From “American Idolatry: How Christian Nationalism Betrays The Gospel and Threatens The Church” by Andrew L. Whitehead
Consider how the latest iteration of white Christian nationalism born out of the culture wars – from the rise of the Christian Right in the late 1970s until today – has been completely ineffective in countering the numerical decline of American Christianity in the face of broader trends of secularization happening in the West. Consider the following:
- More Americans today affiliate with no religion at all than with any Christian religious tradition.
- The rates of disaffiliation show no signs of slowing; over 10 percent more Americans have disaffiliated from religion in the last decade alone.
- Young people are disaffiliating or never affiliating at higher rates than previous generations.
- From 2017 to 2021, 12 percent more Americans reported believing that “conservative Christians” want to do them physical harm.
Gaining and selfishly employing power has not served to bring more Americans into the Christian fold. Study after study demonstrates that one effect of the culture-warring of the Christian Right was to actively push people out of the Christian tradition.