Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

White Christian nationalism threatens US democracy

Opinion

White Christian nationalism threatens US democracy

Previous white Christian nationalist compound in 1992

Getty Images

Steve Corbin is Professor Emeritus of Marketing at the University of Northern Iowa

You may be among the 35 percent of Americans who have never heard the term “white Christian nationalism.” But, of those citizens who are knowledgeable of the concept, it carries a decidedly negative view. The belief is becoming more and more important to understand as cultural diversity, racism, immigration issues, political divisiveness and political candidate pandering is before us.


What is white Christian nationalism? Generally – according to the Southern Poverty Law Center – it “refers to a political ideology and identity that fuses white supremacy, Christianity and American nationalism, and whose proponents claim that the United States is a `Christian Nation.’”

Research conducted by the non-partisan Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) with the non-partisan Brookings Institution (BI), as well as a poll sponsored by Southern Poverty Law Center/Tulchin have the same conclusion: white Christian nationalism movement is a growing threat to America’s democracy. The far-right anti-government and religious rights movement of the 1990s is getting stronger and stronger and will play a major role in the 2024 local, county, state and federal elections.

During the Nov. 21-Dec. 14, 2022 time period, 6,212 Americans were asked by PRRI/BI for their reply to these five statements: 1) the US government should declare America a Christian nation, 2) US laws should be based on Christian values, 3) if the US moves away from our Christian foundations, we will not have a country anymore, 4) being Christian is an important part of being truly American and 5) God has called Christians to exercise dominion over all areas of American society.

Answers across all five questions were found to be highly correlated (Cronbach’s alpha of 0.92) with a margin of error of +/- 1.6% at the 95% level of confidence. This is a take-it-to-the-bank research endeavor. Fifty-four percent of the GOP faithful are adherents of Christian nationalism vs. 23% of independents and 15% of Democrats. The PRRI/BI research notes five core attitudes are often associated with Christian nationalist beliefs: anti-Black, anti-Semitic (Jewish), anti-Muslim, anti-immigration and patriarchal adherence of traditional gender roles (husband is head of the household).”

Furthermore, research revealed “Christian nationalism beliefs are strongly correlated with support for QAnon, an extremist movement of the political right,” whose tenets include: “1) The government, media and financial worlds in the U.S. are controlled by a group of Satan-worshiping pedophiles who run a global child sex-trafficking operation, 2) There is a storm coming soon that will sweep away the elites in power and restore the rightful leaders and 3) Because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center offers a summary of the movement that should be a wake-up call to Americans: “White Christian nationalism is a key ideology that inspired the failed Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection and fueled multiple failed political campaigns in 2022 . . . however, white Christian nationalism remains a persistent and growing threat to U.S. democracy.”

Any person with a modicum of intelligence knows European colonists immigrated to America to escape religious persecution, expand their economic opportunities and live in a country where there was separation of church and state. Followers of the white Christian nationalism movement want to contradict the principles and norms of democracy and make America an authoritarian country.

Adherents of white Christian nationalism are the drivers of antidemocratic conspiracy theories and election denialism (SPLC, 2023) and possibly book banning, LGBTQIA denigration, “sanitized” black history curriculum, anti-female reproductive rights, gerrymandering and attacking diversity, equity and inclusion.

Currently there are 14 Republicans and three Democrats wanting to win the Nov. 5, 2024 presidential election. Hundreds of candidates will be seeking local, county, state and federal offices of power. Citizens must be vigilant and keep candidates who espouse any resemblance of white Christian nationalism out of public office.

Steve is a non-paid freelance opinion editor and guest columnist contributor (circa 2013) to 172 newspapers in 32 states who receives no remuneration, funding or endorsement from any for-profit business, not-for-profit organization, political action committee or political party.

Sources:

(PRRI Staff), A Christian Nation? Understanding the threat of Christian Nationalism to American democracy and culture, Public Religion Research Institute, https://prri.org, Feb. 8, 2023

Ashley Lopez, More than half of Republicans support Christian nationalism, according to a new survey, National Public Radio, https://npr.org, Feb. 14, 2023

Christopher Klein, Why did the Pilgrims come to America,? History, https://history.com, Nov. 13, 2020

Joe Wiinikka-Lydon, Emerson Hodges and R.G. Cravens, Old bigotries melded with new conspiracies burgeon white Christian nationalism, Southern Poverty Law Center, 2022: The year in hate and extremism, 2023

Kelefa Sanneh, How Christian is Christian nationalism,? The New Yorker, March 27, 2023

Michelle Goldberg, New York Times: Whose version of Christian nationalism will win in 2014?, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), https://doggett.house.gov, May 15, 2023

(Yale University’s Institute for Social and Policy Studies report), Understanding white Christian nationalism, Yale University/ISPS, https://isps.yale.edu, Oct. 4, 2022

Brookings Institution, Understanding the threat of white Christian nationalism to American democracy today, Brookings Institution, Feb. 8, 2023

Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons and Maggie Siddiqi, Christian nationalism is `Single Biggest Threat’ to America’s religious freedom; an interview with Amanda Tylor of the Baptist Joint Committee, The Center for American Progress, April 13, 2022

Peter Stone, Pro-Trump pastors rebuked for overt embrace of white Christian nationalism, The Guardian, May 1, 2023

Read More

Connecting Early Childhood Development to Climate Change

The Connecting Early Childhood Development to Climate Change report offers practical guidance for advocates, researchers, organizers, and other communicators who can help shape conversations about climate change and child development.

FrameWorks Institute

Connecting Early Childhood Development to Climate Change

Summary

Climate change is typically framed as a future problem, but it’s already reshaping the environments where children live, grow, play, and learn. Despite that reality, public attention is rarely focused on how climate change affects children’s development—or what we can do about it.

This report, produced in partnership with the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University and Harvard Chan C-CHANGE, offers practical guidance for advocates, researchers, organizers, and other communicators who can help shape conversations about climate change and child development. It includes:

Keep ReadingShow less
The Ivory Tower is a Persisting Legacy of White Supremacy

Conservative attacks on higher education and DEI reveal a deeper fear of diversity—and the racial roots of America’s “ivory tower.”

Getty Images, izusek

The Ivory Tower is a Persisting Legacy of White Supremacy

The Trump administration and conservative politicians have launched a broad-reaching and effective campaign against higher education and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts in particular. These attacks, often amplified by neo-conservative influencers, are not simply critiques of policy or spending. At their core, they reflect anxiety over the growing presence and visibility of marginalized students and scholars within institutions that were not historically designed for them.

The phrase ivory tower has become shorthand for everything critics dislike about higher education. It evokes images of professors lost in abstract theorizing, and administrators detached from real-world problems. But there is a deeper meaning, one rooted in the racial history of academia. Whether consciously or not, the term reinforces the idea that universities are–and should remain–spaces that uphold whiteness.

Keep ReadingShow less
The Critical Value of Indigenous Climate Stewardship

As the COP 30 nears, Indigenous-led conservation offers the best hope to protect the Amazon rainforest and stabilize the global climate system.

Getty Images, photography by Ulrich Hollmann

The Critical Value of Indigenous Climate Stewardship

In August, I traveled by bus, small plane, and canoe to the sacred headwaters of the Amazon, in Ecuador. It’s a place with very few roads, yet like many areas in the rainforest, foreign business interests have made contact with its peoples and in just the last decade have rapidly changed the landscape, scarring it with mines or clearcutting for cattle ranching.

The Amazon Rainforest is rightly called the “lungs of the planet.” It stores approximately 56.8 billion metric tons of carbon, equivalent to nearly twice the world’s yearly carbon emissions. With more than 2,500 tree species that account for roughly one-third of all tropical trees on earth, the Amazon stores the equivalent to 10–15 years of all global fossil fuel emissions. The "flying rivers" generated by the forest affect precipitation patterns in the United States, as well our food supply chains, and scientists are warning that in the face of accelerating climate change, deforestation, drought, and fire, the Amazon stands at a perilous tipping point.

Keep ReadingShow less
U.S. President Donald Trump greeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

U.S. President Donald Trump (2R) is welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) at Ben Gurion International Airport on October 13, 2025 in Tel Aviv, Israel. President Trump is visiting the country hours after Hamas released the remaining Israeli hostages captured on Oct. 7, 2023, part of a US-brokered ceasefire deal to end the war in Gaza.

Getty Imges, Chip Somodevilla

The Ceasefire That Shattered a Myth

And then suddenly, there was a ceasefire — as if by divine miracle!

Was the ceasefire declared because Israel had finally accomplished its declared goals?

Keep ReadingShow less