Historical Fundamentalism? Christian Nationalism and Ignorance About Religion in American Political History

Religious right leaders often promulgate views of Christianity's historical preeminence, privilege, and persecution in the United States that are factually incorrect, suggesting credulity, ignorance, or perhaps, a form of ideologically motivated ignorance on the part of their audience. This stu...

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Bibliographische Detailangaben
VerfasserInnen: Perry, Samuel L. (VerfasserIn) ; Braunstein, Ruth 1981- (VerfasserIn) ; Gorski, Philip S. 1963- (VerfasserIn) ; Grubbs, Joshua B. (VerfasserIn)
Medienart: Elektronisch Aufsatz
Sprache:Englisch
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Veröffentlicht: Wiley-Blackwell 2022
In: Journal for the scientific study of religion
Jahr: 2022, Band: 61, Heft: 1, Seiten: 21-40
normierte Schlagwort(-folgen):B USA / Neue Christliche Rechte / Politik / Religion / Fehlinformation / Geschichte
RelBib Classification:CG Christentum und Politik
CH Christentum und Gesellschaft
KAH Kirchengeschichte 1648-1913; Neuzeit
KAJ Kirchengeschichte 1914-; neueste Zeit
KBQ Nordamerika
SA Kirchenrecht; Staatskirchenrecht
weitere Schlagwörter:B Christian Nationalism
B America
B Religion
B Politics
B History
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Zusammenfassung:Religious right leaders often promulgate views of Christianity's historical preeminence, privilege, and persecution in the United States that are factually incorrect, suggesting credulity, ignorance, or perhaps, a form of ideologically motivated ignorance on the part of their audience. This study examines whether Christian nationalism predicts explicit misconceptions regarding religion in American political history and explores theories about the connection. Analyzing nationally representative panel data containing true/false statements about religion's place in America's founding documents, policies, and court decisions, Christian nationalism is the strongest predictor that Americans fail to affirm factually correct answers. This association is stronger among whites compared to black Americans and religiosity actually predicts selecting factually correct answers once we account for Christian nationalism. Analyses of “do not know” response patterns find more confident correct answers from Americans who reject Christian nationalism and more confident incorrect answers from Americans who embrace Christian nationalism. We theorize that, much like conservative Christians have been shown to incorrectly answer science questions that are “religiously contested,” Christian nationalism inclines Americans to affirm factually incorrect views about religion in American political history, likely through their exposure to certain disseminators of such misinformation, but also through their allegiance to a particular political-cultural narrative they wish to privilege.
ISSN:1468-5906
Enthält:Enthalten in: Journal for the scientific study of religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/jssr.12760