Christian nationalism strongly predicts pro-free-market attitudes among Americans.

Evidence

In November 2020, we asked Americans a series of questions about economic systems and policies. We added up how much Americans agreed with statements like “Free markets are the key to our national prosperity” and “We must not over-regulate businesses or we will stifle productivity,” along with others like “We need strong social safety nets to provide for those who cannot work,” and “The government should intervene to reduce economic inequality” to create a scale. We ordered the responses such that higher scores tell us how strong of a free-market capitalist Americans were. When we ran statistical models to assess which factors predicted Americans’ scores on the scale, we found that Christian nationalism was the second strongest factor in scoring higher, second only to political conservatism. — Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry, The Flag and the Cross, 155

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Christian nationalism fuses free-market capitalism into American Christian identity — Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian…, 161; Christian nationalism bundles political ideology with cultural religious claims; Christian nationalist rhetoric frames socialism as anti-biblical and anti-American — Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian…, 162 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Christian nationalism fuses free-market capitalism into American Christian identity #expands (0.85) — Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry, The Flag and the Cross, 161
• Christian nationalism bundles political ideology with cultural religious claims #expands (0.80)