Minorities
Academic Research: Religious Minorities, Exclusion, and Violence
1. | Brooklyn Walker and Paul A. Djupe | University of Tennessee | September 10, 2026
Christian Nationalists' Professed Support for Religious Pluralism Is Often Drowned Out by Perceptions That Christians Are Under Threat. Explains research showing that Christian nationalists may endorse abstract religious freedom while becoming substantially less tolerant when they believe Christianity is threatened.
2. | Richard Lewis Dixon | SSRN | September 2, 2026
Christian Nationalism as the Bedrock of American Religious Pluralism: A Covenantal Approach. Presents a contrasting defense of a biblically influenced yet constitutionally pluralistic national framework, useful for representing pro-Christian-nationalist arguments fairly.
3. | Brooklyn Walker and Paul A. Djupe | Religion News Service | August 21, 2026
Christian Nationalists' Professed Support for Religious Pluralism Is Often Drowned Out by Perceptions That Christians Are Under Threat. Summarizes experimental research on how threat perceptions weaken political tolerance toward disliked religious and ideological groups.
Christian Nationalism Divided: Exploring the Transferability of an American Concept to a Secularized Nordic Multi-Party Democracy. Finds that state- and identity-oriented Christian nationalism in Finland correlates with more negative attitudes toward non-Christians.
5. | Paul A. Djupe and Brooklyn Walker | Politics and Religion | March 26, 2026
The Weakness of Anti-Christian Nationalism: When Religiously Inclusive Orientations Can't Increase Tolerance. Finds that Christian nationalist commitments can overwhelm otherwise pluralistic attitudes when respondents perceive social or religious threats.
6. | Nilay Saiya | Politics and Religion | May 13, 2025
The Varieties of American Christian Nationalism. Examines competing forms of Christian nationalism and their shared preference for privileging Christianity in American public life.
7. | Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | January 28, 2025
Religious Nationalism Around the World. Compares religious nationalism in 36 countries and provides broader evidence about how connecting national identity to majority religion affects religious minorities.
8. | Sachi Edwards | Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies | April 5, 2024
Implications of White Christian Nationalism (and the Backlash Against It) for Religious Minorities. Examines how Christian hegemony and white Christian nationalism affect religiously minoritized communities in the United States.
9. | Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry | Oxford University Press | March 19, 2020
Boundaries. A chapter from Taking America Back for God examining how Christian nationalism constructs boundaries around citizenship, race, atheists, Muslims, and religious diversity.
Jewish Americans and Antisemitism
10. | Deborah Lipstadt | Jewish Telegraphic Agency | June 29, 2026
I Served America in the Fight Against Antisemitism. Here's Why That Fight Is at Risk. Discusses Christian nationalism as one component of contemporary antisemitic ideology and conspiracy culture.
11. | Jewish Telegraphic Agency | Jewish Telegraphic Agency | May 18, 2026
Orthodox Rabbi at 'Redicate 250' Rally: 'Antisemitism Is Un-American.' Reports debate among Jewish communities over government-sponsored religious rhetoric and concerns about Christian nationalism.
12. | Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | May 14, 2026
How Americans Feel About Religion's Influence in Government. Finds 83 percent of atheists and 79 percent of agnostics oppose both declaring Christianity the official religion and government promotion of Christian values.
13. | Jack Jenkins | Religion News Service | September 5, 2025
At NatCon, an Effort to Make Christian Nationalism a Two-Faith Movement. Examines attempts to incorporate conservative Jews into nationalist politics while Muslims and other religions remain outside the proposed national religious identity.
14. | Jeffrey Salkin | Religion News Service | January 16, 2025
How Dangerous Is Christian Nationalism? Discusses consequences for Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and other communities excluded from a specifically Christian national identity.
15. | Asaf Elia-Shalev | Jewish Telegraphic Agency | November 5, 2024
What Christian Nationalism Has in Store for Jews and Other Religious Minorities. Scholars discuss how a Christian-centered state could subordinate Jewish civil and political equality while treating Muslims even more restrictively.
16. | Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | March 15, 2024
Christianity's Place in Politics and Christian Nationalism. Shows sharp disagreements between Christian-nationalist policy preferences and views among atheists, agnostics, Jews, Muslims, and unaffiliated Americans.
17. | Jacob Dennen and Paul A. Djupe | Social Science Quarterly | February 22, 2023
Are Christian Nationalists Antisemitic and Why? Survey and experimental evidence connects Christian nationalism with antisemitic stereotypes and broader prejudice against non-Christian minorities.
18. | JTA Staff | Jewish Telegraphic Agency | October 27, 2022
Nearly Half of U.S. Adults Believe America Should Be a Christian Nation. Examines Pew findings and the historical relationship between Christian nationalism and antisemitism.
19. | Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | October 27, 2022
Views of the U.S. as a Christian Nation and Opinions About Christian Nationalism. Shows substantial differences between Christians, Jews, unaffiliated Americans, and other religious communities.
20. | Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | October 27, 2022
In Their Own Words: How Americans Describe Christian Nationalism. Includes public perceptions of Christian nationalism as both religious patriotism and exclusionary religious government.
21. | Samuel L. Perry and Philip S. Gorski | The Washington Post | May 20, 2022
With the Buffalo Massacre, White Christian Nationalism Strikes Again. Examines overlap among racial hierarchy, religious nationalism, antisemitic replacement narratives, and political violence.
22. | Jack Jenkins | The Washington Post | January 26, 2022
How the Capitol Attacks Helped Spread Christian Nationalism in the Extreme Right. Documents convergence among Christian nationalist, antisemitic, white-nationalist, and revolutionary-right networks.
23. | Paul A. Djupe and Jacob Dennen | The Washington Post | January 26, 2021
Christian Nationalists and QAnon Followers Tend to Be Anti-Semitic. Applies survey research to antisemitic imagery and rhetoric visible around the January 6 Capitol attack.
Muslims and Islamophobia
24. | CAIR | Council on American-Islamic Relations | July 10, 2026
CAIR Condemns Indiana Lt. Governor's Anti-Muslim Rhetoric and Christian Supremacist Claims. Addresses claims that Christianity should enjoy constitutional precedence over Islam.
25. | Jason Wilson | The Guardian | May 13, 2026
Pete Hegseth to Headline DC Faith Rally with Christian Nationalist Speakers. Reports that the major faith event included no Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Indigenous-faith, or historically Black church representation.
26. | Jason Wilson | The Guardian | April 26, 2026
Pete Hegseth's Iran War Messaging Echoes Sermons from His Extremist Church. Examines an openly Christian-nationalist church network whose leaders have advocated policies including outlawing mosques.
27. | CAIR | Council on American-Islamic Relations | April 21, 2026
CAIR Welcomes New Report Detailing 'Dehumanizing' Anti-Muslim Campaign by Public Officials. Reviews research documenting rapidly expanding anti-Muslim rhetoric among elected officials.
28. | Council on American-Islamic Relations | CAIR | March 10, 2026
CAIR's 2026 Civil Rights Report Shows the Right to Be Different Narrowed. Documents discrimination and civil-rights complaints affecting American Muslims amid increasing pressure toward religious and cultural conformity.
29. | The Guardian | The Guardian | February 15, 2026
Progressive Texas Organizers Hail Shock Win as Far-Right Republicans Are Left Reeling. Reports Christian-nationalist rhetoric warning that Texas could fall under Islamic sharia law.
30. | Nilay Saiya | Harvard Divinity School | March 5, 2025
Christian Nationalism in Global Perspective. Concludes that religious nationalism commonly emerges as a reaction to declining majority religious dominance and increasing religious diversity, with minority religions often bearing the consequences.
31. | Americans United Staff | Americans United for Separation of Church and State | 2024
Family Separation at the Border and Beyond: How White Christian Nationalism Fuels Anti-Immigrant and Anti-Family Policies. Connects Christian nationalist rhetoric with Muslim exclusion, immigration restrictions, and refugee family separation.
32. | Michelle Boorstein and others | The Washington Post | January 6, 2022
Christian Nationalism Has Deep Roots in America, Faith Leaders Say. Includes Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Jewish, and Christian perspectives on religious nationalism and American belonging.
33. | Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center | May 29, 2018
Nationalism, Immigration and Minorities. European survey research finds Christian identity combined with nationalist sentiment associated with more negative attitudes toward Muslims, Jews, immigrants, and religious minorities.
34. | Allyson F. Shortle and Ronald Keith Gaddie | Politics and Religion | June 19, 2015
Religious Nationalism and Perceptions of Muslims and Islam. Uses Oklahoma survey data to demonstrate a significant relationship between Christian nationalism and negative attitudes toward Muslims.
Atheists, Agnostics, and Secular Americans
35. | The Guardian | The Guardian | August 26, 2026
A Bible-Sized Blind Spot: Congressman Sounds Alarm on Rising Christian Nationalism. Profiles nonreligious Congressman Jared Huffman's argument that Christian nationalism threatens equal civic standing and secular democratic institutions.
36. | David Sikkink and Greg Wurm | Social Science Research | August 2026
Americans' Views of Religion in Public Life: The Effect of Three Cultural Models on Attitudes Toward Religious and Nonreligious Groups. Examines Christian nationalism, civil religion, and liberal secularism and their effects on attitudes toward Muslims, atheists, Buddhists, Jews, Latter-day Saints, and conservative Christians. Christian nationalism is particularly associated with opposition to Muslims and atheists in public life.
37. | Freedom From Religion Foundation | FFRF | July 15, 2026
FFRF Calls Religious Liberty Index a Christian Nationalism Scorecard. Argues that some contemporary definitions of religious liberty disproportionately favor conservative Christian claims.
38. | Freedom From Religion Foundation | FFRF | February 9, 2026
FFRF Calls Out Religious Liberty Commission for Ideological Bias. Raises concerns that federal religious-liberty policy privileges Christianity over secular Americans and minority religions.
39. | Rob Boston | Americans United | March 27, 2024
Growing Numbers of Americans No Longer Attend Religious Services. Examines the growing nonreligious population and tensions between demographic secularization and Christian nationalist politics.
40. | Fanhao Nie | Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion | November 6, 2023
In God We Distrust: Christian Nationalism and Anti-Atheist Attitude. Finds that stronger individual Christian nationalist beliefs significantly predict more negative attitudes toward atheists.
41. | Dan Barker | Freedom From Religion Foundation | Updated 2022
Is America a Christian Nation? Reviews church-state history and argues that establishing Christian political privilege threatens unbelievers and minority faiths.
42. | Freedom From Religion Foundation | FFRF | January 7, 2021
Why Is FFRF Concerned with State/Church Entanglement? Argues that Christian nationalism transforms religious liberty from protection for minorities into a mechanism for imposing majority religion.
43. | Americans United | Americans United | Current
Fighting Christian Nationalism. Describes the movement as threatening equal citizenship for religious minorities and people who practice no religion.
Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Other Minority Faiths
44. | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 17, 2026
Mapping Christian Nationalism Across the 50 States. Finds only small minorities of Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Unitarians, and unaffiliated Americans qualify as Christian-nationalism Adherents or Sympathizers.
45. | Don Thorsen | The Ecumenical Review | February 13, 2026
Interreligious Dialogue and Religious Nationalism. Argues that Christian nationalism harms interfaith relations by defining authentic American identity around Christianity and implicitly excluding Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and nonconforming Christian traditions.
46. | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 4, 2025
Christian Nationalism Across All 50 States. Shows especially low Christian-nationalist support among Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Unitarians, and religiously unaffiliated Americans.
47. | Harvard Divinity School | Harvard University | December 10, 2024
Discovering Shared Humanity Through Faith and Fluidity. Discusses interfaith work and opposition to Christian nationalism as part of building an inclusive public sphere.
48. | Interfaith America | Interfaith America | 2024
Amanda Tyler Offers a How-To for Dismantling Christian Nationalism. Presents interfaith organizing and universal religious liberty as responses to Christian nationalism.
49. | Musa al-Gharbi | Interfaith America | January 5, 2023
Christian Nationalism: What Does It Mean? Warns against oversimplifying religious nationalism while emphasizing the need to distinguish democratic religious participation from demands for religious supremacy.
50. | Interfaith America | Interfaith America | 2022
God, Country and the Golden Rule: A Conversation with Paul D. Miller. Discusses how Christian nationalism implicitly identifies Christians as first-class citizens and guardians of the nation.
Religious Pluralism, Diversity, and Equal Citizenship
51. | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 17, 2026
A Closer Look at Christian Nationalism in Nine States. Provides state-level evidence for examining how Christian nationalism interacts with diverse religious populations.
52. | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 17, 2026
New 50-State Survey Finds Majority of Republicans Qualify as Christian Nationalism Supporters. Reports much lower support for Christian nationalism among non-Christian and religiously unaffiliated Americans.
53. | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | 2026
What Is America? Immigration, National Identity, and Belonging. Shows tension between civic definitions of Americanness and definitions based on Christianity, birth, ancestry, and cultural inheritance.
54. | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 28, 2024
Support for Christian Nationalism in All 50 States. Provides one of the largest datasets available for examining Christian nationalist beliefs by religion and demographic group.
55. | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 8, 2023
A Christian Nation? Understanding the Threat of Christian Nationalism to American Democracy and Culture. Finds that 77 percent of Christian nationalism Adherents preferred a nation primarily composed of Christians rather than one containing many religions.
56. | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 8, 2023
Survey: Two-Thirds of White Evangelicals, Most Republicans Sympathetic to Christian Nationalism. Contrasts Christian-nationalist support with the broader American preference for religious pluralism.
57. | PRRI and Brookings Institution | PRRI/Brookings | February 2023
A Christian Nation? Full Survey Report. Provides detailed data connecting Christian nationalism with preference for Christian religious homogeneity rather than religious pluralism.
Public Schools and Government-Sponsored Christianity
58. | Reuters | Reuters | September 29, 2026
U.S. Supreme Court Mulls Ten Commandments Case. Reviews constitutional controversy surrounding Texas' classroom display requirement and Christian nationalism.
59. | Rani Balakrishna | Americans United | August 25, 2026
Vigilance Everywhere Is Necessary to Combat Christian Nationalism. Describes local government and school controversies involving official promotion of Christianity.
60. | Americans United | Americans United | May 7, 2026
Americans United Denounces National Day of Prayer as Christian Nationalism. Argues government-sponsored prayer privileges religious citizens over nonreligious citizens and minority faiths.
61. | Brock Lewis | Discover Education | May 7, 2025
A Neglected Crisis: Understanding Christian Nationalism's Effects on American Education. Reviews Christian-nationalist influence on curriculum, school governance, book restrictions, and public education.
62. | Associated Press | AP | April 17, 2025
Alabama Lawmakers Move to Mandate Ten Commandments Displays. Religious-minority critics argue such policies communicate that non-Christian students occupy a subordinate position.
63. | Associated Press | AP | 2025
Some U.S. Lawmakers Want More Christianity in the Classroom. Examines Ten Commandments mandates and Bible-centered curricula that critics say privilege Christian students over minority-faith and nonreligious students.
64. | Carter Sherman | The Guardian | March 2, 2024
What Alabama's IVF Ruling Reveals About the Ascendant Christian Nationalist Movement. Examines legal reasoning explicitly grounded in Christian theology and its implications for a religiously diverse public.
65. | Brookings Institution | Brookings | 2024
Project 2025 and Education: A Lot of Bad Ideas, Some More Actionable Than Others. Discusses policy proposals affecting public schools and church-state separation.
66. | Americans United | Americans United | 2024
How to End Christian Nationalism. Discusses church-state separation as a mechanism protecting both minority religions and Christianity itself.
67. | UC Berkeley | Berkeley News | September 20, 2022
Crisis of Faith: Christian Nationalism and the Threat to U.S. Democracy. Scholars discuss the incompatibility between religious supremacy and a democracy encompassing many faiths.
68. | UC Berkeley | Research UC Berkeley | September 2022
Crisis of Faith. Examines Christian nationalism's implications for education, political equality, and religious pluralism.
Government, Law, the Military, and Religious Liberty
69. | The Guardian | The Guardian | October 3, 2026
Pete Hegseth Just Took His Personal Crusade to a New Level. Raises concerns that a Christian-nationalist approach to Pentagon religious policy could undermine equality for service members from minority faiths.
70. | Alessandro Terenzoni | Americans United | July 2, 2026
Religious Liberty Commission Draft Report Advances Christian Nationalism. Critiques a federal approach to religious liberty that allegedly prioritizes conservative Christian grievances.
71. | Americans United | Americans United | April 30, 2026
Anti-Christian Bias Report Advances Christian Nationalism. Argues that protecting Christianity from discrimination should not become governmental preference for Christianity.
72. | Thomas C. Berg | Georgetown University Berkley Center | 2025
Prospects for Religious Liberty in the United States Are Bright. Offers a counterpoint emphasizing substantial legal protection for minority religions while identifying continuing conflicts over religious freedom.
73. | Jason Wilson | The Guardian | August 14, 2024
Ex-U.S. Air Force Specialist with Christian Nationalist Ties Leads Combat Trainings. Explores connections among military experience, armed activism, militias, and Christian nationalism.
74. | Freedom From Religion Foundation | FFRF | May 22, 2024
Voting Rights Are a State/Church Issue. Argues political structures favoring Christian nationalism can indirectly weaken minority representation.
75. | KALX / UC Berkeley | KALX | 2024
Project 2025 and Christian Nationalism. Includes discussion of how prominent Christian nationalist thinkers envision treatment of religious minorities.
76. | Bob Smietana | The Washington Post | May 19, 2023
What Is Christian Nationalism Anyway? Explores definitions centered on the claim that America belongs primarily to Christians.
77. | Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry | UC Berkeley Social Science Matrix | 2023
The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to Democracy. Reviews the historical relationship among religious nationalism, racial hierarchy, violence, and exclusion.
78. | Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion | UC Berkeley | 2023
The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy. Discusses historical oppression and exclusion justified through Christian-nationalist narratives.
79. | Jack Jenkins | The Washington Post | December 29, 2022
Faith Leaders Ask Why Jan. 6 Report Left Out Christian Nationalism. Religious leaders argue Christian symbolism and theology were significant elements in mobilization around January 6.
80. | Americans United | Americans United | Current
White Christian Nationalism. Explains how government preference for white Christianity can diminish equality for religious minorities and nonreligious citizens.
Immigration, National Identity, and Religious Outsiders
81. | Christopher H. Seto | Sociology of Religion | May 24, 2026
In God We Trust: Christian Nationalism, Political and Ethno-Racial Identities, and Distrust of Immigrants. Finds Christian nationalism independently predicts distrust of immigrants, particularly among white respondents.
82. | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | March 30, 2026
How Christian Nationalism Affects Views on Immigration. Finds Christian nationalism strongly correlated with more restrictive and punitive attitudes toward immigrants.
83. | Allyson Shortle and Michael R. Fisher Jr. | PRRI | August 12, 2025
How Christian Nationalist Rhetoric Can Influence Elections Across Race. Examines how Christian-nationalist messaging interacts with racial identity.
84. | Michael R. Fisher Jr. | PRRI | June 18, 2025
Understanding Authoritarianism and Christian Nationalism by Race. Explores links between Christian nationalism and authoritarian political preferences.
85. | Ansley Quiros | PRRI | May 14, 2025
Why Black Americans Identify as Christian Nationalists. Shows why Christian nationalism should not automatically be equated with white evangelical identity.
86. | Anita Huízar-Hernández | PRRI | March 17, 2025
Christian Nationalism and Hispanic Americans: Unpacking the Data. Demonstrates that Christian-nationalist attitudes vary significantly by ethnicity, religion, and political identity.
87. | Michael R. Fisher Jr. | PRRI | July 3, 2024
Understanding Differences Between Black and White Christian Nationalism Supporters. Highlights important racial differences within Christian-nationalist populations.
Political Violence, Extremism, and Minority Safety
88. | Robert P. Jones interview | The Guardian | October 3, 2026
When Is the Right Time to Compare U.S. Politics to the Nazi Era? Discusses white Christian nationalism, authoritarian politics, minority vulnerability, and democratic decline.
These Extremists Are Running for Election in November. Documents political candidates connected to Christian nationalism, militias, antisemitism, white nationalism, and related extremist networks.
90. | J. Oliver Conroy | The Guardian | September 20, 2025
How Charlie Kirk Became a Christian Nationalist Martyr. Examines Christian nationalism's movement-building capacity and its framing of demographic and secular change as existential threat.
91. | Nilay Saiya | Oxford University Press | May 19, 2025
Christianity. A chapter from God's Warriors examining Christian nationalist violence in the United States and Christian civilizational violence in Europe.
92. | Nilay Saiya and Stuti Manchanda | Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion | September 2, 2024
Christian Nationalism and Violence Against Religious Minorities in the United States: A Quantitative Analysis. Using state-level data from 1990–2018, the authors find that political expressions of Christian nationalism are associated with increased physical attacks against religious minorities.
93. | Adrian Horton | The Guardian | April 27, 2024
Demolishing Democracy: How Much Danger Does Christian Nationalism Pose? Reviews the documentary Bad Faith and its examination of coercive Christian political power.
94. | Jason Wilson | The Guardian | March 19, 2024
Documents Shed Light on Shadowy U.S. Far-Right Fraternal Order. Examines an organization whose membership criteria include Christianity and political alignment.
95. | Gene Zubovich | The Washington Post | May 6, 2022
Christian Nationalism Is Surging. It Wasn't Inevitable. Traces historical changes that helped an exclusionary religious nationalism gain influence.
Religious-Minority Resistance and Interfaith Responses
96. | PRRI and Meanings of Democracy Lab | Public Religion Research Institute | September 24, 2026
Resistance to Christian Nationalism in All 50 States. Finds Christian-nationalism resistance strongly correlated with religious diversity and support for a multifaith America.
97. | PRRI Staff | PRRI | September 24, 2026
Survey: New Report Analyzes the Two-Thirds of Americans Who Resist Christian Nationalism. Finds resistance strongest among non-Christian populations while also encompassing many Christians.
98. | PRRI Staff | PRRI | August 3, 2026
Progressive Christian Mobilization and the Discourse of White Christian Nationalism. Examines Christian groups that oppose Christian nationalism and cooperate with religious minorities.
99. | Nick Ross | The Guardian | April 10, 2026
The Religious Right and the Perversion of Faith. A Christian minister describes Muslim, Sikh, Christian, and nonreligious cooperation as an alternative to exclusionary nationalism.
100. | Religion News Service | Religion News Service | March 30, 2026
Christian Nationalists Are Panicking Because Religious Progressives Are Thriving. Highlights Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Indigenous religions, atheists, and progressive Christians as components of a pluralistic civic coalition.
101. | Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers | Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers | 2025–2026
Iowa Christians on Christian Nationalism. Interview series exploring how Christian leaders and nonreligious Americans understand Christian nationalism and pluralism.
102. | Amy E. Black and Douglas L. Koopman | Cambridge University Press | October 9, 2025
Alternative Visions of National Identity. Compares Christian nationalism with secularism and pluralistic civil religion and argues for an inclusive national identity accommodating multiple faith traditions.
103. | Author Study | The Review of Faith & International Affairs | 2025
E Pluribus… Pluribus? Politics, Polarization, and Prospects for Covenantal Pluralism in the United States Today. Examines obstacles to religious pluralism in contemporary America, including Christian nationalism, polarization, and declining cross-religious trust.
