Almost half of all Americans think the US should be a Christian nation, a survey has found.
The Pew Research Center has conducted a survey looking at Christian nationalism, with researchers saying that while 45 per cent of Americans said the US should be a Christian nation, the respondents had widely varying beliefs on what that should entail.
One of the authors of the survey, Greg Smith, told the Religion News Service that “there are a lot of Americans — 45 per cent — who tell us they think the United States should be a Christian nation. That is a lot of people”.
But he added that “what people mean when they say they think the US should be a Christian nation is really quite nuanced”.
Far-right Republicans such as Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert and Pennsylvania gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano have rejected the idea of separation between church and state and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has publicly identified with the term Christian Nationalism.
One person wrote in the survey that they used to think that the view that the US should be a Christian nation was a “positive view, but now with the MAGA crowd, I view it as racist, homophobic, anti-woman”.
The poll was conducted last month. Sixty per cent said they think the US was originally intended to be a Christian nation, while 33 per cent said it’s still one today.
Most think that churches and other houses of worship should stay out of politics – 67 per cent – while 31 per cent think that religious institutions should share their views on political and social issues.
Most of the 45 per cent of Americans who said the US should be a Christian nation declined to take extreme stances, with a majority – 52 per cent – of this group saying that the government shouldn’t announce any faith as the official religion of the state.
Just over a quarter – 28 per cent – thought that Christianity should be officially recognized as the state religion and 52 per cent believed that the government should argue for moral values shared by a number of religions, while 24 per cent said it should push for Christian values.
The group of people in the survey who said that the US should be a “Christian nation” was divided on the issue of the separation of church and state, with 39 per cent saying that it should be enforced while 31 per cent said the policy should be left behind – 30 per cent didn’t choose either option.
But most of the group – 54 per cent – also argued that if there’s a clash between the Bible and US law, Scripture should come out on top.
Mr Smith told the Religion News Service that some of those who took part in the survey and supported the idea of a Christian nation “do mean that they think Christian beliefs, values and morality ought to be reflected in US laws and policies”.
But he added that many “tell us that they think the US should be guided by Christian principles in a general way, but they don’t mean that we should live in a theocracy”.
“They don’t mean that they want to get rid of separation of church and state. They don’t mean they want to see the US officially declared to be a Christian nation. It’s a nuanced picture,” he said.
Overall, 15 per cent of US adults believe that the government should make Christianity the official state religion, 13 per cent think that the government should boost Christian values and 19 per cent believe the enforcement of the separation of church and state should end.
Those inclined to vote for the Republican Party were more likely to say that the US should be a Christian nation, 67 per cent, while the same was true for 29 per cent preferring the Democrats.
As many as 76 per cent of Republicans believed that the founders wanted the US to be a Christian nation, while 47 per cent of Democrats said the same.
Among white evangelicals, a group mostly supporting the GOP, 81 per cent said the US should be a Christian nation, while 65 per cent of Black Protestants, a mostly Democratic group, concurred.
Among Catholics, 47 per cent said the US should be a Christian nation.
In the group of adults over the age of 65, 63 per cent said the same, while just 23 per cent of US adults between 18 and 29 agreed.
