Partisanship strongly shaped the responses, with those who are Republican or lean toward the GOP far more likely to say America should be a Christian nation (67%) than Democrats or Democratic leaners (29%). Republicans were also significantly more likely to say the founders intended the country to be a Christian nation (76%), although nearly half of Democrats agreed (47%).
These divisions appear to reflect national political trends. While Democratic lawmakers — especially members of the Congressional Freethought Caucus — have voiced concerns about Christian nationalism’s role in the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, many congressional Republicans have declined to condemn the ideology, with only a small number affirming support for the separation of church and state.
The outsized presence of white evangelicals in the GOP may play a role. In Pew’s survey, white evangelicals were the faith group most likely to say America should be a Christian nation (81%). But they were followed by Black Protestants (65%), a heavily Democratic group. White non-evangelical Protestants were more split, with 54% agreeing the U.S. should be a Christian nation.
Catholics were the only major Christian group where a majority did not express support of the idea (47%) of a Christian nation, though they were split along racial lines: Most White Catholics (56%) agreed America should be a Christian nation, while Hispanic Catholics were the least likely of any Christian group to say the same (36%).
Few Jewish (16%) or religiously unaffiliated Americans (17%) thought the U.S. should be a Christian nation, followed by an even smaller subset of atheists and agnostics (7%).
Age is also a factor. Among Americans ages 65 or older, 63% said America should be a Christian nation, compared to 23% of 18 to 29-year-olds.
Pew asked half of respondents to define a “Christian nation” in their own words, and used their open-ended answers to group most people into three categories: those who saw it as general guidance of Christian beliefs and values in society (34%), those who see it as being guided by beliefs and values, but without specifically referencing God or Christian concepts (12%) and those who see it has having Christian-based laws and governance (18%).
Those who think the U.S. should not be a Christian nation were more likely to describe a Christian nation as having Christian-based laws and governance (30%) than did those who believe it should be (6%).
The survey polled the other half of respondents about their views on Christian nationalism. Among all U.S. adults, less than half (45%) said they had heard anything about the term. Non-Christians were more likely than Christians overall to have heard or read anything about Christian nationalism (40% vs. 55%), and Democrats were also more likely to express familiarity than Republicans (55% vs. 37%).
But researchers noted that while 54% of those surveyed said they hadn’t heard of Christian nationalism, respondents overall were far more likely to view the concept unfavorably (24%) than favorably (5%), suggesting that people familiar with the concept generally view it negatively.
This article originally appeared here.
