Funding God’s policies, defending whiteness: Christian nationalism and whites’ attitudes towards racially-coded government spending.

Abstract

ABSTRACTResearch shows that white Americans who subscribe to “Christian nationalism” – an ideology that fuses Christianity with civic life – tend to draw more rigid racial boundaries. Such research, however, has focused on overt forms of racial prejudices. None have considered how Christian nationalism may influence whites’ covert expressions of racism which are often more relevant for the reproduction of inequality. This study addresses this gap by examining Christian nationalism’s influence on whites’ relative support for government spending that is racially-coded, using data from a nationally random sample. Multivariate analyses demonstrate that whites who more strongly adhere to Christian nationalism are less supportive of welfare spending and more supportive of border spending and spending to reduce crime relative to more racially-neutral government expenses. Findings suggest that resurgent Christian nationalism associated with Trumpism not only reinforces overt expressions of racism, but also undergirds more covert, “colorblind” expressions shaping the policy opinions of white Americans.