How Christian nationalism differs among Hispanic Protestants and Catholics: New study

Natalie Demaree, The Charlotte Observer on Mar 19, 2025

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Support for Christian nationalist ideology differs among Hispanic Protestants and Catholics depending on how individuals identify themselves racially, according to a new study.

Christian nationalists believe Christian values should be fused with the nation’s identity, experts said. Half of all Americans believe the U.S. is a Christian nation that should be based on Christian values, a previous survey found, McClatchy News reported in October.

Among all Hispanic Americans, however, 67% are skeptics or rejecters of Christian nationalism, while 28% are adherents or sympathizers of the ideology, according to a March 17 Public Religion Research Institute analysis. Five percent of respondents skipped the question or said they did not know.

The survey found that Hispanic Protestants are more likely than Hispanic Catholics to say they are adherents or sympathizers of the ideology, 57% compared to 26%.

The study also analyzed how support varied based on how respondents identified.

A majority, 58%, of Hispanic Protestants who identify as white are adherents or sympathizers of Christian nationalist views, while 43% of Hispanic Protestants who identify as non-white said the same. But when it comes to Hispanic Catholics, it’s those who identify as non-white that are more likely to support Christian nationalism, with 36% compared to 25% of those who identify as white, according to the analysis.

The 2024 PRRI American Values Atlas — which this analysis came from — estimates support for Christian nationalism across the U.S. The survey of 22,260 U.S. adults was conducted between March 13 and Dec. 2, 2024. It has a margin of error of 0.84 percentage points.

The findings highlight nuances within the racial and religious identities of Hispanic Americans that challenge previously held assumptions, researchers said.

“Whiteness does not automatically predict one stable set of values for Hispanic Americans but is rather dependent on the way whiteness informs and is informed by other identities, such as religious affiliation,” researchers said in the analysis.

Researchers also pointed out that many Hispanic Christians have experience with Christian nationalist ideas in their home country, so their relationship to the ideology may be unrelated to the U.S. but can still inform their identity as an immigrant.

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