By Paul A. Djupe, Denison University [Image credit: Anabaptist World.] All it took was some imprecise language from a Politico reporter to fire up the outrage machine. If it means that the rights and liberties of the Constitution were granted by God, then “Christian nationalism” is a smear applied to the broadest swath of the population that simply associates democracy with godliness. But it is only a smear if they don’t believe it. The more important question, therefore, is what Christian nationalism means to believers. Does it mean simply that the United States as constituted is fulfilling a ..read more

By Anand E. Sokhey and Paul A. Djupe ——> Order online for a 30% discount using code PENN-SOKHEYDJUPE30 <—— At a campaign appearance at the CPAC conference last month, Trump told “the choir” that conservatives and people of faith would be “hunted” if Joe Biden was elected to another term. On the one hand, this is not novel talk for the Trump years, but certainly is quite a bit different from when Ronald Reagan told a group of evangelicals in 1980, “I know that you can’t endorse me, but I only brought that up because I want you to know that I endorse you and what you’re doing.” On the othe ..read more

By Paul A. Djupe (Denison University) and Jacob R. Neiheisel (SUNY-Buffalo) “2024 is our final battle.” “The Seal is broken by what they’ve done…” “the sick political class that hates our country.” “There is a demonic portal above the White House.” “The Satanic Elites have a plan, but so do we.” The vernacular of politics in the U.S. in the Trump era is easy to dismiss as a hyperbolic and dark perspective consonant with Trump’s vision of American carnage from his inaugural address. But we believe it is more than that and marks a sharp break from the kinds of rhetoric used by Republican elites ..read more

By Paul A. Djupe, Denison University [Image credit: The Atlantic.] Three years ago, protestors assembled on The Mall in support of the Big Lie that Trump lost the 2020 election because of fraud. They were then turned toward the Capitol with the inspiration from Trump to fight like hell or “you’re not going to have a country anymore.” At this point, of the 1,230 people charged, about 900 people have been found (170) or pleaded (730) guilty to charges related to the insurrection, including a number guilty of seditious conspiracy. Acknowledging that January 6th was an insurrection, that Trump aid ..read more

By Paul A. Djupe, Director of Data for Political Research, Denison University In 2023, for the first time in its history, the majority of Denison students (54-55 percent) identified as some sort of religious none. With “nothing in particular” leading the way, the next biggest religious group didn’t come close in our spring survey (Protestants at 15 percent), but the second biggest group in the fall survey was Agnostic (with 18 percent), just 6 percentage points behind the nothing in particulars (24 percent). These are some of the new findings from an ongoing survey effort in the Data for Polit ..read more

By Zachary Broeren (Vanderbilt University) and Paul A. Djupe (Denison University) [image credit: Getty] As the four Trump trials and the 2024 presidential election race to their verdicts, his voters are faced with a choice: support a man who has purportedly broken the law or reject Trump. At the core of this decision is the importance of the equal application of the rule of law – the idea that no one, not even former presidents, should be able to break the law and get away with it. However, a subset of his base – Christian nationalists – may be particularly susceptible to unequal applications ..read more

By Paul A. Djupe It was strange enough that religious conservatives embraced Donald Trump once he became the Republican front-runner in early 2016, but for some that embrace went a whole lot further. Some had prophesied that Trump would have a special role to play in God’s plan well back in the 2000s, but that notion was more widely promoted starting at the point of his presidential run. Lance Wallnau pronounced in 2015 that “God has given this man [Trump] an anointing for the mantle of government in the United States and he will prosper.” Many others took up that notion, including Paula White ..read more

Jacob Neiheisel (SUNY-Buffalo) and Paul A. Djupe (Denison University) The world is beset by demons; warfare in the spirit realm is unfolding in ways that resonate with the Book of Revelation presaging horribly violent engagement on earth. If the world is in decline and hurtling toward the final battle, what do you do?  Historically, one of the options was to wait and pray because Jesus will come as a thief in the night to take his followers to Heaven. The only thing one can do under such circumstances is to be right with God and to pray fervently that he comes soon. This “pre-millennial d ..read more

By Oindrila Roy, Cottey College Since the onset of the civil war in 2011, more than 6 million Syrians have been displaced from their own country. Despite the vulnerability of the displaced population, the original version of the Trump Administration’s Travel Ban (2017) barred Syrian refugees from entering the United States. Although this decision was severely opposed by many at home – including the evangelical church leadership – polls from the Pew Research Center showed lay evangelicals were unique among other religious groups in their significantly higher support for the policy. Given the pu ..read more

By Alex Badas (University of Houston) and Eric R. Schmidt (Millsaps College) For decades, evangelical groups have used the Supreme Court to pursue conservative social policies. With the confirmation of three Justices nominated by former President Trump, the Court has issued stridently conservative opinions on abortion, religious exemptions to public accommodations law, and religious expression by public employees. Speaking in Rome in July 2022, Justice Alito described religious liberty as “under attack” by secular forces that “want to hold complete power.” An evangelical interest group associa ..read more