Date of Award

Spring 6-1-2026

Document Type

Honors Project

University Scholars Director

Dr. Joshua Tom

First Advisor/Committee Member

Dr. Jennifer McKinney

Second Advisor/Committee Member

Dr. Joshua Tom

Keywords

Christian nationalism, free speech, First Amendment, rights, authoritarian

Abstract

Christian nationalism can be defined as an ideology advocating for the fusion of Christianity with American civic life. While the First Amendment protects freedom of speech and religion, Christian nationalism has been linked to limiting the rights of those who do not fit into their vision for America. Citing the belief that America was founded as and should continue to be a Christian nation, Christian nationalists hold an exclusionary view of America, pointing to a relationship between Christian nationalist ideology and a limiting freedom of speech for stigmatized groups. This project uses data from the General Social Survey, 2021, (N = 4,032) which asked American adults questions about their attitudes toward Christian government and their beliefs about freedom of speech for perceived social outgroups, racists, and proponents of a military-led government. Using both linear and logistic regression and controlling for a variety of sociodemographic factors, the relationship between Christian nationalism and beliefs about freedom of speech are examined. Regression models show that support for Christian government is a significant predictor of support for freedom of speech for perceived social outgroups and militarists, with Christian nationalists being less likely to support freedom of speech for both groups. Regression models show that Christian nationalism is not a significant predictor for freedom of speech for racists.

Comments

A project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the University Scholars Honors Program.

Copyright Status

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Additional Rights Information

Copyright held by author.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

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