Christian Nationalism and Grassroots Political Organizing
{{#seo:
|title=Christian Nationalism and Grassroots Political Organizing
|description=An overview of Christian nationalism and grassroots political organizing in the United States, including churches, school boards, voter mobilization, candidate recruitment, local political networks, state legislation, rallies, and counter-organizing.
|keywords=Christian nationalism, grassroots organizing, Christian Right, political organizing, school boards, churches and politics, voter mobilization, Christian political activism, local politics, Project Blitz, Seven Mountains, Citizens Defending Freedom, Moms for Liberty, Faith and Freedom Coalition, Christians Against Christian Nationalism, religious freedom
|image=File:Placeholder.png
|image_width=300
|image_height=200
|type=article
}}
[[Category:Christian nationalism]]
[[Category:Christian Right]]
[[Category:Political movements]]
[[Category:Political activism]]
[[Category:Grassroots organizations]]
[[Category:Religion and politics in the United States]]
[[Category:Local politics in the United States]]
[[Category:Education politics]]
[[Category:Religious freedom]]
__NOTOC__
== Christian Nationalism and Grassroots Political Organizing ==
Christian nationalism in the United States has developed not only through national elections and prominent political leaders but also through grassroots political activity operating at the community, county, school-district, church, and state levels. Research and reporting on the movement describe a broad infrastructure of churches, advocacy organizations, political action committees, pastor networks, candidate-training programs, conferences, voter-registration campaigns, school-board movements, model-legislation projects, and digital networks.
The term ''Christian nationalism'' is used in different ways by scholars, journalists, religious groups, political activists, and people who identify with or reject the label. Some researchers treat it principally as a worldview or political identity, while others emphasize organized movements, institutions, political networks, and collective practices. This distinction is important because grassroots political organizing concerns not simply what individuals believe, but how organizations translate ideas into political participation, leadership recruitment, electoral activity, legislation, and institutional influence.
The source material also documents significant grassroots opposition to Christian nationalism. Religious-freedom organizations, progressive Christian groups, interfaith coalitions, parents, clergy, educators, and other community organizations have formed local networks that conduct educational programs, attend public meetings, organize campaigns, train activists, and participate in debates concerning schools, elections, church-state relations, and religious freedom.
=== From Belief System to Organized Political Movement ===
Much early scholarship on Christian nationalism concentrated on measuring individual attitudes concerning Christianity, American identity, government, social hierarchy, and national history. More recent research has increasingly examined Christian nationalism as an organized social and political phenomenon.
This approach focuses on institutions, leadership networks, political organizations, churches, activists, donors, media systems, and recurring forms of collective action. Researchers have examined how political and religious elites can activate Christian-nationalist identities, how religious institutions can reinforce political beliefs, and how perceptions of cultural or political threat may encourage participation.
Social-movement interpretations emphasize that political influence is often cumulative. Organizations recruit participants, train leaders, create communication networks, develop political narratives, identify issues around which supporters can mobilize, and preserve institutional knowledge between election cycles.
Historical studies place contemporary Christian-nationalist organizing within the longer development of the Christian Right. Earlier campaigns surrounding school prayer, abortion, textbooks, evolution, sexuality, religious liberty, and public education helped create networks and organizing techniques that later movements could adapt to new political circumstances.
=== Local Politics as an Organizing Strategy ===
A recurring theme in the material is the importance of local political institutions. City councils, county commissions, Republican Party committees, libraries, school boards, election offices, churches, and other community institutions provide opportunities for relatively small but highly organized groups to exercise political influence.
Local organizing can involve attending public meetings, recruiting candidates, forming county organizations, distributing voter guides, supporting campaigns, speaking during public-comment periods, monitoring government decisions, lobbying officials, or encouraging supporters to seek positions within political parties and government agencies.
Some activists explicitly describe local political engagement as a way of eventually shaping state or national politics. This strategy can build leadership experience, political relationships, activist networks, voter lists, fundraising capacity, and organizational credibility.
The material documents both Christian-nationalist-aligned local activism and organized opposition to it. In many communities, disputes over religion and politics therefore become contests between competing grassroots coalitions rather than simply disagreements between national organizations.
=== School Boards and Public Education ===
School boards have emerged as one of the most visible arenas of grassroots religious and political organizing.
Conflicts have involved library books, classroom curricula, LGBTQ-related policies, parental rights, school prayer, religious instruction, chaplain programs, Ten Commandments displays, educational standards, and the authority of parents, teachers, administrators, and elected school-board members.
Organizations and political action committees have recruited and financially supported school-board candidates, distributed endorsements, developed campaign messaging, and encouraged church members to participate in low-turnout local elections.
Several studies in the material examine how themes associated with Christian nationalism can appear in school-board campaigning, including claims about religious heritage, parental authority, persecution, cultural decline, American exceptionalism, and the proper role of Christianity in public institutions.
This form of activism has much deeper historical roots. Christian conservative organizations were recruiting candidates for local school boards by at least the early 1990s, while opposing coalitions of parents, teachers, clergy, and community organizations also developed in response.
School-board politics therefore illustrate continuity between earlier Christian Right organizing and contemporary debates over Christian nationalism.
=== Churches, Pastors, and Congregational Networks ===
Churches can function as important social networks through which political information, relationships, leadership, and organizational resources circulate.
The material documents organizations that seek to recruit pastors and congregational leaders into political activity. Their programs can include pastor briefings, voter registration, voter guides, election reminders, candidate forums, public-policy education, church liaison programs, and encouragement for Christians to seek political office.
Organizations such as the American Renewal Project, Faith Wins, Family Research Council's Watchmen on the Wall network, My Faith Votes, the Faith & Freedom Coalition, and Turning Point Faith illustrate different approaches to faith-based political mobilization.
Some programs encourage churches to establish dedicated teams responsible for monitoring political issues, registering voters, communicating election information, or connecting congregations with political campaigns and advocacy organizations.
Supporters frequently characterize this work as legitimate Christian civic participation, while critics may interpret some of these networks as part of a broader Christian-nationalist political movement. The terminology remains disputed, and ordinary religious participation in politics is not necessarily synonymous with Christian nationalism.
=== Candidate Recruitment and Political Training ===
Another important organizing strategy is the recruitment and training of candidates.
Programs described in the source material teach activists how to campaign, raise money, communicate with voters, develop political messages, recruit volunteers, and govern after taking office.
Local offices may be particularly attractive because campaigns require fewer resources than statewide or federal races and because decisions by school boards, city councils, county commissions, and other local bodies can directly affect public policy.
The material includes reporting on church-linked candidate-training programs and organizations that encourage pastors, elders, deacons, congregants, and other Christian activists to consider running for office.
Candidate recruitment also strengthens political movements by creating a continuing pipeline of activists who may later move from local to state or national positions.
=== Voter Registration and Electoral Mobilization ===
Voter mobilization is one of the most developed components of Christian conservative grassroots infrastructure.
Organizations use church contacts, voter databases, door-to-door canvassing, telephone calls, text messaging, digital advertising, voter guides, rallies, pastor networks, and volunteer programs to identify and mobilize sympathetic voters.
Some groups particularly target Christians who are registered but vote irregularly, arguing that increased turnout among religious conservatives could influence elections.
Church-based electoral organizing can include distributing election information, encouraging voter registration, reminding congregants of voting dates, hosting candidate events, and recruiting volunteers.
Legal restrictions governing tax-exempt religious organizations have also produced continuing debates over the distinction between permitted civic engagement and prohibited partisan campaign intervention.
=== Election Administration and Poll-Worker Recruitment ===
The political role of grassroots activists expanded during disputes surrounding election administration after the 2020 presidential election.
Reporting in the source collection documents campaigns encouraging conservative Christians to become poll workers, poll watchers, precinct officials, election volunteers, and members of local party organizations.
Events such as the Courage Tour combined religious revival-style gatherings with political education and recruitment for election-related positions.
Supporters have described such involvement as ordinary citizen participation in election administration. Critics and investigative journalists have raised concerns where recruitment campaigns overlapped with unsupported allegations of widespread election fraud or efforts to influence certification processes.
The episodes illustrate how grassroots political organizing can extend beyond campaigning for candidates into the institutions responsible for conducting elections.
=== Citizens Defending Freedom and County-Level Organizing ===
Citizens Defending Freedom represents an example of a national organization using a decentralized county-based structure.
Reporting describes local chapters participating in school-board debates, county government, public meetings, education policy, religious-liberty disputes, and other community controversies.
This model combines national organizational resources with local activists who understand community institutions and political relationships.
County-level structures can provide movements with continuity between elections and allow activists to concentrate on institutions that receive considerably less public attention than state or federal government.
=== Seven Mountains and Institutional Influence ===
Seven Mountains teaching has provided one framework for Christian political and cultural activism.
The concept generally identifies major sectors of society—including government, education, media, business, religion, family, and entertainment or culture—as areas in which Christians should exercise influence.
Activists inspired by this framework differ considerably in theology, political strategy, and organizational affiliation. Some interpret the teaching primarily as encouragement for Christians to participate constructively in society, while critics associate stronger forms with dominion-oriented political projects.
The framework nevertheless illustrates why some Christian political organizing extends beyond elections and focuses on long-term participation in educational, governmental, media, business, and cultural institutions.
=== Project Blitz and State Legislative Networks ===
Grassroots organizing can connect with coordinated state-level legislative strategies.
Project Blitz became a prominent example through its development and promotion of model legislation addressing subjects such as religious displays, religious expression, and the historical role of Christianity in American public life.
Research on Project Blitz argues that the initiative should be understood within the organizational history of the Christian Right rather than as an isolated legislative campaign.
Model-legislation networks allow similar proposals to appear in multiple state legislatures while reducing the organizational resources required to develop bills independently in every state.
This strategy demonstrates how national political networks and state-level activists can work together: national organizations provide legislative templates, legal arguments, messaging, or research, while local and state activists lobby legislators and build public support.
=== Rallies, Conferences, and Traveling Political Networks ===
Large gatherings can also serve important organizational purposes.
Events such as the ReAwaken America Tour combined worship, political speeches, movement networking, merchandise, media, election messaging, and presentations by political and religious figures.
Such gatherings can create a shared movement identity while allowing activists from different organizations and regions to exchange ideas and establish relationships.
Traveling events also connect national political personalities with grassroots audiences who may later participate in school-board races, party committees, election administration, churches, or local advocacy organizations.
The combination of religious ritual and political communication demonstrates how political mobilization can operate through cultural and social experiences as well as conventional political institutions.
=== Digital Media and Grassroots Mobilization ===
Digital communication has substantially changed grassroots political organization.
Social-media platforms, podcasts, livestreams, email lists, messaging services, online training programs, digital voter databases, and political websites allow national organizations to communicate directly with local activists.
Online networks can rapidly distribute talking points, voter guides, model policies, testimony templates, event announcements, fundraising appeals, and activist training.
Digital activism can also be converted into in-person participation. The source material contains examples of social-media campaigns that helped activists prepare testimony for school-board or city-council meetings and connected individuals with local political networks.
This relationship between online communication and offline organizing has become increasingly important to both Christian-nationalist-aligned activism and organizations opposing Christian nationalism.
=== Historical Roots in the Christian Right ===
Contemporary grassroots organizing has precedents extending back decades.
During the late twentieth century, organizations associated with the Christian Right developed voter guides, pastor networks, candidate-recruitment systems, direct-mail operations, school-board campaigns, legislative programs, and local political organizations.
School-board activism in California during the 1990s provides particularly clear examples. Conservative Christian activists recruited candidates and distributed voter information through churches, while opposing community coalitions formed to contest their influence.
Organizations such as the Moral Majority, Christian Coalition, and later advocacy networks demonstrated that religious constituencies could be mobilized through thousands of local congregations rather than relying exclusively on national political organizations.
Contemporary Christian-nationalist organizing therefore inherits both personnel and strategic traditions from earlier movements while adapting them to digital communication and changing political issues.
=== Counter-Mobilization Against Christian Nationalism ===
The growth of Christian-nationalist organizing has generated substantial counter-mobilization.
Christians Against Christian Nationalism, associated with BJC, has developed local and regional groups that conduct education, advocacy, clergy organizing, community meetings, and campaigns concerning public schools and religious freedom. Research conducted with local chapters in several states documents book groups, planning meetings, educational programs, relationship building, and participation in local politics.
Other organizations represented in the source collection include Faithful America, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Interfaith Alliance, denominational bodies, progressive Christian organizations, and local coalitions.
These networks sometimes organize around the same institutions targeted by conservative Christian activists, including school boards, state legislatures, churches, and local government.
The resulting political environment can therefore involve competing religious interpretations rather than a simple conflict between religion and secularism. Christian leaders and organizations can be found both supporting political programs described as Christian nationalism and organizing explicitly against them.
=== Religious Freedom and Competing Christian Perspectives ===
Debates about Christian nationalism frequently center on differing interpretations of religious freedom.
Some conservative Christian activists argue that political participation is necessary to protect religious liberty and prevent the exclusion of Christianity from public life.
Opponents argue that government sponsorship of particular religious beliefs can threaten the religious freedom of Christians from other traditions, members of minority religions, and people who do not identify with a religion.
Disagreements therefore concern not only the appropriate level of Christian influence in politics but also the meaning of church-state separation, equality before government, religious pluralism, and constitutional protections for religious exercise.
The source material demonstrates that these disagreements exist within Christianity as well as between religious and secular political organizations.
=== Organization, Identity, and Movement Power ===
One of the central lessons of the research is that political beliefs alone do not automatically produce political influence.
Movements gain power when beliefs are connected to organizations capable of recruiting members, identifying leaders, raising money, communicating messages, training candidates, mobilizing voters, lobbying governments, and maintaining participation over time.
Christian nationalism can therefore be studied at several levels simultaneously: as a worldview, as an identity, as political rhetoric, and as a network of organizations and collective practices.
Researchers continue to debate how broadly the term should be applied. Some scholars caution against labeling all conservative Christian political activism as Christian nationalism, while others argue that organized political networks are essential to understanding how Christian-nationalist ideas acquire practical political influence.
=== Conclusion ===
Christian nationalism and grassroots political organizing intersect across a wide range of American institutions. The source material documents organizing through churches, pastor networks, school boards, county organizations, voter-registration campaigns, candidate-training programs, rallies, digital media, state legislative networks, political action committees, election administration, and local government.
These practices have historical roots in the Christian Right but have evolved through new organizations, political controversies, technologies, and theological movements. Local activism can provide a pathway through which national political ideas become concrete campaigns involving education policy, elections, religious expression, and public institutions.
At the same time, Christian nationalism has generated an increasingly organized counter-movement composed of Christians, interfaith organizations, religious-freedom advocates, parents, educators, clergy, and civic organizations. These groups use many of the same grassroots techniques—local chapters, leadership development, public testimony, political education, coalition building, and community organizing—to advance competing interpretations of Christianity, democracy, and religious freedom.
Taken together, the material suggests that understanding Christian nationalism requires attention not only to national politicians or public-opinion surveys but also to the local organizational infrastructure through which political movements recruit participants, build networks, contest institutions, and translate ideas into political action.
__TOC__
Counter-Mobilization, Interfaith Organizing, and Local Opposition
1. Progressive Christian Mobilization and the Discourse of White Christian Nationalism | Lauren Horn Griffin, Charles McCrary and Jelani Ince | PRRI | August 3, 2026
Examines local Christians Against Christian Nationalism chapters in Oregon, Indiana, Louisiana, Texas, Michigan, Georgia, Minnesota and Alaska, documenting meetings, educational programs, community building and efforts to translate national debates over Christian nationalism into local political activism.
2. Local Groups: Spring/Summer 2026 | BJC staff | BJC | 2026
Describes clergy networks, local action groups and a five-session organizing course designed to help congregations move from concern about Christian nationalism toward community action.
3. Christians Against Christian Nationalism | Christians Against Christian Nationalism | BJC | 2026
Provides the national campaign hub for Christians organizing against Christian nationalism, including statements, educational resources and local organizing opportunities.
4. North Texas Coalition of Christians Against Christian Nationalism | Christians Against Christian Nationalism | BJC | 2026
Describes a regional coalition organizing clergy, congregations and community members around religious freedom, public schools and local government.
5. Frontline Faithful Tour | Faithful America | Faithful America | 2026
Describes a multi-state faith-organizing initiative intended to support local religious communities responding to Christian nationalism and related political movements.
6. Faithful America Local Groups | Faithful America | Faithful America | 2026
Provides information on local Faithful America groups and grassroots organizing involving clergy, congregations and community activists.
7. AU Part of Diverse Coalition Championing Religious Freedom in Texas Public Schools | Americans United | Americans United for Separation of Church and State | 2026
Describes coalition work involving religious and civic organizations responding to church-state disputes in Texas schools.
8. Resources for Organizing | Christians Against Christian Nationalism | BJC | 2025-2026
Provides practical materials for forming local groups, recruiting members, conducting one-on-one meetings, mapping community power and developing organizing campaigns.
9. Six-State Tour Seeks to Empower Opponents of Christian Nationalism | Jeff Brumley | Baptist News Global | May 14, 2026
Covers Faithful America's organizing tour through Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky and Texas aimed at supporting local activists and religious communities.
10. AU in Action! May 2026 | Americans United | Americans United for Separation of Church and State | May 1, 2026
Highlights organizing, advocacy and coalition activity around church-state separation and Christian-nationalism-related issues.
11. Presbyterians Turn Out in Droves to Learn More About Christian Nationalism | Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service | March 26, 2026
Describes denomination-wide educational and advocacy organizing around Christian nationalism and church participation in public life.
12. 160 Faith Leaders Urge Texas Schools to Reject Forced Prayer | Americans United | Americans United for Separation of Church and State | January 9, 2026
Describes a coalition of clergy and religious leaders urging Texas school districts to reject policies they believed would undermine religious freedom.
13. Clergy Invited: Faith-Rooted Organizing to Confront Christian Nationalism | Grand Canyon Synod | ELCA | January 2026
Announces organizing training for clergy focused on community conversations, political pressures and practical strategies for responding to Christian nationalism.
14. Organizing Across the Map: Building Power Through Faith and Action | BJC | BJC | December 19, 2025
Describes expanding local faith-based organizing networks and strategies for developing durable community power around religious freedom and Christian nationalism.
15. 10 Wins From 2025 to Fuel the Fight for Church-State Separation in 2026 | Americans United | Americans United for Separation of Church and State | 2025
Reviews advocacy and organizing victories involving religious freedom, public education and church-state separation.
16. Hoosiers for Separation of Church and State: How a New Local Religious Freedom Group Is Raising Awareness About Christian Nationalism | BJC | BJC | September 29, 2025
Profiles an Indiana grassroots organization using education, coalition building and public engagement to address Christian nationalism.
17. Get Involved With a Local Group to Combat Christian Nationalism | BJC staff | BJC | September 19, 2025
Reports that BJC had developed more than 20 active or emerging local groups and describes a decentralized model allowing organizers to respond to community-specific issues.
18. Netroots Nation: Why We Put Christian Nationalism at the Center of the Conversation | Americans United | Americans United for Separation of Church and State | August 21, 2025
Describes outreach and coalition building intended to connect church-state advocacy with broader democracy and civil-rights organizing.
19. Standing Up to Christian Nationalism: Stories of Local Action and National Impact | Grand Canyon Synod | ELCA | May 2025
Highlights community coalitions affiliated with Christians Against Christian Nationalism and examples of local advocacy, education and relationship-building.
20. New Faithful America Head Challenges Theology of Christian Nationalism | Brian Kaylor | Word&Way | April 16, 2025
Profiles Shannon Fleck and Faithful America's plans to mobilize a national grassroots network of Christians around church-state and democracy issues.
21. Uncovering the How and Why of Christian Nationalism | Presbyterian News Service | Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) | April 4, 2025
Reports on Amanda Tyler's presentation describing Christians Against Christian Nationalism and efforts to organize people for action in churches and local communities.
22. Creating Change Through Local Groups | Joy Pettigrew | BJC | March 25, 2025
Describes the creation of community-based groups responding to Christian nationalism, including organizing around school chaplain programs, Ten Commandments laws and other local issues.
23. Join the Movement to Dismantle Christian Nationalism in Your Community | Grand Canyon Synod | ELCA | January 24, 2025
Encourages local coalition building around school policies, church-state questions and religious freedom, using North Texas organizing as an example.
24. Christians Against Christian Nationalism Growing With Regional Groups | Jeff Brumley | Baptist News Global | 2025
Reports on the expansion of local Christians Against Christian Nationalism chapters and their focus on education, advocacy, coalition building and community organizing.
25. After the Election, How Are Organizers Resisting Christian Nationalism? | Sierra Lyons | Sojourners | November 25, 2024
Examines coalition-building and organizing plans among faith activists following the 2024 election, with emphasis on local networks and policy-focused campaigns.
26. Resistance to Christian Nationalism in All 50 States | PRRI and Meanings of Democracy Lab | PRRI | October 30, 2024
Maps Christian-nationalism Rejecters and Skeptics across the United States, providing geographic context for both mobilization and counter-mobilization.
27. How Christians Can Counter Christian Nationalism | William Barber II, Jennifer Garcia Bashaw, James Spencer, Amar Peterman, Matthew Hildreth, Diana Oestreich, Carlos Rodríguez and Lisa Jacob | Sojourners | September/October 2024
Brings together organizers and religious leaders discussing rural organizing, local coalitions, public schools, immigration, churches and community-building approaches.
28. Working for Change Through Local Organizing | Lisa Endean-Jacob | BJC | July 15, 2024
Explains BJC's distinction between awareness, advocacy and organizing and outlines its approach to building relationships and collective power in local communities.
29. Freedom Church of the Poor: Organizing Against White Christian Nationalism | Presbyterian Mission Agency | Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) | March 9, 2024
Describes a training program for faith and community leaders focused on organizing poor and working-class communities in response to White Christian nationalism.
30. Christians Against Christian Nationalism Translates TikTok Activism to Local Politics | Kathryn Post | Religion News Service | January 8, 2024
Shows how a national social-media account provided activists with toolkits, factual materials and help preparing testimony for local school-board and city-council meetings.
31. For Congregational Discussion: Responses to Christian Nationalism | Jennifer Hockenbery | Journal of Lutheran Ethics | 2024
Provides a discussion framework for congregations seeking to distinguish ordinary faith-based political participation from Christian nationalism and to conduct local conversations across political divisions.
32. Christian Nationalism’s Opponents Are Getting Organized | Jack Jenkins | National Catholic Reporter / Religion News Service | August 15, 2023
Surveys growing opposition networks involving MoveOn, the Kairos Center, Vote Common Good, the Poor People's Campaign, school-board candidate training and local faith coalitions.
33. Christian Nationalism’s Opponents Are Getting Organized | Jack Jenkins | Word&Way / Religion News Service | August 14, 2023
Describes efforts by religious and secular organizations to build local coalitions, train candidates and develop grassroots strategies responding to Christian-nationalist activism.
34. The Next Phase of This Campaign | Jaziah Masters | BJC | March 20, 2023
Describes the transition of Christians Against Christian Nationalism from a statement-based campaign toward expanded grassroots organizing and community engagement.
35. Empowering Florida Activists to Combat Christian Nationalism | Interfaith Alliance | Interfaith Alliance | February 17, 2023
Describes a Florida organizing effort in which national staff supported local religious-freedom activists, congregations and community leaders.
School Boards, Public Education, and Parent Activism
36. Moms for Liberty Wanted a Seat on the School Board. Trump Gave Them a Voice in the White House | Associated Press | AP | 2026
Traces Moms for Liberty's evolution from a Florida school-board movement to a national organization involved in education policy and conservative political networks.
37. “Book Boundaries” in West Michigan School Board Election Campaigns | Olivia Twa, Katie Ward and Mary M. Juzwik | Reading Research Quarterly | August 13, 2025
Studies local Michigan school-board campaigns and arguments over books, literacy curriculum and parental authority through the framework of White Christian nationalism.
38. School Board Races Across Texas Deal Losses for Many Conservatives | Alejandro Serrano | Texas Tribune | May 5, 2025
Examines the electoral aftermath of several years of organized conservative Christian involvement in North Texas school-board contests and the emergence of opposing local coalitions.
39. How At-Large Voting Creates Conservative Majorities on Texas School Boards | Texas Tribune and ProPublica | March 19, 2025
Examines how election structures interact with well-financed local political networks, including Patriot Mobile Action's efforts to elect Christian conservative school-board candidates.
40. Banning Books and the Christian Nationalist Movement | Dhruti Pathak | Americans United for Separation of Church and State | February 12, 2025
Discusses a student's experience with a local school-board book controversy and connects censorship campaigns to broader debates over Christian nationalism.
41. How a Legal Group’s Anti-LGBTQ Policies Took Root in School Districts Across a State | Hechinger Report | 2025
Investigates how model policies spread among Pennsylvania school boards and how competing grassroots groups organized at the district level in response.
42. Christianizing America, School District by School District | Scholar writing in Isis | Isis | 2025
Places contemporary school-board activism in a longer history of fundamentalist and Christian-right organizing around public education, parental rights, curriculum and local control.
43. Under God: How Christianity Permeates Yakima City Politics | Cascade PBS staff | Cascade PBS | August 2024
Examines how churches, religious events, conservative activists and debates over Christian nationalism intersect with city politics in Yakima, Washington.
44. United for What and for Whom? An Analysis of White Christian Nationalism in a 2023 School Board Election Campaign | Esther Prins, Mary Juzwik and Gonca Acaray | Educational Studies | 2024
Analyzes a Pennsylvania school-board campaign and how themes including persecution, parental rights, viewpoint diversity and American exceptionalism were used to mobilize voters.
45. A Conflict Between Religious Extremism and Intellectual Freedom at Ground Zero | Lacie Sutherland | The Political Librarian | 2024
Examines grassroots battles over library books in Alabama involving library boards, school boards, churches, county commissions and local activist organizations.
46. The “Remnant Alliance” Is Coming for a School Board Near You | Steven Monacelli | Texas Observer | May 8, 2024
Investigates a Texas coalition that brought together church leaders, Citizens Defending Freedom, Turning Point activists and other conservative organizations to train and mobilize Christians around school-board elections.
47. Texas’ Debate Over School Chaplains Escalates School Board Culture Wars | Texas Tribune / Religion News Service | Texas Tribune | December 15, 2023
Examines local organizing by supporters and opponents of Texas' school-chaplain law as individual school boards decided whether to adopt chaplain programs.
48. These Are the Right-Wing Ideologues Taking Over School Boards | Steven Monacelli | Texas Observer | November 13, 2023
Maps interconnected PACs, donors and political consultants supporting conservative candidates for Texas school boards, including Patriot Mobile Action and organizations using Christian political messaging.
49. Meet the Activists Behind the Texas Bill to Put Chaplains in Schools | Jack Jenkins | The Washington Post / Religion News Service | May 26, 2023
Traces the activist, donor and religious networks supporting Texas legislation involving public-school chaplains and Ten Commandments displays.
50. Moms for “Liberty”? White Christian Nationalism and the War on Public Education in the United States | Maya Zabian | Public Intellectuals Project, McMaster University | May 13, 2023
Examines Moms for Liberty as a grassroots parental-rights organization and analyzes the relationship its rhetoric and educational activism may have with White Christian-nationalist themes.
51. School Board Patriots on the Move | Jessica Waller | Fort Worth Weekly | May 5, 2023
Examines Patriot Mobile's political activity and financial support for conservative candidates in North Texas school-board contests.
52. Ron DeSantis Installs Right-Wing Figures on Board of Former Disney District | Adam Gabbatt | The Guardian | March 2, 2023
Reports on appointments to Florida's former Reedy Creek district board, including activists involved in parental-rights and Christian-nationalist debates.
53. Christian Nationalism Is a Threat to Some Virginia Schools | Jessica Johnson | The Washington Post | October 10, 2022
Discusses grassroots religious activism around transgender policies and school governance in Hanover County, Virginia.
54. North Texas School Board Candidates Reference Christianity in Campaigns | Fort Worth Star-Telegram staff | Fort Worth Star-Telegram | 2022
Examines Christian language, endorsements and activist organizations involved in school-board campaigns in Keller, Carroll and Grapevine-Colleyville, Texas.
55. The Theocrats Are Coming for the School Board — but Parents Are Starting to Fight Back | Paul Rosenberg | Salon | December 19, 2021
Examines conservative Christian organizing in Colorado school-board elections and the emergence of counter-organizing by parents and other community members.
56. Religion, Advocacy Coalitions, and the Politics of U.S. Public Schooling | Catherine A. Lugg and Malila N. Robinson | Educational Policy | 2009
Traces Protestant-right advocacy coalitions operating at local, state and national levels around evolution, school prayer, curriculum and education policy.
57. School Board Battles: The Christian Right in Local Politics | James L. Guth | Perspectives on Politics | March 2005
Reviews Melissa Deckman's major study of conservative Christian candidates, campaign strategies and governance in local school-board politics.
58. School Board Battles | Melissa M. Deckman | Georgetown University Press | 2004
Describes research based on surveys and case studies examining why conservative Christians run for school boards, how they campaign and how they govern after election.
59. Christian Right Soldiers On in O.C. School Board Races | Michael Granberry and Cathy Werblin | Los Angeles Times | October 25, 1996
Reports on continuing conservative Christian involvement in Orange County school-board campaigns during the 1990s.
60. New Vision for Vista Schools | Los Angeles Times | March 14, 1995
Examines both church-centered organizing that helped elect a conservative Christian school-board majority and the grassroots recall campaign that later removed it.
61. Local Elections: Christian Right Has Impact on Campaigns | Kenneth R. Weiss | Los Angeles Times | November 6, 1994
Describes the distribution of tens of thousands of church voter guides covering school-board and other local candidates in Ventura County.
62. Christian Right Plunges Into Nearly 2 Dozen School Races | Catherine Gewertz | Los Angeles Times | October 31, 1992
Reports on conservative Christian organizations backing candidates in numerous Orange County school-board elections.
63. Christian Activists Set Their Sights on School Board Seats | Education Week staff | Education Week | October 1992
Documents early grassroots strategies involving church committees, precinct captains, petition drives, letter-writing campaigns and candidate recruitment.
64. How Christian Right Got on Boards | Los Angeles Times | September 20, 1992
Examines conservative Christian victories in San Diego County school-board and local-government contests and debates over low-visibility campaign strategies.
65. Coalition Targets Christian Fundamentalists for Election Defeats | Kathy McDonald | Los Angeles Times | May 5, 1992
Documents one early grassroots counter-movement of parents, teachers and clergy formed in response to religious-right success in local elections.
Elections, Voter Mobilization, Pastors, and Candidate Recruitment
66. Religious Freedom as We Have Known It in America Is on the Ballot | American Renewal Project | American Renewal Project | 2026
Advocates precinct-level church organizing and the use of designated congregational volunteers to identify unregistered voters.
67. American Renewal Project: Our Mission | American Renewal Project | American Renewal Project | 2026
Outlines a strategy centered on pastors, evangelical ministry leaders and lower-propensity evangelical voters.
68. Get Involved: American Renewal Project | American Renewal Project | American Renewal Project | 2026
Advises pastors to create church-based “Salt & Light” teams to monitor local issues, register voters, publicize election dates and encourage turnout.
69. Faith Wins | Faith Wins | Faith Wins | 2026
Describes an organizational program built around pastors, church liaisons, voter registration and relationships between religious leaders and political officials.
70. About Faith Wins | Faith Wins | Faith Wins | 2026
Outlines the group's model for educating, activating and mobilizing faith leaders in governmental and political affairs.
71. Take Action | Faith Wins | Faith Wins | 2026
Describes the group's national network of pastors and faith leaders and its programs encouraging churches to engage in civic and electoral activity.
72. My Faith Votes: About | My Faith Votes | My Faith Votes | 2026
Describes voter guides, election information, church outreach, digital targeting and efforts to encourage Christians to participate in local as well as national elections.
73. Faith & Freedom Coalition | Faith & Freedom Coalition | Faith & Freedom Coalition | 2026
Describes a large voter-contact operation involving door-to-door canvassing, church outreach, voter guides, texting and volunteer recruitment.
74. Watchmen on the Wall | Family Research Council | Watchmen on the Wall | 2026
Describes Family Research Council's national network aimed at connecting pastors with public-policy and civic activism.
75. About Watchmen on the Wall | Family Research Council | Watchmen on the Wall | 2026
Describes a pastor network focused on public-policy education, civic participation and relationships among clergy.
76. Become a P3 Pastor | Family Research Council | Family Research Council | 2026
Encourages pastors to participate in a national network intended to connect religious leadership with public-policy activism.
77. Pastors Briefing | American Renewal Project | American Renewal Project | 2026
Describes gatherings intended to encourage pastors and ministry leaders to become more active in electoral and civic politics.
78. “No Separation Between Church and State”: Inside a Texas Church’s Training Academy for Christians Running for Office | Marissa Greene and Cecilia Lenzen | ProPublica / Fort Worth Report | November 10, 2025
Investigates Campaign University, a church-linked training program that teaches conservative Christians how to campaign for and hold public office.
79. Mercy Culture Church Trains Christians to Run for Office in Texas | Marissa Greene and Cecilia Lenzen | Texas Tribune / Fort Worth Report | November 10, 2025
Examines candidate recruitment and political training connected with Mercy Culture Church and the organization For Liberty & Justice.
80. A Texas Church’s Online Class Trains Christians to Run for Office | Marissa Greene and Cecilia Lenzen | Texas Public Radio / Fort Worth Report | November 12, 2025
Describes Campaign University and efforts to expand its candidate-training program beyond North Texas.
81. How Faith Wins Connects Pastors and Candidates | Faith Wins | Faith Wins | 2025
Describes pastor meetings across multiple states designed to teach voter registration, turnout and public-policy engagement.
82. My Faith Votes Joins Forces With Million Voices | Matthew Thrower | My Faith Votes | February 6, 2025
Announces a merger of two Christian voter-mobilization networks aimed at expanding church participation and turnout efforts.
83. What ProPublica Reporters Will Be Watching on Election Day | ProPublica staff | ProPublica | November 2024
Includes attention to poll workers and poll watchers recruited through Christian-right and Christian-nationalist-aligned networks.
84. Election Skeptics Are Targeting Voting Officials With Ads That Suggest They Don’t Have to Certify Results | Phoebe Petrovic and Doug Bock Clark | ProPublica / Wisconsin Watch | October 30, 2024
Part of ProPublica's Faith in Power investigation into Christian-right efforts involving local election officials, poll workers and election certification.
85. How Charlie Kirk’s Groups Are Trying to Elect Trump | NPR staff | NPR | October 24, 2024
Examines Turning Point's voter-mobilization programs and the role of churches, Seven Mountains language and conservative religious networks in election organizing.
86. Right-Wing Activists Pushed False Claims About Election Fraud. Now They’re Recruiting Poll Workers in Swing States | Phoebe Petrovic | ProPublica / Wisconsin Watch | October 16, 2024
Investigates networks recruiting conservative Christians to become poll workers and describes Courage Tour events in several swing states.
87. Pro-Trump Christian Nationalists Are on Tour to Recruit Election Workers | Lisa Hagen and Audrey Nguyen | NPR / Oregon Public Broadcasting | October 7, 2024
Reports on the Courage Tour and its effort to recruit conservative Christians as poll workers, poll watchers and other local election participants.
88. “We Have to Be Voting Biblically”: The Courage Tour Rallies Christians | Alice Herman | The Guardian | August 2, 2024
Reports on revival-style events in swing states encouraging Christian political participation, voter registration and election-related volunteering.
89. Idaho Republican Challengers Flip Seats in Primary Fought Over Extremism | The Washington Post staff | The Washington Post | May 22, 2024
Examines disputes within Idaho Republican politics over Christian nationalism, local education, health systems and relationships between party organizations and far-right activists.
90. Panel Series: Christian Nationalism and the 2024 Election | Boisi Center | Boston College | 2024
Reviews scholarship and reporting on Christian nationalism during the 2024 election, including Courage Tour efforts to recruit poll workers and election volunteers.
91. With Turning Point Faith, Pastors Use Politics as Church-Growth Strategy | Jack Jenkins | The Washington Post / Religion News Service | June 12, 2023
Examines Turning Point Faith's efforts to build networks of politically active pastors and congregations and connect church growth with conservative political engagement.
92. About the American Renewal Project | American Renewal Project | American Renewal Project | 2023
Describes the organization's goal of encouraging pastors, elders, deacons and congregants to seek local, state and national office as part of grassroots Christian civic engagement.
93. Christian Nationalism on the Rise in Some GOP Campaigns | Associated Press | Los Angeles Times | May 29, 2022
Surveys candidates and activists using explicit Christian-nationalist language and describes efforts by conservative churches and political groups to influence local school-board elections.
94. Christian Nationalism on the Rise in Some GOP Campaigns | Associated Press | CBS News | May 29, 2022
Reports on Christian-nationalist rhetoric in campaigns and a California pastor's political action committee aimed at changing local school boards.
95. Christian Nationalism Shapes a Pennsylvania Primary — and a GOP Shift | Michelle Boorstein | The Washington Post | May 16, 2022
Describes informal church-based patriot groups, constitutional classes, rallies and activist networks that developed around Doug Mastriano's Pennsylvania political movement.
Organizations, Local Networks, and Grassroots Political Infrastructure
96. The Seven Mountains Mandate: The Latest in Christian Nationalism | Political Research Associates | Political Research Associates | July 7, 2026
Discusses Seven Mountains organizing, which divides society into areas such as government, education, media, business and religion that activists seek to influence.
97. The Full Armor of God: The Mobilization of Christian Nationalism in American Politics | Paul A. Djupe, Andrew R. Lewis and Anand E. Sokhey | University of Colorado Boulder | June 17, 2026
Summarizes research showing how Christian nationalism can function as a political mobilization framework and how partisan elites, perceived threats and ideas about social hierarchy can influence political action.
98. Markwayne Mullin Has Ties to Oklahoma Theistic Group | Mark Wingfield | Baptist News Global | 2026
Examines relationships between elected officials and City Elders, whose organizers describe city and county government as important arenas for Christian political influence.
99. Progressive Texas Organizers Hail Shock Win as Far-Right Republicans Left Reeling | Guardian reporters | The Guardian | February 15, 2026
Examines grassroots organizing in Tarrant County after years of school-board activity associated with Patriot Mobile and conservative Christian political networks.
100. The New Faces of Christian Nationalism | Rachel Monroe | The New Yorker | March 15, 2026
Profiles political activity surrounding Mercy Culture Church in Fort Worth and examines changes in the relationship between congregational life, campaigning and partisan politics.
101. From City Halls to School Boards: City Elders’ Blueprint to Rule Your City in God’s Name | Bill Berkowitz | Daily Kos Community | December 18, 2025
Describes City Elders' leadership-development, voter-registration and local-office strategy and places it within broader debates over Christian nationalism.
102. Our Man at the Top: How the Seven Mountains Mandate and Paul Weyrich’s Last Testament Have Shaped the Presidency of Donald Trump | Hanne Amanda Trangerud | Canadian Journal of Political Science | November 22, 2025
Compares Seven Mountains political strategy with conservative institution-building associated with Paul Weyrich, emphasizing organizational networks, leadership development and efforts to influence cultural institutions.
103. White Christian Nationalism as a State-Organized Social Movement | Derek Lehman | New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education | June 4, 2025
Proposes understanding White Christian nationalism as a social movement rather than simply a collection of individual attitudes, emphasizing organization, political institutions and movement power.
104. Christian Nationalists Open Up on Goals in Texas | Robert Downen | Texas Tribune | March 17, 2025
Traces organizing behind Texas proposals involving public schools, religious displays and Bible-related policies and describes relationships among activists, elected officials and Christian-right organizations.
105. City Elders Declare Themselves God’s Anointed for Government | Mark Wingfield | Baptist News Global | December 2, 2024
Investigates City Elders, an Oklahoma-based network that says Christian leaders should exercise influence in local government, business and churches.
106. City Elders: Christian Nationalists Hell-Bent on Taking Over Cities Across the Country | Bill Berkowitz | Daily Kos Community | December 17, 2024
Provides a critical overview of City Elders' local-first strategy involving city councils, school boards, churches and networks of business and political leaders.
107. Why We Investigated Matthew Trewhella, the Far-Right Wisconsin Pastor Influencing Republican Politics | Phoebe Petrovic | ProPublica / Wisconsin Watch | August 2, 2024
Explains Trewhella's emphasis on counties, local officials and “Christian localism,” including his presentations to local Republican organizations.
108. The Gospel of Matthew Trewhella: How a Militant Anti-Abortion Activist Is Influencing Republican Politics | Phoebe Petrovic | ProPublica / Wisconsin Watch | July 10, 2024
Investigates a Wisconsin pastor whose teachings have circulated among county Republican organizations, commissioners, sheriffs and activists emphasizing local resistance to higher government authority.
109. Christian Nationalists at WallBuilders Insist Christian Nationalism Is Nothing to Worry About | Kyle Mantyla | Right Wing Watch | April 16, 2024
Presents a critical account of WallBuilders' response to the Christian-nationalist label and the organization's role in promoting a particular interpretation of American history to conservative activists.
110. Why a Bucolic Tennessee Suburb Is a Hotbed of “Christian Nashville-ism” | Michelle Boorstein | The Washington Post | November 8, 2023
Explores Franklin, Tennessee, where churches, social networks, wealthy activists and conservative institutions help sustain intensive grassroots political activity.
111. Cracks on the Road to Christian Dominion: Is the Shadowy “City Elders” Group Collapsing? | Frederick Clarkson | Salon | November 12, 2023
Investigates City Elders' attempts to establish local networks of pastors, elected officials and business leaders and assesses claims about the organization's national expansion.
112. How an Upstart Conservative Group Is Taking Christian Nationalist Politics Local | Jack Jenkins | Word&Way / Religion News Service | July 13, 2023
Examines Citizens Defending Freedom's model of building county chapters and intervening in school boards, county governments and other local political institutions.
113. Meet the Conservative Christian Group Critics Call “Moms for Liberty in Suits” | Jack Jenkins | The Washington Post / Religion News Service | July 13, 2023
Describes Citizens Defending Freedom's strategy of organizing nationally while operating through county chapters focused on school boards and other local government bodies.
114. How an Upstart Conservative Group Is Taking Christian Nationalist Politics Local | Jack Jenkins | Religion News Service | July 12, 2023
Investigates Citizens Defending Freedom and its county-based organizing model involving school boards, public meetings, local officials and other municipal institutions.
115. Socialism Sucks: Campus Conservatives, Digital Media, and the Rebranding of Christian Nationalism | Academic researchers | Information, Communication & Society | 2023
Examines conservative campus organizing and how digital networks, political events and social-media culture can circulate Christian-nationalist narratives among young activists.
116. Some Christian Nationalists Are Fueling Their Movement With Opposition to Coronavirus Vaccines and Mask Mandates | Jack Jenkins | The Washington Post / Religion News Service | September 14, 2021
Reports on activists linking pandemic restrictions with calls to attend school-board meetings, run for office, organize churches and mobilize locally.
Tours, Rallies, and Movement-Building Events
117. Best of: Inside the ReAwaken America Tour | Amanda Tyler and Holly Hollman | BJC | April 2, 2026
Discusses firsthand observation of a ReAwaken America event and the mixture of religious worship, political messaging, election denial and movement-building.
118. At Far-Right Roadshow, Trump Is God’s “Anointed One,” QAnon Is King | Sarah D. Wire | Los Angeles Times | October 12, 2023
Reports from a ReAwaken America gathering and examines how revival practices, political messaging, conspiracy theories and movement networking converge at the events.
119. Right-Wing Roadshow Promotes Christian Nationalism Before Midterms | Annie Gowen | The Washington Post | October 23, 2022
Reports on the ReAwaken America Tour's mixture of revival-style worship, conservative political activism, election claims and efforts to motivate attendees before the 2022 midterms.
120. Michael Flynn’s ReAwaken Roadshow Recruits “Army of God” | Richard Lardner and Michelle R. Smith | AP / FRONTLINE | October 2022
Examines the ReAwaken America Tour as a traveling political and religious network that recruited attendees and encouraged greater participation in local politics.
121. A Glimpse Inside Michael Flynn’s Holy War | FRONTLINE | PBS | October 2022
Provides documentary material about Flynn's “spiritual battle” rhetoric and attempts to turn supporters toward political activism.
122. How Michael Flynn Goes Local to Spread Christian Nationalism | Michelle R. Smith | AP / FRONTLINE | October 17, 2022
Documents Michael Flynn's emphasis on local political activism in Sarasota County, including school-board races, Republican organizations, social-media networks and activist gatherings.
123. Takeaways From the AP/FRONTLINE Michael Flynn Investigation | Michelle R. Smith | AP / FRONTLINE | September 7, 2022
Summarizes reporting on Flynn's nationwide speaking schedule, endorsements, nonprofit networks and attempts to build a political movement using religious and nationalist themes.
124. Michael Flynn: From Government Insider to Holy Warrior | Michelle R. Smith | AP / FRONTLINE | September 7, 2022
Examines Flynn's nationwide speaking network, local candidate endorsements and efforts to create a movement combining religious and nationalist political themes.
State Legislation, Project Blitz, and Church–State Policy
125. Tilled Fields for Christian Nationalism: Project Blitz and the Evolution of the Christian Right | Kimberly H. Conger | Politics and Religion | January 14, 2026
Analyzes Project Blitz, a network supplying model legislation to state lawmakers, and argues that contemporary Christian-nationalist political activity grew partly from organizational structures established by the earlier Christian Right.
126. BlitzWatch: Monitoring Project Blitz and Christian Nationalists | BlitzWatch | BlitzWatch | 2019–2026
Tracks state legislation associated by the organization with Project Blitz, illustrating how national advocacy networks can operate through numerous state legislatures.
127. Testing Ground for Project 2025: Oklahoma’s Right-Wing Push to Erode the Line Between Church and State | Guardian reporters | The Guardian | February 27, 2025
Examines Oklahoma activism and government initiatives involving Bibles, religious education and church-state policy, along with grassroots opposition from faith organizations.
128. How “In God We Trust” Bills Are Advancing a Christian Nationalist Agenda | Kristina M. Lee | Truthout / The Conversation | July 18, 2021
Examines municipal and state campaigns to promote the national motto and connects them to broader Project Blitz-style legislative strategies.
129. A Christian Nationalist Group Is Quietly Shaping Bills for State Legislatures | Frederick Clarkson | Truthout | 2019
Investigates Project Blitz's model legislation, talking points and coordinated state-level strategy.
130. Ringing in a Christian Nationalist 2019 With an Even Larger Legislative Playbook | Frederick Clarkson | Religion Dispatches | December 18, 2018
Examines Project Blitz and coordinated efforts by Christian-right organizations to introduce similar religious and cultural legislation across multiple state legislatures.
Research, Theory, Identity, and Political Behavior
131. On Christian Nationalism | Jesse Smith and Jonathan Tran | Religious Studies Review | September 5, 2026
Reviews the rapidly expanding literature and debates over whether Christian nationalism is best understood as ideology, identity, discourse or organized social force.
132. The Summer of Taking Christian Nationalism Seriously | Megan Fowler | Christianity Today | July 30, 2026
Reports on Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran and other denominational efforts to create committees, studies and church-level responses to Christian nationalism.
133. Christian Nationalism as a Social Identity | Political-science researchers | Public Opinion Quarterly | July 4, 2026
Distinguishes Christian nationalism as an explicitly claimed social identity from Christian nationalism measured as a broader worldview, an important distinction for understanding movement mobilization.
134. Christian Nationalism: Primer on an American Heresy | Craig L. Nessan | Currents in Theology and Mission | June 17, 2026
Reviews Christian Reconstructionism, the New Apostolic Reformation, Seven Mountains theology and their political implications, including activism directed toward cultural institutions.
135. Whose Christian Nationalism? | Steven Waldman | The Christian Century | June 16, 2026
Examines historical claims about America's Christian identity and contemporary efforts to mobilize Christians around those interpretations.
136. The Disquieting Strategic Smarts Behind Christian Nationalism | Steve Burghardt | Oxford Academic | May 27, 2026
Examines Christian-nationalist organizing as a long-term political strategy that built influence through local activism, churches, family-centered messaging and institutional networks before expanding into state and national politics.
137. In God We Trust: Christian Nationalism, Political and Ethno-Racial Identities, and Distrust of Immigrants | Christopher H. Seto | Sociology of Religion | May 24, 2026
Examines how Christian nationalism interacts with political and ethno-racial identities, relevant to understanding issue-based political mobilization.
138. Americanizing the Reformation: American Christian Nationalism, History, and Selective Memory | Micah Oosterhoff | Journal of the American Academy of Religion | April 20, 2026
Studies competing Calvinist uses of history and identity, including intramural debates over Christian nationalism within conservative Protestant communities.
139. A Closer Look at Christian Nationalism in Nine States | PRRI Staff | PRRI | February 17, 2026
Provides state-level data for Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin, useful for comparing the political environments in which grassroots organizing occurs.
140. It’s Not “Christian Nationalism.” It’s Conservative Identity Politics | Christianity Today contributor | Christianity Today | January 2026
Presents a critical scholarly perspective arguing that some activism commonly described as Christian nationalism may be better understood as conservative identity politics.
141. The Gathering Storm in the Evangelical Field: Education, Christian Nationalism, and Racial Inequality | David Sikkink and Michael Emerson | Sociology of Religion | November 3, 2025
Examines divisions within evangelicalism over Christian nationalism and racial inequality, illustrating the contested social environment within which mobilization occurs.
142. Patterns of Christian Nationalist Engagement and Connections to Spirituality | Seungju Kim, Peter J. Jankowski, David C. Wang et al. | Pastoral Psychology | July 28, 2025
Examines patterns of engagement with Christian nationalism among emerging religious and spiritual leaders and explores differences between ideological identification and religious commitment.
143. Most Americans Oppose Churches Endorsing Political Candidates | PRRI Staff | PRRI | July 8, 2025
Examines public opinion toward direct political endorsements by churches and compares views among Christian-nationalism Adherents, Sympathizers, Skeptics and Rejecters.
144. Christian Nationalism as a Social Practice: Prayer, Violence, and the Politics of Public Ritual | Academic researcher | Studies in Conflict & Terrorism | 2025
Examines prayer as an organizing practice at demonstrations and political gatherings, arguing that ritual can reinforce group identity, leadership and political solidarity.
145. Not Paying Unto Caesar: Christian Nationalism, Politics, Race, and Opposition to Taxation | Academic researchers | Social Forces | 2025
Links contemporary Christian-nationalist attitudes to broader traditions of political mobilization that have included the Christian Right, Tea Party and other conservative social movements.
146. “We Should All Be Christian Nationalists”: Elite Influence on Identification with Christian Nationalism | Researchers in Political Behavior | Political Behavior | 2025
Uses experimental research to examine how elite political messages can influence whether people identify themselves with the Christian-nationalist label and how elite cues can activate existing beliefs.
147. The Varieties of American Christian Nationalism | Scholars in Politics and Religion | Politics and Religion | 2025
Distinguishes several forms of American Christian nationalism, including charismatic dominionism and Seven Mountains theology, which encourages believers to influence government, education, media, business and other institutions.
148. The Religion of White Identity Politics: Christian Nationalism and White Racial Solidarity | Social Forces researchers | Social Forces | 2025
Examines Christian-nationalist rhetoric as a potential mechanism for building racial political identity and solidarity.
149. How Christian Nationalist Rhetoric Can Influence Elections Across Race | PRRI | PRRI | 2025
Examines relationships among Christian-nationalist rhetoric, race and electoral behavior.
150. What Does “Christian Nationalism” Even Mean? | Jonathan Tran | The Christian Century | July 2024
Explores competing definitions and cautions that the term can refer to different ideologies, constituencies and organizations, complicating analysis of grassroots movements.
151. Division on the Christian Right: Republican Pastors and the Use of Force | Academic researchers | Politics and Religion | 2024
Studies Republican pastors as local political intermediaries and examines relationships among Christian nationalism, political mobilization, perceived threat and attitudes toward political force.
152. American Evangelical Nationalism: History, Status Quo, and Outlook | Shaoqing Zhou | International Journal of Anthropology and Ethnology | December 6, 2023
Provides historical background on evangelical nationalism and the institutional development of evangelical political engagement.
153. The Full Armor of God: The Mobilization of Christian Nationalism in American Politics | Paul A. Djupe, Andrew R. Lewis and Anand E. Sokhey | Cambridge University Press | June 15, 2023
Studies the mechanisms through which political and religious elites mobilize Christian-nationalist beliefs, focusing on measurement, political cues, partisan organization and political participation.
154. Christian Nationalism Is Authentically Christian — And According to a New Poll Most White Evangelicals Are Supporters | Chrissy Stroop | Religion Dispatches | February 9, 2023
Offers a critical perspective connecting evangelical institutions, political education, voter guides and conservative activism with Christian-nationalist political culture.
155. Mooring Christian Nationalism: How Religious Institutions, Participation, and Beliefs Inform Christian Nationalism | Researchers in The Sociological Quarterly | The Sociological Quarterly | 2023
Applies social-movement theory to examine whether churches, religious participation and institutional networks help generate and reinforce Christian-nationalist beliefs.
156. Fight-or-Flight for America: The Affective Conditioning of Christian Nationalist Ideological Views During the Transition to Adulthood | Michael Rotolo | Sociological Forum | June 7, 2022
Uses longitudinal interviews and surveys to explore how emotions, perceived threats and formative experiences can contribute to Christian-nationalist political identification and mobilization.
157. Christian Nationalism and Political Violence: Victimhood, Racial Identity, Conspiracy, and Support for the Capitol Attacks | Miles T. Armaly, David T. Buckley and Adam M. Enders | Political Behavior | January 4, 2022
Examines how Christian-nationalist beliefs interact with perceived victimhood, racial identity, conspiracy beliefs and elite cues in shaping support for political violence.
158. A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing: Christian Nationalist Belief and Behavior in the United States | Tommy Nanto | Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies | 2022
Separates Christian-nationalist beliefs from political behavior and examines factors associated with both.
159. What Is Christian Nationalism? | Paul D. Miller | Christianity Today | February 3, 2021
Distinguishes Christian nationalism from ordinary Christian political participation and provides theological and political context for understanding activist movements using Christian-nationalist ideas.
160. Katherine Stewart on Christian Nationalism’s Push to Undermine Democratic Norms | Yonat Shimron | Religion News Service | March 6, 2020
Discusses research into Christian-right organizing through school boards, model legislation, clergy recruitment, voter registration and political institutions.
161. Make America Christian Again: Christian Nationalism and Voting for Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential Election | Andrew L. Whitehead, Samuel L. Perry and Joseph O. Baker | Sociology of Religion | January 25, 2018
Provides foundational empirical evidence connecting Christian-nationalist beliefs with electoral behavior.
Historical Roots and Earlier Christian-Right Organizing
162. The Genesis of Christian Nationalism | Phoebe Petrovic | ProPublica / Wisconsin Watch | October 26, 2024
Traces decades of Christian-right movement building from Moral Majority-era voter mobilization through Reconstructionism, the New Apostolic Reformation, Seven Mountains activism and contemporary election organizing.
163. Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism | Michelle Goldberg | Salon | May 12, 2006
An early account of Christian-right grassroots organizing through pastors, city councils, school boards and organizations such as Vision America.
