Christian nationalism exerts unique unrecognized influence on American political division

Evidence

Ask ten social scientists to explain that to you, and you may get ten different theories. There aren’t any simple answers to that question, unfortunately. There are a myriad of historical, demographic, economic, and technological factors contributing to our increasing polarization on issues of race, family, religion, gender, human rights, the environment, taxes, and so on. There is no silver-bullet explanation, and we don’t intend to offer one here. Our goal in this book is to thoroughly explore one factor that, as we will show, plays a large, unique, but often unrecognized (and at times, misrecognized) role in our nation’s current cultural and political conflicts. That factor is Christian nationalism. — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 13

Categorization

• XREF: Positions Christian nationalism as a monocausal-ish driver of polarization, a strong and potentially contested empirical claim to weigh against Cooper’s class-based account. — connects to: Christian nationalist support exists in every US region and nowhere forms a majority — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 161; Political party alone does not explain Americans’ Christian nationalist views — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 171; Christian nationalism, not denomination, now predicts Americans’ politics — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 454 (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Christian nationalism, not denomination, now predicts Americans’ politics #corroborates (0.85) — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 454
• Christian nationalism is a global, not uniquely American, phenomenon #qualifies (0.80)
• Evangelical identity alone predicts almost no political behavior once Christian nationalism is accounted for #corroborates (0.80) — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 100
• Christian nationalism predicts outgroup attitudes better than conservatism does #corroborates (0.80) — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 72
• Christian nationalist priorities transformed American democratic institutions #expands (0.80) — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 24
• Christian nationalism shapes even those Americans who reject it #expands (0.75) — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 96
• White Christian nationalism explains seemingly contradictory Christian political behavior #expands (0.75) — Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry, The Flag and the Cross, 17
• Christian nationalism bundles political ideology with cultural religious claims #expands (0.72)