The Politics of Religious Prejudice and Tolerance for Cultural Others

Is a “Christian America” a More Patriarchal America? Religion, Politics, and Traditionalist Gender Ideology

“…This finding highlights the usefulness of Christian nationalism as a measure of public expressions of religion, which are not merely proxies for private religiosity (Braunstein and Taylor ; Delehanty, Edgell, and Stewart ; Stewart et al. ). It also highlights the importance of cultural factors in predicting social attitudes above and beyond denominational affiliation.…”

“…; Stewart et al. ). While Americans who are more religiously active are more gender traditionalist, just like Americans who embrace Christian nationalism, their large and independent effects suggest that they are measuring two different aspects of religion.…”

“…Davis () shows that adherence to Christian nationalism powerfully predicts Americans’ support for more coercive forms of social control, and Stewart et al. () find that Americans who advocate for a stronger role for religion in civic life tend to be more politically intolerant of religious outsiders.…”

Is a “Christian America” a More Patriarchal America? Religion, Politics, and Traditionalist Gender Ideology

“…Second, it establishes that this relationship holds within certain religious and even nonreligious groups usually identified as both opposed to Christian nationalism and generally more egalitarian. This finding highlights the usefulness of Christian nationalism as a measure of public expressions of religion, which are not merely proxies for private religiosity (Braunstein and Taylor 2017;Delehanty, Edgell, and Stewart 2019;Stewart et al 2018). It also highlights the importance of cultural factors in predicting social attitudes above and beyond denominational affiliation.…”

“…There are several reasons why this connection would be expected. The whole research on Christian nationalism and Americans' political and social views suggests that a core concern for Christian nationalists is the protection of symbolic boundaries, including which religious or ethnic groups should be considered "American" (Edgell and Tranby 2010;McDaniel et al 2011;Merino 2010;Shortle and Gaddie 2015;Stewart, Edgell, and Delehanty 2018;Straughn and Feld 2010), which families count as legitimate Whitehead 2015a, 2015b;Whitehead and Perry 2015), and the extent to which Americans feel justified in defending sacred individual rights or national interests (Froese and Mencken 2009;Whitehead et al 2018b). Given this concern with symbolic boundaries, it would be reasonable to expect that adherents to Christian nationalism would prefer unambiguous, traditional roles and expectations for men and women.…”