A new survey reveals that religion is being weaponised and fused into Republican politics. This will greatly harm both democracy and also sincere faith. First I’ll cover off some of the deeply shocking insights that the survey reveals, and then I’ll tell you what I’ll be doing to push back against it.
The core issue is not faith. The problem of deep concern is that political extremism is being wrapped in religious language and then used to ensnare and radicalise vast numbers of people.
The Survey
PRRI, the Washington based Public Religion Research Institute founded by Robert P. Jones in 2009, has pulled back the curtain with the publication of the latest edition of their 2025 American Values Atlas.
Here are a few quick details and references:
- Titled: Mapping Christian Nationalism Across the 50 States: Insights from PRRI’s 2025 American Values Atlas
- Published Feb 17, 2026
And very briefly, the actual mechanics / methodology / sample size etc…
- When and how many – Conducted February 28-December 8, 2025, among a probability sample of 20,771 adults who are part of the Ipsos KnowledgePanel plus 1,340 state level opt-in oversamples, for a total sample of 22,111 adults.
- Margin Of error – The margin of error for the full sample is +/- 0.87 percentage points and has a design effect of 1.7
PRRI is academically respected, transparent about its methodology, and widely cited in media and research publications.
There are Six big Reveals via this survey. I’ve mined them from the Exec summary.
Reveal 1: Around three in ten Americans qualify as Christian nationalism Adherents or Sympathizers.
Reveal 2: White evangelical Protestants and Hispanic Protestants are most likely to hold Christian nationalist beliefs; Americans who frequently attend religious services, especially those who are white, are more likely to be Christian nationalists.
Reveal 3: Christian nationalism support is also strongly linked to party, media habits, age, education, and race.
- A majority of Republicans qualify as either Christian nationalism Adherents (21%) or Sympathizers (35%), compared with one-quarter of independents (7% Adherents and 18% Sympathizers) and less than one in five Democrats (5% Adherents and 12% Sympathizers).
- Two-thirds of Americans who most trust far-right news sources qualify as Christian nationalism Adherents (34%) or Sympathizers (31%), as do a majority of those who most trust Fox News (18% Adherents and 37% Sympathizers).
- Support for Christian nationalism is positively associated with lower education levels and older age; AAPI Americans are far less likely to be Christian nationalists than other Americans.
Reveal 4: Christian nationalist views predominate in the South and Midwest; support for Christian nationalism is strongly correlated in all 50 states with favorable views of President Donald Trump and the proportion of Republican representation in state legislatures.
- The states with the highest levels of support for Christian nationalism — which includes about half of their residents — are Arkansas (54%), Mississippi (52%), West Virginia (51%), Oklahoma (49%), and Wyoming (46%).
- Three states emerge with more than half of their white, non-Hispanic residents supporting Christian nationalism: Arkansas (59%), Mississippi (54%), and West Virginia (53%).
- The higher state residents scored on the Christian nationalism scale, the more likely they are to hold favorable views of Trump and the larger the proportion of Republican elected officials in their state legislatures.
Now this next insight is deeply deeply concerning.
Reveal 5: Christian nationalists are more likely than other Americans to support political violence and score high on PRRI’s Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale.
This is not merely theological identity, it is correlated with tolerance for authoritarianism and political violence.
- Three in ten Christian nationalism Adherents (30%) and one-quarter of Sympathizers (23%) 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 only 14% of Skeptics and 11% of Rejecters.
- Support for political violence among Christian nationalism Adherents was higher under President Joe Biden and declined after Trump’s reelection.
- Christian nationalism Adherents and Sympathizers score high on PRRI’s Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale; scores for Skeptics are mixed, while Rejecters score low.
- Christian nationalism Adherents and Sympathizers overwhelmingly view Trump as a strong leader, while Skeptics and Rejecters overwhelmingly view him as a dangerous dictator.
Reveal 6: Christian nationalists also hold more extreme views about immigrants and are more likely to say mandatory vaccines for children should be illegal.
- Majorities of Christian nationalism Adherents (67%) and Sympathizers (53%) believe that “immigrants are invading our country and replacing our cultural and ethnic background.”
- Majorities of Christian nationalism Adherents (61%) and Sympathizers (54%) agree with “the U.S. government deporting undocumented immigrants to foreign prisons without due process.”
- While at least half of Christian nationalism Adherents and Sympathizers support birthright citizenship, majorities agree with “stripping U.S. citizens of their citizenship and deporting them if they are determined to be a threat to the country” (66% and 56%).
Christian “Values”?
Permit me to dig a big deeper here.
- “God has called Christians to exercise dominion over all areas of American society.” – 23% agree
- “The U.S. government should declare America a Christian nation.” – 30% agree
- “Being Christian is an important part of being truly American.” – 33% agree
- “If the U.S. moves away from our Christian foundations, we will not have a country anymore.” – 39% agree
- “U.S. laws should be based on Christian values.” – 43% agree
What is taking place here is bait and switch.
The word “Christian” carries moral associations such as compassion, mercy, humility. But in this context it is being used to advance a political ideology centered on power, hierarchy, and national identity.
Let’s turn back to the survey for further insights that confirm this.
As I previously highlighted, 28% fully support, and another 25% are sympathizers for the idea that …. “true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country“.
They are also very very strong Trump supporters, with as many endorsing the idea that he is a … “Strong leader who should be given the power he needs to restore America’s greatness” – 26%
For this clause on the survey “Stripping U.S. citizens of their citizenship and deporting them if they are determined to be a threat to the country” we find 15% strongly favour, and another 25% favour.
There is a link between Christian Nationalism and Immigration Attitudes
There is a wild conspiracy claim called the great replacement theory.
When asked about this clause “Immigrants are invading our country and replacing our cultural and ethnic background” … 12% completely agreed, and a further 20% mostly agreed.
There is also support for doing away with due process.
The survey clause, “The U.S. government deporting undocumented immigrants to foreign prisons in El Salvador, Rwanda, or Libya, without allowing them to challenge their deportation in court” found that 14% strongly favour, and a further 20% favour this.
There is also a rising tide of hostility expressed towards birthright citizenship.
The survey clause, “The U.S. Constitution’s existing guarantee that all children who are born in the United States are automatically granted U.S. citizenship, regardless of their parents’ citizenship status” found that most people do favour or strongly favour this (65%), but 30% opposed it.
Who are these people?
We don’t need to speculate, we have the statistics that tell us.
While overall 32% of all Americans are either adherents or sympathizers, as many as 56% of Republicans are and 17% or Democrats are.
We also know how many are being radicalized …
- Among those who watch far-right news – 65% of them are Christian Nationalists
- Among those who watch Fox News – 55% of them are Christian Nationalists
- Among those who listen to talk radio (where it’s easy to find right-wing commentators) – 51% of them are Christian Nationalists
What can we do?
Not all conservative Christians hold these views. But the data shows a clear pattern: the stronger the Christian nationalist identity, the stronger the support for authoritarian politics and the erosion of democratic norms.
We need Better Arguments
We do not need an angry rebuttal, nor mockery. Both responses are wholly justified and might indeed feel good, but would also be very ineffective. Instead what we need are better arguments that target the same audience that is being deceived and manipulated with Christian nationalist lies.
I’ve launched a new publication under the banner of – Christian Nationalist Reality Check.
Each week I’ll pick a small selection of Christian Nationalist claims, and then proceed to analyse it by explaining what is wrong with the claim, what the actual facts are. Then offer up a better argument for the audience that is being targeted by the claim.
https://medium.com/theocracy-watch/when-politics-gets-called-demonic-1d6707fae817
The above is the first in this series.
Do click in and see if you think I’ve got the tone and rebuttal factually correct. Looking at it now, I think it was probably a mistake to start with 12 claims and that 6 per week, or even 4 per week might be more digestible.
The goal is not heat directed at inflammatory rhetoric, but rather light to expose its truly destructive nature.
Weaponized religion in politics harms both democracy and sincere faith. Understanding the mechanics of it will help to liberate its victims and free us from it.
When faith becomes partisan identity, it loses moral authority. When Christianity becomes fused to one party, dissent becomes heresy, and when political power becomes the goal, spiritual formation becomes secondary.