Towards a More Reasonable Account of Christian Nationalism

I would be scared, perhaps even terrified, if I agreed with Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry that 51.9% of Americans fully or partially embraced the toxic stew they call Christian nationalism.  But, as I have argued elsewhere, they mostly measure whether someone is an advocate for the strict separation of church and state.  One can believe, for instance, that a World War I era cross on public land needn’t be torn down and that voluntary student prayer should be allowed in public schools without being a Christian nationalist in any meaningful sense. If Whitehead and Perry exaggerate the percentage of Americans who are Christian nationalists, Pew’s October 2022 study, which found that only 5% of Americans have a favorable view of Christian nationalism, almost certainly understates the problem.  Fortunately, recent studies paint a far more reasonable picture of what’s going on with American Christianity.