The religion of White identity politics: Christian nationalism and White racial solidarity

Abstract

Though recent research on White racial solidarity has advanced our understanding of White identity politics in the United States, the religious underpinnings of White identity politics remain understudied. Building on the documented conflation of religious, racial, and national identities among White Americans, we propose American Christian nationalism is best thought of as the religion of White identity politics. Drawing on nationally representative data with a strong, novel measure of Christian nationalism and tested measures of racial solidarity, we find Christian nationalism is among the leading predictors of racial solidarity but solely among White Americans. Specifically, Christian nationalism among (only) White Americans predicts greater racial identity salience, believing their racial group has a lot to be proud of, that their racial group members share much in common, and that it is important for their racial group members to work together to change laws unfair to their racial group. The result is that while Black and Hispanic Americans on average score higher on indicators of racial consciousness and solidarity than White Americans, at higher levels of Christian nationalism, White Americans become indistinguishable from their Black and Hispanic counterparts. Moreover, among Black Americans, Christian nationalism is negatively associated with the belief that Black people should work together to change laws unfair to Black people, suggesting that while Christian nationalism increases or reflects White racial solidarity motivating White identity politics, it may weaken Black Americans’ motivation to advocate for Black Americans in politics.