(OSV News) ─ A new study from the Pew Research Center shows more Americans are acquainted with the term "Christian nationalism," but on balance, more of them are likely to hold a negative rather than positive view of it.
Pew announced that finding among others in a May 14 report on "How Americans Feel About Religion's Influence in Government and Public Life," published on the center's website.
Along with its two questions on Christian nationalism, the survey examined views on religion's influence in society, and on the relationship of church and state.
Polling was conducted from April 6-12 with 3,592 respondents, with interviews conducted online and by phone in both English and Spanish. The margin of sampling error for the full sample of respondents is plus or minus 1.9 percentage points.
Pew noted its survey pool was oversampled to better capture the views of monthly churchgoers who are non-Hispanic Asians, white evangelicals, nonevangelical Protestants, Black Protestants and Catholics. That data was then weighted, or statistically adjusted, to reflect the groups' proportions in the U.S. population.
According to Pew, the data reflected a "growing familiarity" with the term "Christian nationalism."
Currently, 59% of U.S. adults have heard or read at least a little about the term, an increase of 14% from when Pew last polled on the topic about two years ago.
Pew found that 23% of those surveyed had "some" familiarity with the term, with 15% reporting "a little," 12% "quite a bit" and 9% "a great deal."
"On balance, sentiment toward Christian nationalism remains more negative than positive," Pew said, citing 31% of U.S. adults who have an unfavorable view of it, marking a gain of 6% points since 2024.
But a 5-point gain was noted among those who view Christian nationalism favorably, with 10% indicating approval, said Pew.
In particular, Pew said, white evangelical Protestants were most likely "to express a favorable view of Christian nationalism."
That data echoed findings by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute, which noted in its 2025 American Values Atlas ─ a data set counting 22,000 respondents ─ that "white evangelical Protestants are most likely to hold Christian nationalist beliefs," as are Hispanic Protestants.
PRRI observed that Catholics, both white and Hispanic, were largely likely to either be skeptical of Christian nationalism (45% and 47% respectively) or reject it outright (17% and 24% respectively).
Pew said in its report that "support for ideas that are sometimes associated with Christian nationalism is mostly unchanged in recent years.
"For example, there has been no growth in the shares of Americans who want the government to stop enforcing separation of church and state or who believe that God favors the United States over all countries," said Pew.
PRRI observed a "slight decline" among Christian nationalism rejecters, from 32% in June 2023 to 26% by the end of 2025.
At the same time, Pew found that "the majority of Americans (59%) still say they've never heard of Christian nationalism (40%), don't know enough to express an opinion (11%), or have neither a favorable nor an unfavorable view (8%). "
Pew noted "a small uptick in the share of U.S. adults who say the federal government should declare Christianity the nation's official religion," with 17% now endorsing the idea, up from 13% in 2024."
The research center also said that "there are sharp partisan divides" on many of the issues it examined regarding religion and public life in the nation.
As an example, said Pew, "Republicans are considerably more likely than Democrats to say religion has a positive influence on American life and to support religion having a prominent role in government and lawmaking."
The Pew report did not include a definition of "Christian nationalism," but instead simply asked if respondents had either heard or read about the term, and if they had a "favorable or unfavorable" view of it.
However, scholars Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry published an extensive, empirically based exploration of the topic in their 2020 book, "Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States."
In 2022, the authors submitted written testimony to a U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, outlining the role of Christian nationalism in the matter.
Whitehead and Perry, noting the prevalence of Christian symbolism used by a number of participants in the attack, explained that they defined Christian nationalism as "a cultural framework -- a collection of myths, traditions, symbols, narratives, and value systems -- that idealizes and advocates a fusion of American civic life with a very particular kind of 'Christianity.'"
According to the two scholars, those elements combine "moral traditionalism rooted in hierarchical social arrangements," "authoritarian social control that justifies violence and militarism," "strict ethno-racial boundaries surrounding national membership, civic participation, and social belonging" and "a populist impulse that inclines Americans toward feelings of victimization, conspiratorial thinking, and suspicion toward 'elite' leaders and institutions."
In their testimony, Whitehead and Perry clarified that the term does not reference "orthodox theological beliefs or even Christian identity necessarily."
Additionally, they said, the term does not encompass "American civil religion," which political leaders have invoked "to unite Americans and call the nation toward greater stewardship of its vast resources."
They also excluded from the definition "Christian patriotism," which they said "labors to fulfill our creedal commitments to full legal equality, natural rights, and sovereignty of the citizenry ─ something we could all celebrate."
Whitehead and Perry pointed to "the sort of religious fervor that mobilized Black Civil Rights leaders to call our nation to account for principles it claimed to follow" as one example of Christian patriotism.
- - -
Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X @GinaJesseReina.
