Andrew L. Whitehead

TL;DR: The authors found that greater adherence to Christian nationalist ideology was a robust predictor of voting for Donald Trump, even after controlling for economic dissatisfaction, sexism, antiblack prejudice, anti-Muslim refugee attitudes and anti-immigrant sentiment, as well as measures of religion, sociodemographics, and political identity more generally.

Abstract: Taking America Back for God conclusively reveals that understanding the current cultural and political climate in the United States requires reckoning with Christian nationalism. Christian ideals and symbols have long played an important role in public life in the United States, but Christian nationalism demands far more than a recognition of religious heritage. At heart, Christian nationalism fights to preserve a particular kind of social order, an order in which everyone—Christians and non-Christians, native-born and immigrants, whites and minorities, men and women—recognizes their “proper” place in society. The first comprehensive empirical analysis of Christian nationalism in the United States, Taking America Back for God illustrates the scope and tremendous influence of Christian nationalism on debates surrounding the most contentious social issues dominating American public discourse. Drawing on multiple sources of national survey data collected over the past several decades and in-depth interviews, Whitehead and Perry document how Christian nationalism radically shapes what Americans think about who they are as a people, what their future should look like, and how they should get there. Regardless of Americans’ political or religious characteristics, whether they are Ambassadors, Accommodators, Resisters, or Rejecters of Christian nationalism provides powerful insight into what they think about immigration, Muslims, gun control, police shootings, atheists, gender roles, and many other political issues—even who they want in the White House. Taking America Back for God convincingly shows how Christian nationalists’ desire for political power, rigid social boundaries, and hierarchical order creates significant consequences for all Americans.

TL;DR: This paper investigated the extent to which religion predicts certain attribution beliefs as well as attitudes toward samesex unions while controlling for attribution beliefs and found that religion is strongly associated with the belief that homosexuals choose their sexual orientation.

TL;DR: The authors found that the far right response was driven less by partisanship or religiosity per se, but rather by an ideology that connects disregard for scientific expertise; a conception of Americans as God's chosen and protected people; distrust for news media; and allegiance to Trump.

TL;DR: For instance, this paper found that the attachment theory, religious coping, and symbolic interaction are complementary and that secure attachment styles, reliable coping strategies, and positive self-images work in tandem to facilitate a sense of meaning and purpose.