High church attendance weakens Trump support among Christian Nationalists
Evidence
How can we be sure Christian nationalism is the cognitive mechanism linking white evangelicals to Trump support? There are two ways. First, even when we remove the effects of race and religious affiliation, Christian nationalism predicts voting for Trump. This means that it isn’t the difference between being an evangelical and any other religious affiliation that truly matters. Rather, it is the degree to which Americans differ in their orientation toward Christian nationalism. It is the fact that there are more Ambassadors and Accommodators among white evangelicals that creates those differences between religious traditions. — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 232 (
#expands, via linked claim)
By the time Trump arrived proclaiming himself their savior, conservative white evangelicals had already traded a faith that privileges humility and elevates “the least of these” for one that derides gentleness as the province of wusses. Rather than turning the other cheek, they’d resolved to defend their faith and their nation, secure in the knowledge that the ends justify the means. Having replaced the Jesus of the Gospels with a vengeful warrior Christ, it’s no wonder many came to think of Trump in the same way. In 2016, many observers were stunned at evangelicals’ apparent betrayal of their own values. In reality, evangelicals did not cast their vote despite their beliefs, but because of them. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 8 (
#corroborates, via linked claim)
According to state-centric Christian Nationalists, the legitimate national boundary should be strictly defined in line with the true Christianity that they believe and practice. Instead of promoting more social integration and inclusion (at least rhetorically), contemporary CN actively seeks to exclude national and racial minorities from the national project (e.g., Whitehead and Perry 2020) and openly expresses nostalgia for American religious supremacy (McDaniel, Nooruddin, and Shortle, 2011, 2022). As opposed to RT which seeks to maintain cultural dominance through religious competition, “Christian Statism” is the belief that the U.S. government should defend, promote, and be guided by an ethno-religiously defined Christian tradition. — Ruiqian Li and Paul Froese, The Duality of American Christian…, 44 (
#qualifies-own, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Christian Statism pursues exclusive state power over cultural dominance — Ruiqian Li and Paul Froese, The Duality of American Christian…, 44; Christian nationalism, not evangelical identity itself, predicts Trump voting. — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 232; White evangelicals supported Trump because of their beliefs, not despite them. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne: How White…, 8
Related
- Christian nationalism, not evangelical identity itself, predicts Trump voting. (similarity 0.90)
- Christian nationalism, not evangelical identity, drives conservative support for Trump (similarity 0.89)
- White evangelicals supported Trump because of their beliefs, not despite them. (similarity 0.87)
- Evangelical identity alone predicts almost no political behavior once Christian nationalism is accounted for (similarity 0.86)
- Religious attendance split which facets of Christian nationalism motivated Trump support. (similarity 0.85)
- White Christians supported Trump despite his apparent moral violations (similarity 0.84)
- The Christian right supports Trump for autocratic power, not shared Christian values (similarity 0.83)
- Trump won white Christian support through explicit appeals to white supremacy. (similarity 0.83)
- Church attendance did not predict resistance to Trump among Republicans (similarity 0.83)
- Trump’s 2016 evangelical support suggests racism never left the Religious Right’s core (similarity 0.82)
- White evangelical support for Trump rose between 2016 and 2020 (similarity 0.82)
- 81 percent of white evangelical voters elected Trump in 2016 (similarity 0.82)
- White Christian nationalism drives right-wing populism in America (similarity 0.82)
- Scholars conflate Christian nationalism with its statist variant. (similarity 0.82)
- A quarter of evangelicals oppose Christian nationalism, not all endorse it (similarity 0.82)
Broader Connections
- Christian nationalism, not evangelical identity itself, predicts Trump voting.
#expands(0.75) — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 232 - White evangelicals supported Trump because of their beliefs, not despite them.
#corroborates(0.70) — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 8