The Full Armor of God

Abstract

Academic research on Christian nationalism has revealed a considerable amount about the scope of its relationships to public policy views in the US. However, work thus far has not addressed an essential question: why now? Research by the authors of this Element advances answers, showcasing how deeper engagement with 'the 3Ms' – measurement, mechanisms and mobilization – can help unpack how and why Christian nationalism has entered our politics as a partisan project. Indeed, it is difficult to understand the dynamics of Christian nationalism without reference to the parties, as it has been a worldview used to mobilize Republicans while simultaneously recruiting and demobilizing Democrats. The mechanisms of these efforts hinge on a deep desire for social dominance that is ordained by God – an order elites suggest is threatened by Democrats and 'the left.' These elite appeals can have sweeping consequences for opinion and action, including the public's support for democratic processes.

Ruled by the Demons? Exploring the Relationship Between Belief in Demons and Public Attitudes Toward Donald Trump and Joe Biden

“…Perhaps because of this much stronger association, when Christian nationalism was included in the model, the main effect of belief in demons was rendered statistically insignificant. This strong correlation between Christian nationalism and favorable views toward Trump may be evidenced by recent political events, such as the ReAwaken America tour and the Evangelicals For Trump community, which have drawn religious groups that score the highest in Christian nationalism (Djupe, Lewis, and Sokhey 2023;Gorski and Perry 2022).…”

“…In the meantime, and to the contrary, when the conservatives hold a stronger belief in demons, their antipathy toward Joe Biden, the leader of the outgroup, may escalate. These speculations may gain support from empirical research that suggests that one's partisanship may become amplified when there is a confluence of partisan identities-in this case, the intersection of a strong belief in demons, which is commonly tied to being politically conservative, and an affiliation with the Republican Party (e.g., Djupe, Lewis, and Sokhey 2023;Mason 2018). Therefore, the author hypothesizes that: Hypothesis 3.…”

“…The main findings remained the same between the regression models using the two different versions of the Christian nationalism scale. The author has decided to keep using the six-item scale as it is a more popular way of measuring Christian nationalism and has been adopted in multiple peer-reviewed publications on political opinions (Baker, Perry, and Whitehead 2020;Djupe, Lewis, and Sokhey 2023;Whitehead, Perry, and Baker 2018).…”

In Our Own Image: How Americans Rate Jesus on the Ideological Spectrum

“…Following Bader (2007, 2010), we anticipate a significant association between Christian nationalist views and where Americans place Jesus on the ideological spectrum. Christian nationalism has been measured in a variety of ways (Davis and Perry 2021;Djupe, Lewis, and Sokhey 2023;Gorski and Perry 2022;McDaniel, Nooruddin, and Shortle 2022;Perry, Riccardi-Swartz, et al 2023). We introduce a strong measure of Christian nationalism incorporating questions from other studies and adding new ones.…”

Preaching to the Choir? Awareness of "Christian Nationalism" and Implications for Public Sociology

“…Though sociological studies rarely referenced that term before 2015 (for an exception, see Bean, 2014; and among political scientists, see McDaniel et al, 2011) or even sought to operationalize an analogous construct (see Froese & Mencken, 2009;Merino, 2010;Straughn & Feld, 2010), the number of sociological studies seeking to define, measure, and operationalize the term has exploded in recent years (for a review, see Perry, 2022). Moreover, this interest has recently gone beyond sociology to other subfields, including political science (e.g., Armaly et al, 2022;Djupe et al, 2023;McDaniel et al, 2022;Vegter et al, 2023) and psychology (e.g., Al-Kire et al, 2021. This growing academic interest has been accompanied by growing journalistic attention to the topic.…”