The Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) has published a report titled American Values Atlas, summarizing research into support for Christian Nationalism in all 50 states. The report also examined how religion, party, education, race, and other factors intersect with Christian Nationalist views.
Here are a few of their findings.
- Roughly three in ten Americans qualify as Christian nationalism Adherents or Sympathizers.
- Residents of red states are significantly more likely than those in blue states to hold Christian nationalist beliefs.
- Nearly four in ten residents of red states are Christian nationalists (14% Adherents and 24% Sympathizers); nearly twice the proportion of blue state residents. (Forty percent of Hoosiers!)
- Support for Christian nationalism is strongly correlated with voting for Trump in the 2020 election.
- At the national level, Christian nationalism is strongly linked to Republican party affiliation and holding favorable views of Trump.
- Republicans (55%) are more than twice as likely as independents (25%) and three times as likely as Democrats (16%) to hold Christian nationalist views.
- Christian nationalists are more likely than other Americans to see political struggles through the apocalyptic lens of revolution and to support political violence.
The full report enumerates the beliefs of Christian Nationalists, and I encourage you to click through, but perhaps a more forceful explanation of the movement was expressed in an article by Rick Perlstein in the American Prospect about one Right-wing apostate.
Matthew Sheffield was once a rising star in the conservative movement. As Perlstein notes, however, his career as a formidable “persuader” on the Right was doomed “because he cared about the truth.”
His damnable allergy to propaganda had already shown out by the time he came up with an idea for a study during a stint at Virginia Commonwealth University. It asked: Where Do Columnists Come From? “And my general thesis was that newspaper columnists who are on the right come out of political operations, and ones from the left come out of—journalism.” That is to say, they carry with them journalistic values of fairness and accuracy, by which conservative columnists remain blessedly unburdened.
The lengthy column traces Sheffield’s efforts on the Right and his eventual move to a reality-based Left. What finally led to his exit from the movement was his recognition of a central element of Christian Nationalism: a fundamentalism incompatible with reality.
When it comes to conservatism, “the one thing that non-Republicans don’t understand is that almost all of them are bizarre religious fundamentalists. Even the ones who don’t present that to you.” And that’s how they learn to reason: as fundamentalists. Sheffield saw it over and over again on the job…
The last straw was when Sheffield learned about a lawsuit evangelicals filed against a liberal church in North Carolina, before the Supreme Court’s gay marriage ruling, that was blessing gay unions. “I was just horrified at all the awful things they were saying, and how anti-American they were, how they literally don’t believe in freedom of religion,” he said. The conservatives’ argument was: “Unless you’re historically rooted in your doctrines, you don’t have religious freedoms.”
As Perlstein notes,
Liberals tend to maintain a lingering sentimental attachment to the idea that people calling themselves “Christians” are, well, Christian as the word is commonly understood outside the evangelical world. Faith, hope, and charity, turning the other cheek, that sort of thing. The people who most clearly understand and articulate their imperialist designs for the rest of us tend to be apostates like Sheffield, Matt Sitman, and Frank Schaeffer.
Sheffield was asked to explain to liberals how someone can be interested in the profession we call “public service” and not be interested in serving the public, and he replied “The core American reactionary motivation is that they want to force the public to obey their principles.”
The conservative movement, he says, is “100 percent controlled by extremists. And they are very, very wealthy. So they can afford to push a politics that almost no one believes in. We’re not to that point yet, but let’s just say that at some point in the future the Republican Party is not getting even 15 percent in elections. They’re rich enough, fanatical enough, that they wouldn’t change. They would just keep trying to push the same things. And it might get more extreme. It will get more extreme. They have no relationship to the political marketplace.”
Who needs mere votes when you’re in direct touch with God?
If PPRI’s research is correct, a third of the American public either fully endorses those beliefs or is sympathetic to them.
The last thing we need in this country are elections that empower the Micah Beckwiths among us–at any level.
Amen
I just finished an ARC (advance reader copy) of a book being released on October 1 – Star Spangled Jesus by April Ajoy. She is a survivor of being raised in a Christian Nationalist world. I learned a lot about Christian Nationalism which I feel like is pretty prevalent in Indiana churches. I also think it’s a reason that church attendance is waning overall. It is a very unforgiving, un Christlike attitude with nation above God not under God. I would recommend reading Ajoy’s book for a deeper understanding of nationalist attitudes.
I would also recommend a video put out by The Seneca Project showing how the aforementioned Christian Nationalists want to push women into the past – repealing the 19th amendment because, you know, women aren’t smart enough to vote and should just rely on their much smarter male relatives. (Lots of sarcasm in my words in case you missed that).
Feminism – a radical notion that women are people.
My personal contact with the neighborhood Christian Nationalists came about after another AES power outage and the much needed cutting back of tree-size limbs from power wires. There is a city right-of-way between my home and my neighbor Pete; we are responsible for maintaining conditions of the lot; fortunately one of the across-the-street neighbors mows the lot with his rider mower. After the tree trimming I looked out to see three old neighbor men hauling the limbs from behind the west side neighbors yards and Pete’s “his half” of the city lot onto “my half” of the lot. This made me fully responsible for their removal. When I asked Jimmy (who mows) why they were doing that he told me because the 4 neighbors west of the lot were cited by AES as being responsible for getting rid of the cut limbs. Now you and I, all of you here, know that made no sense. But this is part of the mind-set of the Catholic/Republicans, or Republican/Catholics here. This is but a tiny blip in the magnitude of Christian Nationalism effects in this chaotic election year; but it proves we are surrounded by them in our neighborhoods, sometimes in our families and friends, and to me that is the scariest part of their epidemic proportions of determination to end our American way of life as we have known it. It did not begin with Trump or at the top of the government level but in our neighborhoods and our families and friends.
VOTE BLUE, WE KNOW WHO AND WHY!
My own journey from being a republican to being a democrat ( I need to be in a party to vote in a primary) began when out of a growing disgust for republicans behavior I decided to prove my right wing talking points with credible evidence. I could not. I did find the democratic party “talking points” had a base in fact. When trump won my states primary I changed my voter registration and left what passes for republicanism behind. Listening to the republican political ads it is clear the GOP depend on people not understanding either economics, what the duties and limitations of various political positions are, nor of American or world political history, specifically the years where Hitler came to power. . Those “republicans” claiming to be Christians seem totally unaware of what the teachings of the Christ are.
There are those that realize faith no matter how ridiculous it might be, is a huge motivator.
Those who use faith against their fellow citizens are not really believers and whatever faith they are claiming. But they realize and recognize a certain gullibility and a desire to live in a willful delusionary reality.
This has actually been hashed and rehashed on this blog.
I will say emperor Constantine realized the strength of those early Christians and wanted to use that to strengthen the Roman empire. It didn’t work out well for him, to go from murdering Christians to making it the supreme Roman faith.
From that point forward, the Roman Christian leadership created tons of dogma that were not ever embraced by the Christian namesake, Jesus Christ.
This was actually prophesied by Christ, he knew what was coming. Also his apostles. It’s not the Christian belief, the belief in the law of Christ, it’s the dogma that they claim is Christian but in essence as the article says above, it’s an apostasy. You can’t be an apostate if you don’t claim you conform to a certain belief and then work to sabotage and mold that belief into something different.
Political leaders throughout history have used their apostate faith to mold large groups of population to follow blindly with the idea of gaining some huge reward. Possibly power? Possibly supreme authority? Possibly wealth? All using hyperbole to convince and/or lure the disaffected into a movement that they have created a dogma for.
The minority controls the majority, and of course that is not what a democracy is. This country was never supposed to be a democracy anyway. The electoral college took care of that. The virus in the details of government. That very thing can/Will/and does sabotage any sort of majority rule, along with its running buddy, gerrymandering.
The apostle Paul wrote to his fellow disciple and said “I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is destined to judge the living and the dead, and by his manifestation and his kingdom, preach the word, be at it urgently in favorable season, in troublesome season, reprove, reprimand, exhort, with all long-suffering and art of teaching. For there will be a period of time when they will not put up with the healthful teaching, but, in accord with their own desires, they will accumulate teachers for themselves to have their ears tickled; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, whereas they will be turned aside to false stories. You, though, keep your senses in all things, suffer evil, do the work of an evangelizer, fully accomplish your ministry.” (2nd Timothy 4:1-5.)
We are products of a complex system we call the Universe. It’s full of marvels and mystery. Physics has untangled the marvel part; the mystery is yet for us to learn.
The people whom we call fundamentalists are uncomfortable with the mystery part that we don’t know and have come up with explanations. This is an issue because there are fundamentalists in all of the many religions, and there is no way to know for sure who has the explanation closest to what we haven’t learned yet.
Yet if that makes people more comfortable, it can be good.
Problems arise when people become uncomfortable with the version others have and attach evil to it. When the evil parts are unacceptable to a country’s laws, they are prosecuted by law enforcement or national interest protection (military) systems.
We rely on our sense of justice to hold evil accountable.
Ah yes, “Christian” Nationals, a minority in good old America, aided and abetted by an archaic Electoral College (and Senate, of course, where every state has two representatives, based on only the fact of statehood, so that Montana, with a population of half a million, gets the same representation as California, with 40 million people), keeps finding new ways – at the state level – to control more and more of the American governmental machinery, i.e., gerrymandering, disinformation, slanderous accusations, etc., all very “Christian” of course. All in the fervent hopes of a glorious return to the old days, the 50s I think, where women knew their place – in the home – and the LGBTQ+ community were forced to stay in the closet and suffer unimaginable emotional repercussions, and men – white of course – ruled the roost, for the better because they were far better equipped and so much smarter than any counterpart could possibly be.
I am so hoping that Taylor Swift engages a big old chunk of her 280,000,000 followers. Maybe we can begin the slow climb out of regressive and repressive government and civil life into a compassionate, tolerant, hopeful, even joyful way of living. The alternative is out of the question, for me anyway.
It’s not just the religious who have embraced the notion that we’re better off with a strong man leading the country. I spoke with a young woman (late 30s, I think) on Thursday. She was convinced that hordes of criminals were coming into the country. I don’t think she watches FAUX NEWS, but she listens to her dad and her boyfriend.
I did disabuse her of her belief, giving her some actual facts to chew on and advised her to look for other sources of information. I’ll know by the end of October if she listened to me.
During the debate, Trump was given an opportunity what healthcare plan he would put in place as alternative to the Affordable Care Act. As the moderator pointed out, he has had nine years to craft a comprehensive plan to introduce on “day one”. You know when Trump feels cornered. His head bobbles and lips pursed. Trump declares I have a “concept” and in the time allocated sufficient to make his case, he “weaves”. Anotherwords, Trump reaches in for his turd, paints it orange, embellishes with bitters and sour grapes, then declares this is marmalade made great again. Paddington declares “not on my watch”. The Christian Nationalists raise their hands in chorus “AMEN!”
“Sheffield was asked to explain to liberals how someone can be interested in the profession we call “public service” and not be interested in serving the public, and he replied “The core American reactionary motivation is that they want to force the public to obey their principles.”
Viewing all of this peering through the weeds down here at grassroots level; it was never more evident which party is actually based on principles as seen during the Harris/Trump debate. Only one side actually debated the issues with principled responses facing us while the other side reran his same old/same old lies and distortions. What goes around, comes around has both sides spinning; the left wondering why the evident facts are not evident to the Christian Nationalists who have lost all interest in social services which are being provided to many of them as they try to end social services as being a handout to those unwilling to work in lower level service positions which they view the services as their due by being Christian Nationalists.
Personally I am sick of seeing Ronald Reagan being idolized when he ended social service support nationally across the board. Working in the Division of Community Services, a division of the Mayor’s Office under Republican Mayor Hudnut; the Indiana Community Services Convention began the day after the Reagan election and was thrown into a panic and service to the deserving has not yet fully recovered. Today; even the air we breathe is under the control of the White Nationalists and ending EPA regulations is the right’s version of serving the public. This election can begin the return to sanity and protection of the people, by the people and for the people as provided by the Constitution of the United States of America. We are in a Cold Civil War with negotiators for peace beginning to show increasing numbers in the polls; it will be the outcome of November 5th election on January 6, 2025 rather than at polling places that holds the answer to who is in control.
Just yesterday my granddaughter assured me that her dog, her cats and her ferrets are safe in her home in Flat Rock, Indiana. The latest scare tactic from Trump goes against his honoring Hannibal Lector’s cannibalism as an honorable American.
I only occasionally respond to right-wing posts on social media because it is pointless to engage with these people. They are protesting Taylor Swift and ABC News for siding with evil and being part of the evil media cabal. They’ve already found conspiracies that show ABC’s debate was three against one. This is all a vast conspiracy because Trump lost the debate to a woman of color.
There is a fake email from “an ABC News executive to the two hosts” asking them to be partial to the “DEI candidate.” Trump couldn’t have lost the debate because of his bullshit answers, and he was outmatched – it had to be a conspiracy against him. This is the same shit they come up with every single karmic experience Trump receives.
I had to intervene last night because someone claimed that without Christianity, there would be no USA. After demonstrating proof from two reliable sources, they continued to declare that I couldn’t read. They told me to read the actual Constitution and Declaration of Independence. They said it was obvious that the Founders wrote both documents using the bible. This is what they mean when they say, “Make America Great Again.” These ignorant “religious fanatics” have no idea what Christianity is, our history, or our founding documents. They have no clue what secular means and why it was so important to our Founders.
They do have a meme inventory and conspiracies. My favorite in the past two days is Trump with angel wings flying down from heaven over Kamala, pictured as Satan. This sums up the followers of Christian Nationalism. Ignorant people are easily conned, and fools part with their money. The strong have always preyed on the weaker of the species.
Gilead looms ever larger!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81PyH5TH-NQ
Kathy M, on Saturday the 14th, I watched an opera based on the Handmaid’s Tale. It was written in 2000, and it and the book keep getting more and more chilling, based on current events. How I would love for all of that to recede into the dim past.
I am the kind Christian Sam Clemens said Christ would be if he returned today.A non-Christian. The Christian right are the same group who pressed my Quaker ancestor to death in Massachusetts for non-conformity in the Puritan oligarchy. Freedom is theirs alone. Tolerance is far from their belief. Their love is conditional and transactional.. Bullies and fools.Joe