This weekend, an array of Christian religious leaders and government officials are scheduled to gather on the National Mall in Washington, DC. They will meet to pray, yes, but this rally – organized as part of the White House is supported Independence 250 celebration connected with the next 4th of July – will also serve as “the rededication of our country as One Nation under God.”
If you’ve been following the resurgence of religious culture in the United States, this celebration shouldn’t surprise you too much. The religious right has been on the rise during Donald Trump’s second presidency, and they have taken advantage of it disregarding rules and regulations blurring the line between church and state.
Inside the White House, the defense minister has launched a war in Iran and US military actions abroad as authorized and guided by God. Outside the state, this union between church and state often verges on idolatry. Conservative pastors are erecting gold statues of Trump (but insisting it doesn’t shine the infamous golden calf of the Old Testament). They stretch their hands over the president in prayer after that liken him to Jesus and standing by him, and mild criticism, after he was thrown himself as the Messiah of AI-slop.
Through it all, these conservative and evangelical religious leaders seem confident that their vision of Christianity, or a more religious America, is on the rise.
still, a new report from the Pew Research Center suggests that these activists – who tend to subscribe to a range of beliefs that can be described as “Christian nationalists” – are out of touch with the reality of what the American public wants.
Instead, Americans broadly reject many of the tenets of this conservative intellectual vision of America. They agree that religion is a force for good, but most follow the principles of Thomas Jefferson separation wall between the sacred and the secular.
In other words, instead of being swayed or converted by the bolder and more vocal religious right, most Americans don’t like what they see.
A year of Christian conservatism has not won hearts and minds
The Pew report shows a historic high in the share of Americans who say religion has an influence on public life, rising 19 points in two years. And the response to this trend is not necessarily negative. Overall, views on the role of organized religion remain positive at about 55 percent.
Still, none of this suggests that some religious right worldview is catching fire. Although awareness of the term “Christian Nationalism” has increased in the past four years, the additional attention has not increased its overall popularity. Both positive and negative associations with the word have grown, and its principles are still not acceptable to many Americans.
Here, it is important to define “Christian nationalism.” Although it is a new term often used by religious liberals or atheists to deride fundamentalist, evangelical, or conservative Christian interpretations of the Bible that link faith and patriotism, there are a few more specific ideas that fall under this umbrella.
The Institute for Public Religion Research, for example, laid out five criteria they use in their polls to define Christian nationalism: the belief that American law should be based on biblical principles; that the federal government officially declare the United States a Christian nation; that Christianity is central to American identity; and that God has a unique mission for America and its Christians.
Still, even with this broad definition, this view does not have much public support. A Pew survey found that support for Christian nationalist ideas has remained stable over the past few years; there has been no clash of Trump’s conservative Christian views.
Pew researchers also noted that most Americans want churches and houses of worship to “stay out of everyday politics and not endorse candidates.” And there has been essentially no change in the proportion of Americans who want the federal government to abandon the separation of church and state – clear target among Christian extremists such as the chairman of the White House Religious Freedom Commission, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick of Texas.
Similarly, there has been a statistical shift in the share of Americans who believe American law should be based on the Bible. Those who oppose any biblical relevance or test the will of the voters first still outnumber fundamentalist biblical supporters by the same rates as in the past six years.
Another strand of Christian nationalism has seen little movement: the feeling that the Christian God favors or blesses the United States over other countries. There, the acceptance percentage has not changed over the past five years.
There has there has been little change in the share of Americans who would welcome Christianity being declared an official religion — 17 percent, up from 13 percent in 2024 — though still a minority.
These results are consistent survey results from the Public Religion Research Institute, which found little public support among most Americans for Christian nationalist or reformist beliefs over the past four years, its president and founder Robert P. Jones told me.
Trump welcoming conservative and evangelical Christians is fulfilling a campaign promise, Jones, who is writing a book about this topiche said.
“He is talking to a group that knows that they have gone down, he knows that their power to hold power demographically has been going down for decades, and he has made a big promise that he will bring them back to power,” he said.
However, Pew’s findings, as well as PRRI’s own work, suggest that this plan between the religious right and the White House to prioritize “a single sector of Christianity,” as Jones put it, may not be reaping the rewards it might have hoped for.
“It hasn’t caused a big change in the environment,” he said. “In other words, they’re not appealing to that worldview. They’re basically appealing to a small group of Americans who already have that view and who are their political base.”
