The nation is not quite as divided as many Americans have come to believe, said Robert P. Jones, president of Public Religion Research Institute.
Jones made the observation during the online release of PRRI’s latest survey on Christian nationalism across the U.S., and just as he was about to give a breakdown by party affiliation.
“I want to pause here because we hear a lot about polarization, and it is true that the country is polarized around adherence to Christian nationalism. But we are not evenly polarized, and I think that’s the thing that is often misleading about that language of polarization,” he said.
The distinction becomes clear in a comparison of attitudes toward Christian nationalism in several categories, including partisanship.
To determine the degree of support for Christian nationalism, PRRI asks survey respondents across the country questions about how they see the relationship between American identity, the U.S. government and Christianity. Questions include whether U.S. laws should reflect Christian values and if being Christian is an essential part of being truly American.
The latest study found a quarter of independents to be “adherents” or “sympathizers” of the white Christian nationalism, compared to just under one-fifth of Democrats. But 56% of Republicans qualified as adherents to the movement and beliefs such as that America should be declared a Christian nation and God has called Christians to rule over all areas of U.S. society.
Likewise, white evangelical Protestants (67%) and Hispanic Protestants (54%) were the only religious groups with majority support for the ideology. “Significantly less than half the members of all other religious groups support Christian nationalism,” according to the PRRI report.
The disparity also was documented among all U.S adults, with only 32% qualifying as adherents or sympathizers compared to 64% who are skeptics or rejecters.
Those lopsided figures, Jones explained, show how the divide over Christian nationalism is unequal, with Republicans and white evangelicals being the outliers nationwide.
“Political scientists usually attach an adjective in front of that, and they use the word ‘asymmetric’ to describe the patterns we tend to see in this data. So, we are not evenly polarized, but we are asymmetrically polarized,” Jones said.
The PRRI study identified a number of predictors of support or opposition to Christian nationalism, ranging from religious affiliation and race to geography and education.
For example, those who reported attending religious services on a weekly basis or more (54%) are more supportive of the ideology than those who attend a few times a year (39%) and those who seldomly or never attend (20%).
“This correlation holds among those who pray outside of religious services and those who read religious texts,” the report adds. “White Americans who attend religious services, pray or read the Bible or other religious texts frequently are more likely than their Black and Hispanic counterparts to qualify as Christian nationalism adherents and sympathizers.”
Mormons closely trail white evangelicals and Hispanic Protestants in their agreement with Christian nationalism, at 49%. They are followed by Black Protestants (43%), Orthodox Christians (38%), white Catholics (35%) and white Mainline Protestants (35%). Jewish Americans (11%), Hindus (10%), the religiously unaffiliated (12%) and Unitarian Universalists (3%) are at the bottom in terms of support.
Geography also is a predictor of support for Christian nationalism, with the strongest adherence in the South and Midwest led by Arkansas (54%), Mississippi (52%), West Virginia (51%) and Wyoming (46%).
“By contrast, the states with the lowest shares of Christian nationalism adherents and sympathizers are blue, located primarily on the coasts: California (22%), New Jersey (22%), New York (21%), Washington (18%) and Massachusetts (15%). Swing states fall in between, with roughly one-third of residents qualifying as adherents or sympathizers: North Carolina (36%), Pennsylvania (34%), Michigan (33%), Wisconsin (32%), and Arizona (30%).”
Along racial lines, the survey found 34% of Black Americans support Christian nationalism, compared to 33% of white adults, 30% of Hispanics, and 28% of multiracial Americans.
“There is less support for Christian nationalism among AAPI (Asian American/Pacific Islander) Americans, who are less likely than the general population to identify as Christian,” the report says.
The study also found a correlation between education and age in determining the likelihood of embracing or rejecting Christian nationalism.
Those with high school educations or less (37%), or some college (35%), are more likely to be adherents or sympathizers, while Americans with college degrees (27%) or postgraduate degrees (21%) trail in that support. “Similarly, Americans aged 50 or higher are more likely to hold Christian nationalist views, compared with those under 50.”
See the latest episode of BNG’s “Stuck in the Middle with You” podcast for a discussion of what is and isn’t Christian nationalism, with Mark Wingfield, Benjamin Cole and Brian Kaylor.