Survey analysis analyzes the religious, partisan, racial, and geographic diversity of the roughly seven in ten Americans who are skeptical of or reject Christian nationalism

WASHINGTON (October 30, 2024)— While much attention has rightfully been paid to the strength of Christian nationalist beliefs and their implications among the general public in recent years, less attention has been paid to the large swaths of Americans who resist Christian nationalist beliefs. A new report from PRRI and the Meanings of Democracy Lab at the University of Connecticut uses data from the PRRI American Values Atlas to examine the religious, political, and demographic makeup of the roughly seven in ten Americans who qualify as Christian nationalism Skeptics (37%) or Rejecters (30%).

“For the past year, my lab has been tracking the growing field of organizations working to resist Christian nationalist rhetoric and policies. Many do this by building diverse coalitions of Americans who share little in common beyond their concerns about the threats posed by Christian nationalism, said Ruth Braunstein, Ph.D., director and founder of the Meanings of Democracy Lab. “Flipping the data from PRRI’s prior report on support for Christian nationalism to instead focus on those most resistant to Christian nationalism led to findings that are quite illuminating.”

The new PRRI-Meanings of Democracy Lab report, “Resistance to Christian Nationalism in All 50 States,” finds that those who are more likely to resist Christian nationalist beliefs include residents of blue states, religiously unaffiliated Americans and religious minorities, and Americans with very or somewhat unfavorable views of Trump. There is also a cluster of Christian groups whose primary orientation toward Christian nationalism is skepticism, including Latter-day Saints (49%), followed by Hispanic Catholics (48%), other Catholics of color (47%), white mainline/non-evangelical Protestants (47%), white Catholics (45%), and Black Protestants (43%).

While rates of Bible readership, prayer, and church attendance are highest among Christian nationalism Adherents and Sympathizers, Christian nationalism resisters are not unreligious — particularly Christian nationalism Skeptics. Around one-third of weekly church attenders (36%), weekly Bible readers (33%), and those who pray weekly (37%) in the United States are Christian nationalism Skeptics. Additionally, Americans who resist Christian nationalist views also show less support for political violence.

“PRRI data finds that resistance to Christian nationalism strongly colors Americans’ views about President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump,” according to Melissa Deckman, Ph.D., CEO of PRRI. “Further, our analysis of voting behavior in all 50 states shows that resistance to Christian nationalism is strongly correlated with presidential vote choice in the 2020 election.”

While roughly half of Christian nationalism Skeptics and Rejecters hold favorable views of Biden (52%), 77% of Christian nationalism resisters hold unfavorable views of Trump, with 66% holding very unfavorable views. Christian nationalism resisters are far more likely to reject political violence than Americans who hold Christian nationalist views. Only 17% of Christian nationalism Skeptics and 7% of Rejecters agree that “because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence to save the country,” compared with nearly four in ten Christian nationalism Adherents (38%) and one-third of Sympathizers (33%).

Methodology

The survey was designed and conducted by PRRI. The survey was made possible through the generous support of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Foundation to Promote Open Society, the Wilbur & Hilda Glenn Family Foundation, and the Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock. The survey was carried out among a random representative sample of 22,465 adults (age 18 and up) living in all 50 states in the United States. Among those, 20,799 are part of Ipsos’s KnowledgePanel and an additional 1,666 were recruited by Ipsos using opt-in survey panels to increase the sample sizes in smaller states. Interviews were conducted online between March 9 and December 7, 2023. The margin of error for the national survey is +/- 0.82 percentage points at the 95% level of confidence, including the design effect for the survey of 1.56. In addition to sampling error, surveys may also be subject to error or bias due to question wording, context, and order effects.

About PRRI

PRRI is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to conducting independent research at the intersection of religion, culture, and public policy.

About The Meanings of Democracy Lab

The Meanings of Democracy Lab, founded and directed by sociologist Dr. Ruth Braunstein, engages students and partners in collaborative research and discussion about the contested moral and cultural foundations of American democratic life. Current projects focus on the moral meanings of taxpaying and battles over American identity and history.

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