Christian nationalism isn't just a worldview — it's an emerging identity. In POQ, Walker et al. find that various definitions of Christian nationalism can influence respondents' self-categorization. Read now: doi.org/10.1093/poq/...
Paul Djupe
@pauldjupe.bsky.social
Prof at Denison University; Political Scientist studying US religion and politics. blogging at religioninpublic.blog. Riding all over (hilly) Ohio.
Using a novel dataset of 450 U.S. sermons, Paul Lendway examines how local sermon rhetoric relates to political attitudes and behavior, highlighting the role of religious messaging in American politics. #ReligionAndPolitics #VotingBehavior Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
The Political Ramifications of Sermon Rhetoric Among White U.S. Protestants and White Catholics - Political Behavior
White evangelical Protestants support Republican Party presidential candidates at rates much higher than White Catholics and White mainline Protestants. I argue that local evangelical Protestant sermo...
link.springer.com
It’s always exciting to see great social science from @pauldjupe.bsky.social shared with the wider world. This piece also taught me a bit about my own neck of the woods!
The Atlantic@theatlantic.com · 4w agoMike and Andrea Brewer believed that they had a mandate from God to rid their town of demonic activity—and that the regional stronghold for this evil was the bookstore across the street, Stephanie McCrummen reports:
Read more at Religion in Public: religioninpublic.blog/2026/07/06/i... Full article: academic.oup.com/poq/advance-...
“I am a Christian nationalist”
By Brooklyn Walker and Paul A. Djupe [Image credit: Carl Joseph Ministries] The term ‘Christian nationalism’ gained traction in academic research about a decade ago and since then has gained steam …
religioninpublic.blog
We find that Christian nationalism identity is real and not rare: 23.1% say “yes” when asked if they consider themselves a Christian nationalist, and combining the items into an index suggests ~28% of Americans lean toward the identity.
In a new @poqjournal.bsky.social paper (with @pauldjupe.bsky.social, @aesokhey.bsky.social, @dhmarkel.bsky.social, we measure both: standard worldview items + a set of identity items adapted from racial identity batteries (self-ID, importance, linked fate, discrimination, group consciousness, etc.).
The cw is religion cures loneliness bc it can put people FTF. But our recent data is surprising. Men who attend more are MORE lonely while attending women are less. Why? Much of the answer lies in the messaging - apocalyptic views are not conducive to connection. w @brooklynwalker.bsky.social
The Religious are More Lonely?
Paul A. Djupe and Brooklyn Walker The conventional wisdom about religious congregations is that they are social places, where people can find opportunities for mutual support to ease the existentia…
religioninpublic.blog
In the religion and politics space, we are seeing calls to repeal the 19th Amendment. @pauldjupe.bsky.social and I have been collecting data about that, and it looks like younger Americans are the most open to that argument.
Hey social scientists - if your models are telling you that Christian nationalists are baddies but church attenders are the goodies, you are seeing a statistical problem called a "suppression effect". I can get a model to say attendance is linked to warmth twd atheists. Silly. Yay finally in print!
Attending Church Encourages Acceptance of Atheists? Suppression Effects in Religion and Politics Research - Political Behavior
A proliferation of religion variables presents opportunities for those studying religion and politics in the U.S. However, many studies in this growing subfield demonstrate the pitfalls of reporting t...
link.springer.com
Does anyone actually like tradwives? This was a fun one, especially after reading Yesteryear. Turns out that the haters rule the roost, but the groups that actually express a bit more warmth toward the idea of the tradwife are pretty interesting. religioninpublic.blog/2026/06/17/w...
Who Likes Tradwives?
By Paul A. Djupe and Brooklyn Walker Have you read Yesteryear by Caro Burke yet? What are you waiting for? Drawing on themes from real-world tradwives like Ballerina Farm, the book follows an evang…
religioninpublic.blog
Brooklyn Walker@brooklynwalker.bsky.social · 2mo agoTradwives are everywhere on social media. So we asked a national sample of Americans how they actually feel about them. The answer surprised us. 🧵 w/ @pauldjupe.bsky.social
Do Christian nationalists look like America? Judy Woodruff's interviews at "Rededicate 250" suggest so, and so does our data. In a new post we argue, on the basis of our research, that we should be worried about CN regardless of who holds the worldview religioninpublic.blog/2026/06/15/a...
America at 250: Christian Nationalism Looks like…America?
By Paul A. Djupe and Brooklyn Walker It has been 250 years since the Declaration of Independence was signed and some portions of the US are more excited than others. Judy Woodruff of PBS News went …
religioninpublic.blog
Brooklyn Walker@brooklynwalker.bsky.social · 2mo agoJudy Woodruff for @pbsnews.org recently covered "Rededicate 250." A new post at Religion in Public looks at why this journalism was so important.
There's so much chatter about the sin of empathy and toxic empathy, mostly aimed at women. We asked a few Qs about empathy, courtesy of @verasight.io - thanks! People are of two minds that mirrors the debate. Empathy is good but only if it doesn't contradict "truth." And there's a gender gap (1/2).
Why The Right Wing Freakout about Empathy?
By Brooklyn Walker and Paul A. Djupe [Image credit: Empathy is the new Christian battleground : r/Christianity] Empathy is sin. Or so goes the thesis of several highly popular books by conservative…
religioninpublic.blog
I was VERY nervous for my first podcast, but it turned out to be a great conversation with the thoughtful hosts at @faithfulpolitics.bsky.social and my co-author, @pauldjupe.bsky.social . Tune in to hear a chat about Christian nationalism, threat, and possible paths to more healthy politics.
Will (Faithful Politics)@faithfulpolitics.bsky.social · 2mo agoA lot of people say they believe in religious freedom. The harder question is whether that belief holds when they are told their faith, rights, or way of life are under attack. youtu.be/CaE4OM03DEE
Complementarianism — the belief that God created men to lead and women to follow — is usually discussed in terms of churches and marriages. Our new research shows it reaches much further than that. 🧵 w/ @pauldjupe.bsky.social @jssreligion.bsky.social
If only there was a carefully defined and empirically supported term to describe the fusion of a particular type of Christianity with American civic life. That term would help provide context to this article. I can just imagine. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/17/u...
Trump Administration Pushes Narrative of Christian Founding at Rally
nytimes.com
Cool new study from @brooklynwalker.bsky.social & @pauldjupe.bsky.social finding that complementarian gender views strongly predict not only pronatalism for the nation itself, but also White natalism, Christian natalism, & wanting govt to make accessing birth control harder. doi.org/10.1111/jssr...
Be Fruitful and Multiply? Complementarianism, Pronatalism, and Suppression of Reproductive Rights
At least since the second wave of the feminist movement, policy issues related to gender have generated deep social and political divisions. Past work has analyzed the role of general religious varia....
doi.org
Tomorrow morning, we will be dropping a ~12,000 word story on Paul Pressler, the alleged sexual predator who remade the Southern Baptist Convention and helped ordain the marriage between the GOP and white evangelical voters. There is *a lot* in there and I hope you'll read it.
@revjenbutler.bsky.social has an interesting piece on the political uses of Christian persecution narratives. It’s a thoughtful view from a clergy’s perspective and nice confirmation of what @pauldjupe and I have been finding in our survey work. revjenbutler.substack.com/p/trump-just...
Trump Just Released a Report on “Anti-Christian Bias.” Christians Should Be Alarmed.
It does not defend religious freedom. It fuels the false persecution story at the heart of Christian nationalism.
revjenbutler.substack.com
@ruthbraunstein.bsky.social — a leading scholar of Christian nationalism — invited @pauldjupe.bsky.social and I to discuss our work in a Q&A on her Substack. She pushed us on the practical implications of our findings in ways that sharpened my thinking. ruthbraunstein.substack.com/p/why-some-e...
Why some efforts to combat Christian nationalism may fail
A Q&A with political scientists Brooklyn Walker and Paul Djupe
ruthbraunstein.substack.com
@pauldjupe.bsky.social and I have found similar dynamics in our own survey data. The bump in young men's religiosity seems to be related to the embrace by young men of more conservative religious worldviews, not religion broadly speaking. For more, check out: religioninpublic.blog/2025/03/05/t...
The Reactionary Religious Reengagement of Young Men
By Paul A. Djupe and Brooklyn Walker [Image credit: Mother Jones] If there’s one thing we thought we could count on in the social scientific study of religion, it was the gender gap in religious id…
religioninpublic.blog
The New York Times@nytimes.com · 4mo agoThe share of men under 30 who say religion is “very important” to them has risen sharply, from 28% in 2023 to 42% in 2025, according to a new poll.
Vivian Yee's New York Times piece on the movement to repeal women's suffrage tells this important story through individual voices. We have national survey data to add to the conversation. And it shows that this movement is gaining steam. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/02/u...
The Women Who Believe That Women Should Lose the Right to Vote
nytimes.com
There's still a lot of debate of how Christian nationalism is measured or if it even exists. In this experiment, we present people with different definitions to see if they are more likely to embrace or reject the term. Do CNs embrace Christian values as much as they embrace the J6 Insurrection?
Does Support for Christian Nationalism Hinge on How It’s Defined?
By Paul A. Djupe and Brooklyn Walker It’s rare for scholars, public pundits, and religious leaders to catch onto the same trend-setting lingo, but we are observing one of those cases when it comes …
religioninpublic.blog
It seems like the solvent to Christian nationalism is religious pluralism for all. But in our new research in Politics & Religion we find high support for pluralism among CNs. And when held jointly, CN wins the day. That is, CNs are more intolerant regardless of support for religious pluralism.
Preaching Religious Pluralism Can’t Save us from Christian Nationalism
By Brooklyn Walker and Paul A. Djupe [Image credit: Photo taken by Kevin Mullinix, Sunday, November 17, 2024. Vintage Church, Lawrence, KS.] While the term ‘Christian nationalism’ may be relatively…
religioninpublic.blog
#OpenAccess from the new issue of Politics and Religion - The weakness of anti-Christian nationalism: when religiously inclusive orientations can’t increase tolerance - https://cup.org/3O4hgGo - @pauldjupe.bsky.social & Brooklyn Walker
Or, @springer.springernature.com , how about if I don't visit your websites at all. I'd like to see that study, but not when you slap me with coercive options when we're contributing our work to you for free. Goodness.
A Roy’s Report story reported on the misogynistic views of Reformed Pastor Dale Patridge. One comment called out the dangers of White Christian nationalism, which made us wonder: Is misogyny ltd to White CNs or is it a property of CNs of any race? We have the data, here's our look + answer is no:
Is It Just *White* Christian Nationalist Misogyny?
By Paul A. Djupe and Brooklyn Walker A Roy’s Report story a few days ago reported on the misogynistic views of Reformed Pastor Dale Patridge of Prescott, Arizona. He is not a newcomer to urging a r…
religioninpublic.blog
"This is the crux of the American shortfall in life expectancy—it reflects a lot of people dying way younger than they should, not just a couple years taken off at old age." jenndowd.substack.com/p/live-free-...
Live Free and Die: US Life Expectancy Has a Problem (But It's Not Seed Oils)
We deserve to live until we are old
jenndowd.substack.com
Reacting to the calls for more talk across lines of difference, we sought out where the limits are. And I think we found them. When those w apocalyptic religious views are exposed to diverse others, they actually show more extreme political views -- burn it all down, we need to resort to violence.
The Contact Thesis Founders on the Shoals of Apocalypticism
Paul A. Djupe, Jacob R. Neiheisel, and Anand E. Sokhey We need to be able to talk to each other. Not just the people we agree with, but also the people who may see things from other perspectives. W…
religioninpublic.blog
Is Charlie Kirk a Christian martyr? We've heard this from religious + political elites on the right, but how many people actually believe that? We included Qs about Kirk in a recent (12/25) survey, so we have answers! A substantial N of adults agree Kirk is a martyr, but Kirk proves to be divisive.
Calling Charlie Kirk a Martyr is Not Exactly a Unifying Message
By Paul A. Djupe and Jacob R. Neiheisel On September 10, 2025, activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated at a Turning Point event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. In our view, all political vi…
religioninpublic.blog