This story was originally reported by Mariel Padilla of The 19th. Meet Mariel and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy.
Pastor Doug Wilson is a self-proclaimed Christian nationalist who advocates for a patriarchal society where sodomy is criminalized, women submit to their husbands and women lose the right to vote. He also preached at the Pentagon this week after being personally invited by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, a member of the pastor’s church network.
Wilson’s presence in the nation’s capital highlights how a fringe conservative evangelical Christian belief system has gained more traction in politics.
Three in 10 Americans qualify as Christian nationalism adherents or sympathizers, according to Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) survey data released this week. American women are just as likely as American men to hold Christian nationalist views.
Melissa Deckman, the chief executive of PRRI, said the percentage of Americans who adhere to Christian nationalist views has remained steady since PRRI started collecting this data in 2022 — but the movement’s influence has grown in politics and culture.
“I think we’re talking about Christian nationalism more and more in part because the MAGA movement has essentially taken over the leadership of the party,” Deckman said. “Even compared to Trump’s first term, you’re seeing a big difference in who Trump has brought with him back into office.”
The majority of Republicans — around 56 percent — qualify as Christian nationalism adherents or sympathizers, compared with 25 percent of Independents and 17 percent of Democrats, according to PRRI. Christian nationalist views are more prevalent in Southern and Midwestern states, where there is also a larger proportion of Republican elected officials in state legislatures.
The PRRI results were based on a survey and online interviews with more than 22,000 adults who were asked whether or not they agreed with five statements:
- U.S. laws should be based on Christian values
- Being Christian is an important part of being truly American
- The U.S. government should declare America a Christian nation
- If the United States moves away from our Christian foundations, we will not have a country anymore
- God has called Christians to exercise dominion over all areas of American society
Based on their level of agreement, respondents were categorized as Christian nationalism adherents, sympathizers (groups PRRI identifies as Christian nationalists), skeptics or rejecters. The survey did not explicitly ask participants if they consider themselves to be Christian nationalists because many people don’t want to be conflated with the extremist stereotypes attached to the title.
In a 2025 CNN interview, Wilson said he embraced the term Christian nationalist, however, because he preferred it to the other names he was getting called. He added: “I’m not a White nationalist. I’m not a fascist. I’m not a racist.”
According to the survey data, Christian nationalists are more likely to believe the country should be more patriarchal, favor Trump, vote Republican, hold anti-immigrant views and believe true patriotism might require violence.
“If you think about Christian nationalism as a means to power, what has made Trump so popular with Christian nationalist leaders is that he’s been willing to enact policies that reflect their worldview,” Deckman said.
Trump has appointed conservative judges, including those who eventually overturned Roe v. Wade. He declared a war on gender ideology in a way that appeals to Christian nationalists; rolled back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives; decried wokeness; and created a task force to eradicate anti-Christian bias in the country.
“I think many feminists find it surprising that this movement is often just as endorsed by women as men,” Deckman said. “There are lots of women for whom that worldview meshes with their own religious and cultural beliefs. It’s not a majority, but that’s a pretty consistent finding.”
CNN Chief Investigative Correspondent Pamela Brown, who has a documentary on Christian nationalism premiering Sunday, interviewed Wilson last year and later went to Texas to spend a weekend in a church connected to him.
“Doug Wilson is emblematic of the movement,” Brown said. “And as he told me, he’s been preaching the same things for decades and hasn’t changed his message, but he argues society is now moving toward him.”
Among those identified as Christian nationalist adherents, women tend to have differing views on gender than men, according to PRRI. For instance, 89 percent of men identified as Christian nationalist adherents think society is “too soft and feminine,” compared with just 61 percent of women. Christian nationalist women are also 21 points less likely than men to think that women’s gains have come at men’s expense. And women are nearly 30 points less likely to support policies that encourage Americans to have more children.
Brown talked to one woman in Texas who held a combat role in the Army and had plans to go to medical school before she gave all that up to get married, becoming a stay-at-home mom and a submissive wife. Another woman told Brown that her husband was the provider and decider and her role was to “glorify the home, make nice dishes and make a nice place for him to come to.”
“The women I interviewed there in Taylor said they’re flourishing, that they don’t feel oppressed, that this is what they believe the Bible tells them is how they should be in a marriage and that it’s the natural way a marriage should be,” Brown said.
But not everyone she spoke with was happy with the Christian community, Brown said. She also spoke to a group of women who had left their Christian nationalist communities due to emotional or physical abuse.
“These women had a different experience, and they did feel oppressed, like they didn’t have any agency,” Brown said. “A lot of them talked about developing health issues. And some even left with their husbands.”
Wilson told Brown that his church network saw membership skyrocket during the COVID-19 pandemic as many people found a sense of certainty and a black-and-white blueprint to live by in uncertain times.
But, experts say, it relies on a “modern day myth” that the United States was intended by the founders to be a Christian-only nation.
“If taken to its natural ends, Christian nationalism is antithetical to democracy,” Brown said.
