In Our Own Image: How Americans Rate Jesus on the Ideological Spectrum

Abstract

How can Americans on the political left and right both claim their views represent those of Jesus? Using nationally-representative data in which Americans rated Jesus on the left-right ideological spectrum, we assess what characteristics are associated with Americans’ ratings and consider arguments about causal ordering. Competing expectations are drawn from “images of God” research and research showing political identities influence Americans’ religious characteristics. Focusing on Christians first, the strongest predictors of where Christians place Jesus was their own ideological identity followed closely by views on Christian nationalism. No other religious, racial, or partisan characteristics were associated with where Christians place Jesus. For insights on causal direction, we interact religiosity measures with ideological identity and Christian nationalism, finding identical patterns regardless of religious commitment. We also run models to see if patterns differ for non-Christians and the influence of ideological identity and Christian nationalism are nearly identical. Given that Americans’ ideological placement of Jesus has little to do with their own religious identity or commitment, findings lend more support for the theory that Christians and non-Christians alike project their own ideological identities and views about Christian nationalism onto Jesus rather than such characteristics following from stable images of Jesus.