Christian Nationalism, Patriotism, and Nationalism

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Christian Nationalism, Patriotism, and Nationalism

Christian nationalism, patriotism, and nationalism all concern people's relationship to a nation, but they describe different ideas. Patriotism generally refers to attachment, affection, or loyalty toward one's country and does not necessarily specify who belongs to the nation or what religion, culture, or political system the nation should have. Nationalism goes further by emphasizing the nation as a central source of collective identity and frequently involves beliefs about national unity, sovereignty, culture, history, or common membership.

Christian nationalism combines national identity with a particular understanding of Christianity. In research on the United States, the term generally refers to beliefs that Christianity should occupy a privileged or defining place in American national identity, public institutions, government, or civic life. It therefore differs conceptually from Christianity itself, ordinary religious observance, patriotism, and political participation by Christians.

Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) measures Christian nationalism using questions about the relationship between Christianity, American identity, and the federal government. Its surveys classify respondents along a spectrum ranging from rejection of Christian nationalist propositions to strong agreement with them.

The research collected in this article shows that Christian nationalism overlaps with religion, partisan politics, national identity, and cultural attitudes but cannot be reduced to any one of them.

Christian Nationalism and Christianity

A central distinction in the research is between Christian religious belief and Christian nationalism. Christianity encompasses many denominations, theological traditions, worship practices, moral teachings, and approaches to public life. Christians can hold widely different views concerning government, citizenship, nationalism, pluralism, and the proper relationship between religion and political institutions.

Christian nationalism instead concerns how Christianity is connected to national identity and political authority. Researchers therefore commonly measure Christian nationalism separately from church attendance, biblical interpretation, religious affiliation, prayer, or other indicators of personal religiosity.

This distinction can be seen in research on people who hold Christian nationalist views despite limited participation in organized religion. Research on the 2016 presidential election, for example, identified differences between churchgoing and nonchurchgoing supporters of Christian nationalist ideas. Such findings indicate that Christian nationalism can function partly as a cultural and political identity rather than simply as an expression of conventional religious participation.

At the same time, religious practice and Christian nationalism are not unrelated. PRRI's national surveys find that Christian nationalist views are more common among some Christian traditions and among frequent religious-service attendees than among Americans who rarely attend services. The relationship nevertheless varies substantially among religious traditions and demographic groups.

Christian organizations themselves also differ sharply in their responses to Christian nationalism. Some churches and Christian political organizations incorporate ideas linking Christianity and American national identity, while other Christian organizations explicitly oppose such interpretations and emphasize religious pluralism, democratic citizenship, or theological arguments against identifying Christianity with a particular nation.

Patriotism and Christian Nationalism

Patriotism is not synonymous with Christian nationalism. A person may express affection for the United States, participate in civic ceremonies, honor national symbols, serve in the military, celebrate national holidays, or support American political institutions without believing that Christianity should define citizenship or receive a privileged governmental position.

Christian nationalism adds a religious dimension to national identity. It can involve beliefs that the United States has a distinctive Christian character, that Christianity played or should play a defining role in the country's political order, or that American identity is connected to Christianity.

This distinction is important because surveys asking whether respondents are "proud to be American" or consider themselves patriotic measure something different from questions asking whether the government should declare America a Christian nation or whether being Christian is important to being considered truly American.

Consequently, high levels of patriotism do not by themselves demonstrate the presence of Christian nationalism. Likewise, opposition to Christian nationalism does not necessarily imply weak attachment to the United States. People may reject religious nationalism while strongly identifying with the country, its constitutional institutions, its history, or ideals such as liberty, equality, representative government, and civic participation.

Nationalism and National Identity

Nationalism is a broader concept than Christian nationalism. Nationalist movements can be secular or religious and can develop around language, ethnicity, territory, culture, historical memory, political sovereignty, or other markers of collective identity.

Christian nationalism is therefore one form of religious nationalism in which Christian identity becomes connected to ideas about the nation.

Debates about nationalism frequently involve a deeper question: What makes someone a member of the nation?

One answer emphasizes civic membership. Under this conception, citizenship, participation in political institutions, adherence to constitutional principles, or commitment to a shared civic order form the basis of national membership.

Other understandings place greater emphasis on ancestry, language, religion, culture, ethnicity, historical tradition, or other characteristics.

Research on Christian nationalism is partly concerned with how religious understandings of national membership intersect with these competing definitions of American identity.

Who Is Considered American?

Questions of national belonging are particularly important when examining Christian nationalism. The United States contains people from many religious, racial, ethnic, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds, and Americans disagree about which characteristics, if any, are necessary to be considered fully American.

Survey research examining immigration and national identity finds competing civic, cultural, religious, and ethnic understandings of American belonging.

Christian nationalist ideas can place Christianity closer to the center of national membership. Civic understandings of American identity, by contrast, generally emphasize citizenship and political principles without requiring adherence to a particular religion.

These competing understandings affect debates about immigration, naturalization, religious pluralism, education, public symbols, and the interpretation of American history.

They also demonstrate why discussions of Christian nationalism are ultimately discussions not only about religion but about the boundaries and meaning of the American national community.

Christian Nationalism Across the United States

Christian nationalism is not distributed evenly across the country.

PRRI's American Values Atlas surveys conducted since 2022 have found substantial variation by state, religious affiliation, political identification, age, education, race, frequency of religious attendance, and other characteristics.

PRRI's 2025 American Values Atlas, based on more than 22,000 interviews, classified approximately one-third of Americans as either Christian nationalism "Adherents" or "Sympathizers," while larger shares were classified as "Skeptics" or "Rejecters." The survey also found large differences among states and religious and political groups.

The geographic variation is important because Christian nationalism is sometimes discussed as though it were a uniform national movement. Survey findings instead show different levels of support across states and regions.

Differences also exist within states. Religious affiliation, political identification, education, race, age, and other characteristics can be associated with significantly different attitudes among people living in the same region.

Political Affiliation and Elections

Christian nationalism has become an important subject in research on American electoral politics.

Studies of the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections found associations between Christian nationalist beliefs and support for Donald Trump. Researchers examining the 2020 election concluded that Christian nationalism remained independently associated with voting intentions even when conventional measures of religion and other demographic and political variables were considered.

PRRI's surveys similarly find strong relationships between Christian nationalist attitudes and Republican identification, although Christian nationalism and Republican identification are not identical categories. Not all Republicans qualify as Christian nationalist supporters, and Christian nationalist beliefs can also be found among some independents and Democrats.

Political participation by Christians should likewise be distinguished from Christian nationalism. Christians, like members of other religious traditions and people without religious affiliation, participate in elections and political movements across the ideological spectrum.

Voting according to religiously informed values therefore does not by itself constitute Christian nationalism. The concept becomes more relevant when religious identity is connected to claims about the nation's defining identity, membership, government, or political authority.

Citizenship, Rights, and Religious Freedom

Another major area of research concerns citizenship and civil rights.

Studies have examined whether Christian nationalist beliefs correspond with different attitudes concerning which groups should receive political and civil protections. Research has considered views regarding voting, speech, religious liberty, equal citizenship, political participation, and other rights.

Religious freedom occupies a particularly complicated position in these debates. Religious liberty is a longstanding constitutional principle in the United States and is supported by Americans representing many religious and political traditions.

Research on Christian nationalism asks a narrower question: whether perceptions that Christians are experiencing discrimination, combined with Christian nationalist ideas, influence how individuals prioritize religious-freedom controversies or understand the relationship between majority and minority religious rights.

These questions highlight another distinction between Christianity and Christian nationalism. A person can strongly support religious liberty, including protections for Christian practice, without believing that Christianity should define the American nation.

American History and the Idea of a Christian Nation

Arguments concerning Christian nationalism frequently involve competing interpretations of American history.

Religion played an important role in colonial society, the Revolution, abolitionism, social reform movements, political rhetoric, community institutions, and many other parts of American history. Christianity has been especially influential because most Americans historically belonged to Christian traditions.

The political system created during the founding period nevertheless included both religious influences and institutional limitations on government establishment of religion. The Constitution prohibits religious tests for federal office, while the First Amendment prohibits Congress from establishing religion and protects its free exercise.

Disagreements therefore arise over what historical religious influence means for American national identity.

Some interpretations emphasize the importance of Christian ideas and institutions in American history. Others emphasize religious diversity, Enlightenment influences, constitutional secular government, and the legal distinction between religious institutions and governmental authority.

Research on Christian nationalism has examined whether people's understanding of this history is associated with their contemporary political and religious attitudes.

Historical influence and contemporary political prescriptions should nevertheless be treated as separate questions. Demonstrating that Christianity influenced American history does not by itself establish what relationship religion and government should have today.

Political Authority and Democracy

Research has also examined relationships between Christian nationalism and attitudes toward political authority.

PRRI studies report statistical associations between stronger Christian nationalist beliefs and higher scores on measures the organization describes as right-wing authoritarianism. These results describe correlations among survey responses and do not mean that every person classified as a Christian nationalist holds the same views.

Questions concerning political authority are especially significant because nationalism can emphasize national unity while constitutional democracy also depends upon political competition, individual rights, institutional limits, and acceptance of disagreement.

Scholars therefore study how different conceptions of religious and national identity relate to views concerning executive authority, democratic institutions, political opposition, pluralism, and the legitimacy of political violence.

These relationships remain subjects of research and political debate, and findings about aggregate statistical relationships should not be treated as descriptions of every individual who holds some Christian nationalist beliefs.

Science and Public Health

Christian nationalism has also been studied in connection with attitudes toward science and public-health institutions.

Research has examined attitudes toward scientific authority, scientific literacy, vaccination, and government restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Several studies distinguish Christian nationalism from general religious commitment when analyzing these relationships. This is important because disagreements involving science and public policy cannot automatically be attributed to Christianity or religion generally.

For example, research on opposition to scientific institutions has found that Christian nationalism may predict some attitudes independently of conventional religiosity. Other studies suggest that some apparent disagreements about scientific questions involve broader cultural and political conflicts over authority and identity rather than scientific knowledge alone.

Research conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic similarly examined relationships between Christian nationalism and attitudes toward vaccination and government restrictions.

These studies illustrate how a worldview centered on religion and national identity can intersect with issues that are not explicitly religious.

Conspiracy Beliefs

Researchers have also investigated possible relationships between Christian nationalism and belief in conspiracy theories.

One study examining Christian nationalism, biblical literalism, and generalized conspiracy beliefs attempted to separate the statistical influence of Christian nationalism from theological beliefs such as biblical literalism.

This distinction again illustrates the importance of separating Christian nationalism from Christianity. Religious doctrines and nationalist political identities can overlap, but researchers do not necessarily treat them as the same explanatory factor.

Conspiracy beliefs also arise across many political, religious, and cultural groups. Associations found in particular surveys therefore should not be interpreted as showing that conspiracy thinking is unique to Christian nationalists.

Resistance to Christian Nationalism

Public opinion research also examines Americans who reject Christian nationalist propositions.

PRRI describes respondents with lower levels of agreement with its Christian-nationalism scale as "Skeptics" and "Rejecters." Its research has found such respondents across religious traditions, political affiliations, demographic groups, and regions.

Opposition to Christian nationalism can arise from several different perspectives.

Some Christians oppose Christian nationalism on theological grounds, arguing that Christianity should not be identified with a particular country or political movement.

Other Americans emphasize constitutional limits on government establishment of religion.

Still others favor a civic conception of national identity in which Americans can share political institutions and citizenship despite religious, ethnic, and cultural differences.

These positions demonstrate that debates over Christian nationalism do not simply divide religious Americans from secular Americans. They also occur within Christian communities and other religious traditions.

Competing Ideas of Patriotism

The debate over Christian nationalism reflects broader disagreements about patriotism itself.

One conception emphasizes reverence for national traditions, inherited institutions, cultural continuity, and historical identity.

Another emphasizes loyalty to constitutional principles and democratic institutions.

Others understand patriotism partly as participation in improving the country, including criticism of policies or institutions viewed as inconsistent with national ideals.

These approaches can overlap. People may simultaneously value national traditions, constitutional principles, civic participation, and reform.

Christian nationalism represents a more specific position because it connects national identity with Christianity. The distinction helps explain why people who are equally attached to the United States may disagree sharply about whether religion should have a defining role in national membership or government.

Measuring Christian Nationalism

How Christian nationalism is measured matters.

PRRI uses a five-question scale concerning whether the U.S. government should declare America a Christian nation, whether U.S. laws should be based on Christian values, whether being Christian is important to being truly American, whether God intended America to serve as an example by creating a society based on Christian laws, and whether God has granted America a special role in human history.

Responses are combined to place people into categories PRRI calls Adherents, Sympathizers, Skeptics, and Rejecters.

Other scholars use somewhat different questions and definitions. Consequently, estimates of Christian nationalism can differ depending on how the concept is defined and measured.

This methodological issue is important when interpreting claims about the number of Christian nationalists in the United States. Survey categories represent researchers' classifications based on responses to specified questions; they do not necessarily represent identities that respondents themselves use.

For this reason, studies should be compared by examining the questions asked, sampling methods, dates, definitions, and statistical models rather than assuming that every use of the term "Christian nationalism" measures exactly the same phenomenon.

Distinguishing Related Concepts

Several concepts that frequently appear together in public debate should therefore remain analytically separate.

Christianity is a religion encompassing diverse theological traditions and political viewpoints.

Patriotism is attachment or loyalty to one's country.

Nationalism emphasizes the nation as a major source of collective identity and political organization.

Christian nationalism links Christianity with national identity and, in many definitions, with beliefs about government's relationship to Christianity.

Religious conservatism concerns theological, moral, or cultural positions and does not necessarily entail Christian nationalism.

Christian political participation refers broadly to political activity by Christians and can occur across political parties and ideological movements.

American exceptionalism is the belief that the United States has a distinctive historical character, mission, or role. It can take religious or secular forms.

These concepts frequently overlap in individual beliefs and political movements, but none is automatically equivalent to another.

Conclusion

Christian nationalism is best understood as a particular way of connecting Christianity, national identity, and political authority rather than as a synonym for Christianity, conservatism, patriotism, nationalism, or political participation by Christians.

Research reviewed here shows that Christian nationalist attitudes vary considerably across religious groups, political affiliations, demographic categories, and states. Studies have also examined relationships between Christian nationalism and voting behavior, national belonging, civil rights, perceptions of religious freedom, political authority, scientific institutions, public health, and conspiracy beliefs.

At the same time, statistical associations should not be treated as descriptions of every individual. People may combine religious belief, patriotism, nationalism, political affiliation, and ideas about national identity in many different ways.

The broader debate therefore concerns more than religion alone. It involves competing understandings of what the United States is, what makes someone American, what role religion should have in government, how citizenship should be defined, and what principles should form the basis of national unity in a religiously and culturally diverse society.

Understanding these distinctions makes it possible to discuss Christian nationalism without equating Christianity with a political ideology or assuming that patriotism necessarily requires a particular religious or partisan identity.

References

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Christian Nationalism, National Identity, Patriotism, and Belonging

• [Progressive Christian Mobilization and the Discourse of White Christian Nationalism | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | August 3, 2026]

Examines how progressive Christian organizations respond to Christian nationalism and how competing religious interpretations shape debates over citizenship, patriotism, democracy, and American identity.

• [Views on the Nation and What Makes Us American as the U.S. Approaches 250 | UMass Poll | University of Massachusetts Amherst | April 2026]

Surveys attitudes about American identity, national belonging, patriotism, and Christian nationalism as the United States approaches the 250th anniversary of independence.

• [Mapping Christian Nationalism Across the 50 States: Insights from PRRI’s 2025 American Values Atlas | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 17, 2026]

Maps Christian nationalist attitudes across the United States and examines how they vary by religion, political affiliation, demographics, and views about American identity and national belonging.

• [What Is America? Immigration, National Identity, and Belonging | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | 2026]

Investigates competing ideas about who belongs in the American nation, including religious, racial, cultural, and civic understandings of national identity.

• [Christian Nationalism Across All 50 States: Insights from PRRI’s 2024 American Values Atlas | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 4, 2025]

Examines state-level patterns of Christian nationalism and provides useful evidence for distinguishing religious nationalism from broader patriotism, partisan identification, and attachment to the United States.

• [Resistance to Christian Nationalism in All 50 States: A PRRI-Meanings of Democracy Lab Report | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | October 30, 2024]

Studies Americans who reject or question Christian nationalist ideas and examines alternative understandings of democracy, citizenship, pluralism, patriotism, and national identity.

• [Support for Christian Nationalism in All 50 States: Findings from PRRI’s 2023 American Values Atlas | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 28, 2024]

Measures support for several ideas associated with Christian nationalism and analyzes how those views relate to religious affiliation, politics, cultural identity, and conceptions of the American nation.

• [A Christian Nation? Understanding the Threat of Christian Nationalism to American Democracy and Culture | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | February 8, 2023]

Presents survey findings on beliefs that America has a special Christian identity and explores their relationship to political attitudes, national identity, pluralism, and democratic institutions.

Measurement and Historical Understanding of Christian Nationalism

• [Measuring Christian Nationalism | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | 2024]

Explains PRRI’s approach to measuring Christian nationalist beliefs and helps distinguish the concept from Christian religious practice, ordinary patriotism, and other forms of national identification.

• [Historical Fundamentalism? Christian Nationalism and Ignorance About Religion in American Political History | Samuel L. Perry, Ruth Braunstein, Philip S. Gorski and Joshua B. Grubbs | Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion | 2022]

Examines associations between Christian nationalist beliefs and factual knowledge about the historical relationship between religion and American government.

Democracy, Rights, Political Authority, and Elections

• [One Leader Under God: The Connection Between Authoritarianism and Christian Nationalism in America | PRRI Staff | Public Religion Research Institute | September 10, 2024]

Examines associations between Christian nationalist beliefs and attitudes toward political authority, offering evidence for discussions about how nationalism, religious identity, and democratic patriotism differ.

• [Liberty for Us, Limits for Them: Christian Nationalism and Americans’ Views on Citizens’ Rights | Joshua T. Davis, Samuel L. Perry and Joshua B. Grubbs | Sociology of Religion | May 8, 2023]

Studies whether Christian nationalist beliefs relate to different understandings and prioritizations of civil and political rights.

• [Christian Nationalism, Perceived Anti-Christian Discrimination, and Prioritising “Religious Freedom” in the 2020 Presidential Election | Samuel L. Perry | Nations and Nationalism | August 31, 2021]

Examines Christian nationalism, perceptions of anti-Christian discrimination, and the political importance respondents placed on religious-freedom issues.

• [Unchurched Christian Nationalism and the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election | Samuel Stroope, Paul Froese, Heather M. Rackin and Jack Delehanty | Sociological Forum | February 21, 2021]

Finds important differences between churchgoing and nonchurchgoing respondents, illustrating that Christian nationalist political identity does not simply equal participation in organized Christianity.

• [The Devil That You Know: Christian Nationalism and Intent to Change One's Voting Behavior For or Against Trump in 2020 | Samuel L. Perry, Andrew L. Whitehead and Joshua B. Grubbs | Politics and Religion | April 21, 2021]

Examines Christian nationalism and intended voting behavior before the 2020 presidential election while distinguishing the ideology from conventional measures of religiosity.

Science, Public Health, and Institutional Authority

• [Ignorance or Culture War? Christian Nationalism and Scientific Illiteracy | Samuel L. Perry, Joseph O. Baker and Joshua B. Grubbs | Public Understanding of Science | April 15, 2021]

Investigates whether disagreements over scientific claims reflect generalized lack of scientific knowledge or ideological conflicts involving religion and national identity.

• [Save the Economy, Liberty, and Yourself: Christian Nationalism and Americans’ Views on Government COVID-19 Restrictions | Samuel L. Perry, Andrew L. Whitehead and Joshua B. Grubbs | Sociology of Religion | 2021]

Studies how Christian nationalist beliefs related to attitudes toward government restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• [How Culture Wars Delay Herd Immunity: Christian Nationalism and Anti-Vaccine Attitudes | Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry | Socius | December 7, 2020]

Examines Christian nationalism alongside political and religious factors in attitudes toward vaccination.

• [Crusading for Moral Authority: Christian Nationalism and Opposition to Science | Joseph O. Baker, Samuel L. Perry and Andrew L. Whitehead | Sociological Forum | August 6, 2020]

Separates Christian nationalism from general religiosity while examining attitudes toward contested scientific claims and institutional authority.

Conspiracy Beliefs and Christian Nationalism

• [Christ, Country, and Conspiracies? Christian Nationalism, Biblical Literalism, and Belief in Conspiracy Theories | Brooklyn Walker and Abigail Vegter | Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion | May 8, 2023]

Separates the statistical effects of Christian nationalism and biblical literalism while examining generalized conspiracy beliefs.

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