Only One Nation Under God: How White Christian Nationalism and Racial Threat Can Drive Sustained Extremist Belief

Throughout American history, racial status threat has materialized into White Christian nationalism. From the historical tie between support for the Ku Klux Klan and fear of the US unbecoming a Christian nation, to the Obama years, fear of future racial diversification has been deeply connected with White Christian nationalist sense of identity. Today, concern over race-mixing and diversification has burgeoned into support for Donald Trump and the Republican Party. The purpose of this research is to discuss how racial status threat is materializing and motivating extreme views across the country, and to empirically validate how White Christian nationalism can drive extremism and increased democratic erosion. The findings of this paper split into two groups: among the most expressively Christian nationalists, concerns about the changing country drive up support for use of political violence to protect their sense of a White Christian Nation. Among White Christians, it becomes apparent that the idea of future racial diversification leads to more polarized, racially threatened, Republican-oriented, anti-democratic views. The analysis reveals a jarring shifting of democratic norms that are increasingly susceptible to inflammatory mis/disinformation on social media that is likely to have an even stronger and sustained effect.