Most Republicans Support Declaring the United States a Christian Nation

Christian nationalism is growing on the right. This is the idea that there is no separation between church and state and that the United States was founded as a white Christian country.

In the run-up to the midterm elections in 2022, Republican leaders have put the issues at the centre of their message to voters. Doug Mastriano, the Republican candidate for governor of Pennsylvania, has said that America is a Christian country and that the idea of separating church and state is a “fiction.” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said, “We need to be the party of nationalism, and I’m proud to be a Christian, so we should be Christian Nationalists.” In response to the criticism, she said she would start selling t-shirts that say “Christian Nationalist.” Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, seems to be playing around with Christian nationalism at the moment.

Christian nationalist ideas have been around for a long time in the United States, even though they have been on the fringe. But if you look at recent polls of public opinion, you can see why this idea is becoming more popular among Republicans. Our most recent University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll shows that Republicans may enthusiastically support a message that says the United States is a Christian nation in the upcoming midterm elections and the presidential election in 2024. But our research shows that Christian nationalism has both political benefits and drawbacks.

Even though they say it’s against the Constitution, most Republicans still support Christian nationalism.

We started by asking people if they thought the Constitution gave the US government the right to call the country a “Christian Nation.” Our research showed that 70% of Americans agreed with this statement. 57% of Republicans and 81% of Democrats were among those who agreed. Then we asked, “Would you be for or against the United States making it official that it is a Christian nation?” The results were a shock. Among the people who answered, 83 percent of Democrats and 39 percent of Republicans were against such a declaration. 61 percent of Republicans agreed that the United States should be called a Christian nation. In other words, even if more than half of Republicans said before that the proclamation would be against the Constitution, a majority of GOP voters would still support it.

Christian nationalism is less likely to be backed by younger Republicans and other younger people.

Research shows that people born between 1981 and 1996 and between 1997 and 2012 are the least likely to belong to a religion or trust religious institutions. Our Critical Issues Poll shows that this is true. We found that younger people are less likely than older people to agree with the claim that the United States is a Christian nation. Only about 25% of those in the Millennial generation and 34% of those in the Generation Z generation agree with this statement. The Silent Generation, made up of people born between 1928 and 1945, and the Baby Boomers, made up of people born between 1946 and 1964, want the United States to be called a Christian nation (54 percent and 50 percent, respectively). Partisanship also affects how people of different generations feel about Christian nationalism.