Christian Nationalism has captured the Republican Party
A new analysis shows how Republicans are increasingly embracing religious extremism while abandoning constitutional principles
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The Republican Party is rapidly becoming a Christian Nationalist organization, according to a new analysis from PRRI. The polling group found that while about one-third of Americans are “adherents” or “sympathizers” of Christian Nationalism, the number jumps to 56% among Republicans.
It’s a sign that the GOP will continue ignoring the Constitution and church/state separation while doubling down on the false beliefs that we were founded as a “Christian nation” and should be governed by whatever conservative claim are Christian values. (I would add that these same people have no problem ignoring the blatant rejection of those values by their own political leaders, whether we’re talking about affairs, corruption, or whatever else Ken Paxton is up to today. And that’s before we even get into how all these people are attempting to brush aside the Epstein-Trump Scandal.)
The percentages of Americans who support or reject Christian Nationalism have held relatively steady for the past few years. But because it’s becoming more possible to live in your own reality bubble, we can now see precisely where the extremism is fomenting. Among those who watch “far-right news,” 65% are Christian Nationalists, a number that’s 10% higher than those who only stick to Fox News. People who get their news from the radio—where it’s easy to find right-wing commentators—are far more likely to be Christian Nationalists than those who get their news from newspapers.
And while the Bible Belt still exists, there are pockets of the country where support for Christian Nationalism is much higher than you might think.
Arkansas has the highest percentage of “adherents” and “sympathizers” (with 54%) but West Virginia and Wyoming aren’t far behind. You might think Texas is full of them, but it’s only at 38%, suggesting in a different way that Texas is not so much a “red” state as a non-voting state where gerrymandering is in full force.
On the other end, Massachusetts wins the award for having the smallest proportion of Christian Nationalists, with only 15%.
So how does all this play into their politics?
For one thing, those who support Christian Nationalism are also more likely to support political violence—30% of “adherents” say violence may be justified to “save our country”—which is disturbing in part because they’re much more susceptible to bad arguments. It wouldn’t take much to convince a Christian extremist that his country is being taken from him and the enemies are brown people, immigrants, and anyone perceived as an “other.” Hell, we just saw that play out in Minnesota. The Department of Defense is now practically a church with its own military and access to nuclear weapons.
Somehow, those disturbingly high numbers for supporters of Christian Nationalism are lower than they were when Joe Biden was president, proving my point that they’ll point to damn near anything as evidence for their pre-determined conclusion.
Those same “adherents” say they believe Trump should be allowed to act as a dictator, with 73% saying they agree that Trump is a “strong leader who should be given the power he needs to restore America’s greatness.”
They’re willing to throw the Constitution under the bus to show just how much they love the country. Someone make it make sense.
What can we take away from all this information? I would argue that this puts a lot of pressure on Christian pastors who are losing their grip on their own congregations. Are they interested in preaching the message of Jesus, or do they just want to brand themselves as extensions of the Republican Party? It can’t be both because the messages stand in direct opposition to each other. If pastors are unwilling to call out cruelty in the name of their faith—and they have plenty of opportunities to do it under this administration—then they deserve to have their religion hijacked by political extremists who have no problem waving around a Bible they’ve never read.
It also shows us that, despite the high percentages of Christian Nationalists, there are a hell of a lot more of us who reject it entirely. We need to band together to defeat this scourge because it’s the best option for everyone else. That means filing more lawsuits against this administration in coordination with groups that don’t necessarily share our secular ideology. That means voting for candidates who take strong stands against using religion as a political weapon. That means demanding politicians on the fence pick a damn side.
As James Talarico showed during his censored interview with Stephen Colbert this week, rejecting Christian Nationalism doesn’t have to be anti-Christian in any way. You can be a person of faith who opposes what ignorant bigots do in the name of your god.
The irony in all this is that America is more diverse and less religious than ever before. That’s why Christian Nationalists are desperately clinging to power in any way they can—hypocrisy be damned. They’ll willing to give up any semblance of morality in order to hold on to whatever power they have left because they’re incapable of actually persuading people to come over to their side. That’s why they’re waging wars—real and symbolic—against the people who pose a threat to their top spot in the national hierarchy.
Not that supporters of that ideology will care, but the Constitution is unambiguous about religion and politics: There’s no religious test for public office, no official national religion, and no loophole that allows politicians to privilege one faith over all others or faith over non-faith. Yet more than half of Republicans now openly embrace the opposite. In that sense, the flag-wavers and Bible enthusiasts are the least patriotic people in the country.
They’re also the worst Christians, by their own standards. The same people who want the Ten Commandments to go up in public schools while passing legislation to enshrine their Christian “values” in the law constantly excuse contradictory behavior from their own side. They don’t give a shit about integrity, humility, or honesty. All that matters is power. They don’t use the Bible as a sacred text. They use it as political branding. Literally.
The people promoting Christian Nationalism are furious that the country, when left to its own devices, is becoming more diverse, secular, and better in so many ways—and they’re determined to put a stop to it. If that means taking the whole country down with them, so be it. So they will gladly torch the constitution, ban books, make health care inaccessible to so many, and use the military to go after peaceful protesters because it’s the only way they can impose their will on others. No one wants what they’re selling so they’ll force it on us any way they can. They can’t inspire, so they intimidate.
But Christian Nationalism, much like Christianity itself, is based on the idea that resistance is futile and Jesus will eventually win. They want to wear us down. Nothing about their vision is inevitable, though. We just need more people willing to fight back. That means Christians who oppose what’s being done in the name of their faith should be on the front lines rejecting this use of their religion to destroy everything worth saving about this country.
As far as I'm concerned, ANY elected official who abandons the US Constitution they swore an oath to support and defend should be removed from office and never again be allowed to hold power in any form.
Let them all be ministers in a fading religion.
The idea a particular brand of Christianity could be imposed on a country as large and diverse as the United States with a happy ending, is about as dangerously stupid as thinking gets. If the preachers ever acquired the power they seem to think is their due, they would begin killing one another over doctrinal errors almost immediately. Those who see Christianity as the solution to all this country’s problems, evidently know nothing of the history of Christianity.