Christianity functions for some voters as ethnicity rather than belief system

Evidence

One month before the 2016 Presidential election, sociologist Philip Gorski explained “Trumpism” among white evangelicals: “Trumpism is a secular form of religious nationalism. By ‘religious nationalism,’ I mean a form of nationalism that makes religious identity the litmus test of national belonging. By ‘a secular form of religious nationalism,’ I mean one that strips religious identity of its ethical content and transcendental reference. In Trumpism, religion functions mainly as a marker of ethnicity … In short, the affinity is not really between Trump and Christianity—it’s between Trumpism and Christianism. By Christianism, I mean Christianity as a political identity denuded of ethical content” (emphasis his). — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 661

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sharp definition of ‘Christianism’ as political identity stripped of ethical and transcendental content, with religious markers standing in for ethnicity.
• DEEPTHINKING: This reframe — religious identity as ethnic marker rather than belief — may be the single most useful lens for making sense of Christian nationalist voting behavior across the whole book.
• XREF: Connects to the Muslim American context in The Reluctant Fundamentalist where faith functions as an ascribed ethnic-political marker rather than private belief. — connects to: European populists co-opt Christian symbols to cloak political aims in religious morality. — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 537; Christian nationalist adherence is primarily political rather than religious — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 214; Survey items mentioning God without Jesus may capture civil religion rather than Christian nationalism — Ruiqian Li and Paul Froese, The Duality of American Christian…, 79