The Mama Bears: Maternal Christian Nationalism in the US from 1970 to 2025

• In Event: Diverse Visions and Perspectives on the Sociology of Religion

Abstract

This paper introduces the concept of "maternal Christian nationalism," a gendered political strategy that mobilizes motherhood to redraw lines of national inclusion and exclusion while constructing the nation as inherently Christian. Drawing on ten years of ethnographic research, archival analysis, and 85 in-depth interviews with conservative Christian women across the United States, I trace the political formation of right-wing "Mama Bears" from 1970 to 2025. The paper reveals three interrelated logics through which maternal Christian nationalism operates: maternal protection, national responsibility, and bridged belonging. Conservative Christian mothers frame their activism as divinely mandated child protection rather than as partisan politics, claiming maternal authority to guard children from perceived threats, which change throughout history. They position themselves as responsible for preserving the nation's moral purity by reproducing Christian values and traditional gender roles across generations. Significantly, contemporary conservative motherhood movements differ markedly from their predecessors in racial and ethnic composition. While organizations like Concerned Women for America was comprised primarily white, middle-class women, today's MAGA-aligned groups like Moms for Liberty and Don't Mess with Our Kids attract diverse coalitions of Latina, Black, Asian, and white mothers. I argue that Christian motherhood operates as an identity bridge, enabling conditional inclusion of women of color through shared religious and maternal identities while maintaining core commitments to white supremacy, heteronormativity, and Christian moral authority. This research extends and sharpens theories of Christian nationalism by providing an empirical example of how the interplay of nation, gender, and religion converge into maternal Christian nationalism. It demonstrates how motherhood serves as contested terrain through which nationalist movements build diverse coalitions without relinquishing exclusionary politics, and reveals an often-underestimated force in American politics: right-wing Christian women who actively participate in nation-building projects that shape contemporary Trumpism.

Author

• Katie Christine Gaddini, University College London