Christian Nationalism Or Just Regular Old Patriotism? Americans Can’t Agree.
In just a few days, crowds are expected to fill the National Mall in Washington to read the Bible, pray and rededicate the United States as “One Nation to God” during a daylong White House-organized event ahead of the country’s 250th anniversary.
Later this month, many churches will not only honor U.S. veterans, but also modify their Sunday morning services, swapping hymns for patriotic songs and dressing the sanctuary in American flags, mingling patriotism and Christianity.
When do these patriotic actions cross over into Christian Nationalism? And are Americans OK with “consider[ing] patriotism and Christianity to essentially be the same thing,” as one professor put it? What role should religion take in a democratic nation?
A new Pew Research Center Study released on Thursday has shed some light on the issue. In a survey of more than 3,500 U.S. adults, researchers found that 37% said religion is gaining influence in American life — the highest share since 2002.
Their analysis may be right. Religion seems to be in the headlines now more than ever: Arkansas lawmakers passed a law requiring schools to post a copy of the 10 Commandments in every classroom, before it was overturned by a federal court because it violated the First Amendment. In Texas, the state’s comptroller’s office refused to consider the applications of two private Islamic schools that sought to participate alongside other private schools in the state’s taxpayer-funded school choice program. Again, a federal judge intervened — and the schools were included in the program.
At the national level, religious overtures and explicit Biblical references have become commonplace among White House officials. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who was upset with the coverage of President Donald Trump and the Iran War, called some members of the press as “Pharisees” — referring to a group of people during Biblical times that were hostile to Jesus. At the same time, Trump posted a now-infamous AI image on social media depicting himself as a Christ-like figure.
Even evangelical media personalities who are very friendly with the Trump administration seem to be concerned with how some of the nation’s leaders equate Christianity and their political roles.
“This goes too far. It crosses the line,” said Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody in response to the AI-Trump-as-Jesus photo.
The Pew study gives some insight into Americans’ current leanings. There are large differences between Democrats and Republicans on whether religion’s influence in American life is positive or negative. Among Republicans and those who lean right, 75% had a net positive view of religion’s influence. Among Democrats, it was just 38%.
The study also found the public’s familiarity with the term “Christian nationalism” is growing, but the majority of Americans still said they’ve never heard of it (40%) or don’t know enough to express an opinion (11%).
Joseph Williams, professor of religion at Rutgers University, gives one definition:
“Christian nationalists insist that the United States was established as an explicitly Christian nation, and they believe that this close relationship between Christianity and the state needs to be protected — and in many respects restored — in order for the U.S. to fulfill its God-given destiny. Recent scholarship underscores the extent to which these efforts to secure a privileged position for Christianity in the public square often coincide with efforts to preserve the historical status quo on issues of race, gender, and sexuality,” Williams said. “And the practical ramifications of such views involve everything from support for laws that codify specific interpretations of Christian morality, to the defense of religious displays on public property, to nativist reactions to non-white, non-Christian immigrants.”
He goes on to explain there is a big difference between Christians who “stress centrality of religion in their personal lives compared to those who place a high value on public religious expressions along the lines of Christian nationalism,” with the latter group being more willing to “restrict the civil liberties of religious ‘others’.”
Among U.S. adults who recognize the term “Christian Nationalism,” more have an unfavorable view of it (31%) than a favorable one (10%), according to Pew.
Americans have been taught two verifiable truths for generations: first, America is a nation full of mostly Christians, and second, America was founded on the principles of religious freedom, later encoded in the First Amendment, which forbade the government from establishing an official religion or prohibiting its free exercise.
Children are taught about the pilgrims who fled religious persecution in England, which at the time had a state-mandated religion. At the same time, many are taught that America was founded on Christian ideals, or, in the case of a handful of founders who signed the U.S. Constitution, at least deist ideals.
Today, 17% of Americans want the government to make Christianity the nation’s official religion, up from 13% in 2024, according to Pew. Among Republicans and right-leaning Americans, 27% want Christianity declared as the national religion — and that number was even higher among Trump’s core voting base, with 31% of evangelical Protestants supporting Christianity becoming the official religion.
The two stories of America’s founding have long been in conflict, ebbing and flowing with political headwinds, with even Christian groups bearing the brunt of nationalist sentiments.
“When the Declaration of Independence was signed, nine of the 13 colonies prohibited Catholics and Jews from holding office; in 1838, the governor of Missouri issued Executive Order 44, calling for the ‘extermination’ of the Mormons; and during the 1830s, Protestant mobs burned convents and sacked churches during anti-Catholic riots,” wrote Kimberley Heatherington for the Catholic Review.
And today, most Americans continue to reject the idea of a state-sanctioned religion, according to Pew. Instead, 43% said it should promote “Christian moral values without making Christianity the official religion.”
About half of Americans say they want the Bible to influence laws, and that number has stayed relatively unchanged since 2020 — again, there were vast differences between political parties.
The study didn’t ask if taxpayer money should go to explicitly Christian or religious gatherings, but public sentiment toward the nine-hour long “Rededicate 250: National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving” on Sunday seems mixed. The event is partially taxpayer-funded, according to The Washington Post, and almost all its speakers are Christians, with about three-quarters identifying as evangelical.
“I’m unaware of anything like this, with this involvement of senior government officials, on this scale, trying to paint this false picture of the United States as a quote unquote Christian nation,” said Amanda Tyler, executive director of BJC, a Baptist group that is home to the Christians Against Christian Nationalism Campaign. “Trump’s rhetoric in the past 18 months is how he’s ‘going to make America Christian again,’ that it’s his job to push religion. This is all part of that piece.”
Religion experts involved with the event conceded that it might be novel, but it wasn’t egregious. They pointed out that there is another “unprecedented” event planned for the semiquincentennial: An MMA fight competition on the South Lawn of the White House.
As Trump nears the halfway point of his second term, it is unclear if he has more public displays of patriotism mingled with Christianity planned — and if those events will be perceived by the public as acts of Christian nationalism or violations of the First Amendment.
One thing seems certain: The debates about the role of religion in the public square aren’t going away anytime soon.
Cassidy Grom is the managing editor of Religion Unplugged. Her award-winning reporting and digital design work have appeared in numerous publications.