Christianity Isn't Christian Nationalism. The Difference Matters Here.

September 20, 2026|QLP News Room

"Christian nationalism" gets used two ways in public conversation, both unhelpfully. Sometimes it's an insult aimed loosely at any conservative Christian who votes their values. Sometimes it's dismissed entirely as a made-up smear with no real definition behind it. Neither treatment is accurate. Political scientists, sociologists, and religious historians use the term with an actual, researchable definition, distinct from Christianity itself, from conservative Christianity, and from ordinary religious political participation.

The Actual Definition

Researchers who study this, notably sociologists Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry, whose empirical work in this area is widely cited, define Christian nationalism as a cultural framework, not a theology, that fuses American national identity with a particular, often ethnically and culturally specific, understanding of Christianity. It's less a set of religious beliefs and more a political ideology about who America "really" belongs to and whose values its laws should reflect. Empirically, researchers measure it through survey questions like whether the federal government should declare the United States a Christian nation, whether success in America is part of God's plan, and whether being a "true American" is tied to Christian identity specifically.

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What Christian Nationalism Is Not

It's not simply Christianity. Christians hold enormously varied political positions, including plenty who explicitly reject the fusion of national and religious identity that defines Christian nationalism as researchers use the term. It's not simply religious conservatism or opposition to abortion; plenty of theologically conservative Christians hold traditional beliefs without endorsing anything like a legally privileged national religious identity. And it's not simply Christians participating in politics, voting, organizing, or advocating for laws they believe in, which, as the previous article in this series lays out, is ordinary democratic participation protected the same way any other citizen's advocacy is.

Vintage campaign poster reading 'This woman's place is in the house, the House of Representatives, Bella Abzug for Congress' — Religious political engagement, of every kind, is ordinary democracy. Christian nationalism, as researchers define it, is a specific claim about whose national identity counts as the default. Those are different things, and conflating them helps no one make an honest argument. Image: Library of Congress. Public domain.

Why the Distinction Matters for This Series

Getting this definition right matters specifically because sloppy use of the term does real damage in both directions. Applying "Christian nationalist" to every religious voter erases the genuine diversity of Christian political thought and makes reasonable disagreement sound like an accusation. Refusing to use the term at all, or treating it as pure slander with no empirical basis, erases real, documented, measurable political movements and organizations that researchers can and do identify using specific criteria, not vibes.

Members of the National League of Women Voters outside the White House, November 1924 — Distinguishing ordinary religious civic participation from a specific political ideology about national identity isn't splitting hairs. It's the difference between describing democracy and describing something else. Image: Library of Congress. Public domain.

At Quietly Loud Prints, the standard we're trying to hold in this series is naming specific organizations, specific policy campaigns, and specific documented positions rather than applying a broad label to an entire religion. That's a harder, slower way to write about this than reaching for a one-word label, and it's the only version of this conversation that actually holds up.

Frequently Asked Questions

Isn't "Christian nationalism" just a slur people use against religious conservatives?

No, though it does get used that way colloquially. Researchers use it as a specific, measurable term for a political ideology fusing national identity with a particular Christian cultural identity, distinct from religious belief or political conservatism generally.

Do most Christians support Christian nationalism as researchers define it?

No. Survey research finds significant variation among Christians on this measure, with substantial numbers explicitly rejecting the fusion of national and Christian identity central to the definition, alongside others who embrace it strongly.

How is this different from Christians simply voting according to their values?

Voting your values is ordinary democratic participation available to every citizen regardless of belief. Christian nationalism, as defined by researchers, is a specific ideological claim about whose national identity is the "real" or default one, which is a narrower and more specific claim than "I vote based on my faith."