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Anew survey out today from the Pew Research Center finds that nearly half of all Americans, 45%, believe we ought to live in a “Christian Nation.” They disagree, however, on what that means in practice, and most Americans still believe church and state should remain separate.
The phrase “Christian nation” is not meant to be aspirational. As sociologists Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry described in their book Taking America Back for God (affiliate link), Christian nationalism basically represents a fusion of conservative Christianity with civic life. It’s not quite a theocracy, but if conservative Christians had their way, it’d be a distinction without a different.
The phrase suggests we were founded as a (conservative) Christian country—we were not—and that we should be guided by (conservative) Christian principles. It’s not about Jesus. It’s about pushing right-wing beliefs on everybody in the country with regards to LGBTQ rights, gender roles, abortion access, who “counts” as an American, and control of public institutions like schools and government.
Christian nationalists have become far more prominent in recent years, especially since the January 6, 2021 insurrection attempt to the point where some of its biggest proponents use the phrase as a badge of honor. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has even said, “I’m a Christian, and I say it proudly: We should be Christian nationalists.” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has urged Republicans to wear the “full armor of God” as they try to defeat Democrats in the upcoming elections.
Meanwhile, the other side is sounding the alarm. Earlier this year, a handful of scholars and activists met with members of the Congressional Freethought Caucus to go over their report on the connection between Christian nationalism and the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“I think the proof points about just how central Christian nationalism — we should call it white Christian nationalism — was to the planning and the execution of the insurrection is really undeniable,” [Rep. Jared] Huffman told Religion News Service in an interview.
With all that in mind, what do Americans feel about the phrase? The bottom line is that too many Americans don’t seem to understand the threat posed by Christian nationalists.
The Pew Research Center’s survey asked Americans what they felt about the term “Christian nation” without defining it for them. Because of that, the results are all over the place.
You can see there that 60% of Americans falsely believe we were originally intended to be a “Christian nation,” that 45% of Americans say we should be one, and 33% of Americans say we currently are one.
And yet the other responses don’t quite match up with any of those results. Should Supreme Court members rely on their faith when deciding cases? An astonishing 83% of Americans say no. (They are correct.) Similarly, 77% of Americans don’t want churches (and other houses of worship) endorsing political candidates.
Even among the 45% of Americans who believe we should be a “Christian nation,” the views are not monolithic.
Those people on the left side there (dark blue) want a theocracy. But the rest of them don’t want to go that far when it comes to establishing an official religion, pushing their religious views on everyone else, or blending church and state.
To put that another way, living in a Christian country sounds pretty good to a lot of Americans because they treat “Christian” as synonymous with “good.” Yet they overwhelmingly reject what that looks like in practice, at least based on the warped fantasies of actual Christian nationalists.
Here’s how Pew’s researchers parsed that:
While some people who say the U.S. should be a Christian nation define the concept as one where a nation’s laws are based on Christian tenets and the nation’s leaders are Christian, it is much more common for people in this category to see a Christian nation as one where people are more broadly guided by Christian values or a belief in God, even if its laws are not explicitly Christian and its leaders can have a variety of faiths or no faith at all. Some people who say the U.S. should be a Christian nation are thinking about the religious makeup of the population; to them, a Christian nation is a country where most people are Christians. Others are simply envisioning a place where people treat each other well and have good morals.
Of course, the Christians pushing for Christian nationalism would be more accurately described as bigots, racists, anti-feminists, intolerant, and the sort of people you don’t invite to Thanksgiving dinner. (One survey respondent described a “Christian nation” as a “White Christian ethno-state”… which deserves bonus points for bluntness and accuracy.)
Here’s another silver lining to these results. While nearly half of all Americans said we should live in a “Christian nation,” a lot of Americans have no clue what “Christian nationalism” is. They like the idea of living in a nation guided by (their interpretation of) Christian principles, but many of them aren’t familiar with the more pointed phrase.
More than half of Americans (54%) have never heard the term at all. Only 14% of Americans really know anything about it. And of the people who have ever heard the phrase at all, the ones with an opinion on it are against it.
That means there’s a tremendous opportunity to educate people on what Christian nationalism is, why it’s bad for the country, and what all of us stand to lose if Christian nationalists acquire even more power than they already have.
The “wall of separation between state and church” is an American original. It is an American invention. We should be proud of and defend that contribution to human rights. And we should challenge those who would undermine it with myths, lies, and disinformation about America being founded as a Christian nation.
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Shielding our shared laws from religious influence and capture allows Americans to come together as equals to build a stronger democracy. Democracy, equality, and freedom all depend on the separation of church and state—and the separation of church and state in turn enables those values.
I am an older gay guy in a long-term wonderful relationship. My spouse and I are in our 33rd year together. I love politics and news. I enjoy civil discussions and have no taboo subjects. My pronouns are he / him / his and my email is scottiesplaytime@gmail.com
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4 thoughts on “Yikes: 45% of Americans say the U.S. should be a ‘Christian Nation’”
it is much more common for people … to see a Christian nation as one where people are more broadly guided by Christian values or a belief in God
As the article points out, this is more the overall outlook of most people living in the U.S. It’s the religious fanatics –which includes several politicians!– that want Christian Nationalism to be the guiding ideology. And regrettably (and fearfully), they are the ones that could bring it to pass since a large number of “regular Christians” simply don’t understand or recognize the extreme goal of these people.
Hello Nan. One of the things that has always bothered me is the assumption by the general public for so long that Christian equals good. How long was that assumption used to allow religious leaders to get away with molestation of kids because they were men of god or told the child no one would believe them if they told. I am sorry but people need to realize that belief in god or gods doesn’t make someone automatically a good decent moral person. And the opposite is true, a non-religious person or a person of a different faith is not automatically a bad person. I am saying religion or lack of religion doesn’t automatically relate to other aspects of a persons life.
I agree entirely with your comment. As you tell me most people do not have time or energy to follow the news as closely as I do or the people that come to my Playtime. Add to that the fact that broadcast news really doesn’t cover the hate preachers or the Christian Nationalists. So unless your thing is to follow groups trying to end democracy in the US and to keep track of groups trying to end civil rights created after 1950 you might now know of project Blitz or the deep encroachment of religion into the government and worse the take over of the courts by religious fanatics thanks to trump. I need to start putting tags in my posts to get some of those people to drop by and be enlightened. I group the categories together to make it easier for me to choose categories without go through a long list and picking them out one at a time. That has become a failure I need to fix one day. Hugs
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Reblogged this on NEW BLOG HERE >> https:/BOOKS.ESLARN-NET.DE.
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45% is definitely a too high quote to get the turn finished. ;-/ Best wishes, Michael
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it is much more common for people … to see a Christian nation as one where people are more broadly guided by Christian values or a belief in God
As the article points out, this is more the overall outlook of most people living in the U.S. It’s the religious fanatics –which includes several politicians!– that want Christian Nationalism to be the guiding ideology. And regrettably (and fearfully), they are the ones that could bring it to pass since a large number of “regular Christians” simply don’t understand or recognize the extreme goal of these people.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hello Nan. One of the things that has always bothered me is the assumption by the general public for so long that Christian equals good. How long was that assumption used to allow religious leaders to get away with molestation of kids because they were men of god or told the child no one would believe them if they told. I am sorry but people need to realize that belief in god or gods doesn’t make someone automatically a good decent moral person. And the opposite is true, a non-religious person or a person of a different faith is not automatically a bad person. I am saying religion or lack of religion doesn’t automatically relate to other aspects of a persons life.
I agree entirely with your comment. As you tell me most people do not have time or energy to follow the news as closely as I do or the people that come to my Playtime. Add to that the fact that broadcast news really doesn’t cover the hate preachers or the Christian Nationalists. So unless your thing is to follow groups trying to end democracy in the US and to keep track of groups trying to end civil rights created after 1950 you might now know of project Blitz or the deep encroachment of religion into the government and worse the take over of the courts by religious fanatics thanks to trump. I need to start putting tags in my posts to get some of those people to drop by and be enlightened. I group the categories together to make it easier for me to choose categories without go through a long list and picking them out one at a time. That has become a failure I need to fix one day. Hugs
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