White Protestant establishment support arose as their demographic majority slipped

Evidence

Since the mid-1990s, many white conservative Christians differentiated themselves from other religious traditionalists and openly began to endorse the official establishment of Christianity in national government (Friedland 2001; Straughn and Feld 2010). These believers began to feel threatened by changing demographic patterns that reduced the white Protestant share of the general population (Butler 2021). So as their formerly secure majority status slipped away, white Protestants began to feel the need for special protection of their religious lifestyles, which, in turn, led some of them to seek religious favoritism from the state. This development has been described as “Christian Nationalism” which, as we argue below, indicates a move from a societycentric religious nationalism (RT) to a state-centric religious nationalism (CS). — Ruiqian Li and Paul Froese, The Duality of American Christian…, 43

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s factor-analytic test: this is the causal story motivating the RT/CS split. — connects to: Minority-status threat shifts white Protestants toward Christian Statism. — Ruiqian Li and Paul Froese, The Duality of American Christian…, 229; White Protestants seek state favoritism as their dominance erodes. — Ruiqian Li and Paul Froese, The Duality of American Christian…, 228; Perceived racial demographic shift may push White Americans toward conservatism. — Maureen A. Craig and Jennifer A. Richeson, On the Precipice of a…, 1 (+1 more)
• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source

Related

• White Protestants seek state favoritism as their dominance erodes. (similarity 0.90)
• Majority-status loss prompted white conservative Christians to seek state religious favoritism (similarity 0.89)
• Minority-status threat shifts white Protestants toward Christian Statism. (similarity 0.89)
• White Protestants shift toward state favoritism as they perceive losing religious market share (similarity 0.83)
• Two-aspect nationalism theory explains RT-versus-CS shift as majority-status security drives in-group versus out-group focus (similarity 0.81)
• Declining Christian nationalist numbers make their adherents feel threatened and marginalized (similarity 0.78)
• White Christian nationalism drives right-wing populism in America (similarity 0.78)
• Christian statism may surpass traditionalist religious nationalism (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Perceived racial demographic shift may push White Americans toward conservatism. #expands (0.85) — Maureen A. Craig and Jennifer A. Richeson, On the Precipice of a…, 1
• White Protestants seek state favoritism as their dominance erodes. #qualifies (0.78) — Ruiqian Li and Paul Froese, The Duality of American Christian…, 228
• Christian nationalism conflates whiteness with Christian American identity #expands (0.72) — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 14