Christian nationalism is on the minds of more US adults than ever before, according to a Pew Research Center study released Thursday.
The report shows a significant uptick in people who know “at least a little” about the term Christian nationalism. While precise definitions are a matter of debate, Christian nationalism generally describes a belief that the United States is an inherently Christian nation and the government should preserve that.
In the poll, 59 percent of respondents said they had heard of the concept, up from 45 percent in 2024. Of those, 31 percent view it unfavorably and 10 percent favorably.
The rising awareness of Christian nationalism tracks with a growing sense that religion is influencing American life. In the study, 37 percent of respondents said religion is gaining influence in the United States, the highest share since 2002. Still, 61 percent say it is losing influence, a sharp drop from 80 percent in 2024. More than half (55%) said they have a positive view of religion’s influence, a decrease from 2025 (59%).
The phrase Christian nationalist has often been viewed as a term of derision for Bible-believing Christians, said Kristin Kobes Du Mez, a historian at Calvin University. But in recent years, some conservative Christians have embraced the label.
“The term itself is not new. It has been around in scholarly circles for decades, and what is different is that it’s kind of moved into popular conversation and into mainstream media,” Du Mez told CT.
The Trump administration has taken major steps to integrate Christianity into the instruments of government, establishing the Religious Liberty Commission in 2025 to shape domestic policy and find “opportunities to further the cause of religious liberty around the world.” In April, the commission criticized the idea of a necessary separation of church and state, with board chairman, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, calling it the “biggest lie that’s been told in America since our founding.”
Last year, the administration also established a task force focused on anti-Christian bias, investigating and eliminating alleged government prejudice against Christians.
The study comes just days before President Donald Trump plans to host a prayer festival Sunday on the National Mall in Washington, DC, which organizers say will focus on the country’s Christian origins.
One of the study’s lead researchers, Chip Rotolo, said the most striking finding is the increase in people who say religion now holds greater sway in America—both for good and for ill. That number had been trending downward since the early 2000s.
“The sense that religion is growing and gaining influence, we see that across the board: Republicans, Democrats, young, old, religious, and nonreligious. But there are big differences in terms of whether that proceeds as a good or bad thing,” Rotolo said.
The study also showed the public is divided over religion’s role in politics and social life.
A growing minority of respondents (17%) said they want the government to declare Christianity as the official religion of the United States, up slightly from 13 percent in 2024.
At the same time, a large majority of respondents (79%) said churches and other houses of worship should not support political candidates during elections, up from 76 percent in 2019. Two-thirds said churches should keep out of politics in general.
Fewer people (13%) believe the government should stop enforcing the separation of church and state, down from 19 percent in 2021.
White evangelical Protestants are most likely to hold positive opinions on the role of religion and the Bible in society and lawmaking, with 20 percent favoring Christian nationalism, followed by Catholics (10%), and Black Protestants (8%).
Matthew Taylor, a Georgetown University religion scholar who has written extensively about Christian nationalism, cautioned against applying the term too broadly. Motives matter a lot in determining whether the political movement is good or bad for society and democracy.
“Christian nationalism isn’t one thing,” Taylor told CT. “We’re using this one phrase to capture a number of different phenomena.” Some proponents are nostalgic for a time when Christianity was more culturally prominent, Taylor said. Others want Christians to be a privileged class in society, which he classifies as “Christian supremacy.”
“When we look at all of these surveys about Christian nationalism, it’s always a spectrum, and there’s different ways of kind of systematizing that spectrum,” Taylor said.
The Pew study found large partisan differences in views of how much influence religion should have in politics. Republicans surveyed said the Bible should have a great deal of influence on law (45%), the federal government should not declare Christianity the official religion but should promote Christian values (55%), and government should enforce the separation of church and state (41%).
Democrats agreed the federal government should enforce church and state separation, but were opposed in every other category, saying government and religion mainly should not mix.
Rotolo said perceptions of Christian nationalism could shift in future studies as younger Americans, who show some signs of growing interest in religious life, are increasingly included in polling.
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