Christian Nationalism, Race, and Contingent Support for Law Enforcement: Results from Two Survey Experiments

• In Event: Crime, Law and Deviance Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 9: Race and Privilege

Abstract

Research shows a strong link between right-wing Christianity and support for law enforcement across a variety of domains. Integrating insights from group identity theory with research on Christian nationalism, we theorize the Christian right’s support for law enforcement is contingent on the assumption that police will control ethnoracial out-groups. Consequently, we expect support to be amplified when out-group valence is amplified and reversed if law enforcement is coded as threatening an in-group. We draw on two national surveys with question-wording experiments (PRRI 2022 Christian Nationalism Survey; PRRI 2025 American Values Survey). In both surveys, Christian nationalism slightly increased generic favorability toward “local police” or “the police.” However, in 2022, Christian nationalism strongly reduced favorability toward “Capitol police” and, in 2025, Christian nationalism strongly elevated favorability toward “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.” These patterns are largely driven by White Americans, suggesting those who subscribe to Christian nationalism viewed the Capitol police (in 2022) as hostile, and viewed ICE (in 2025) as controlling ethnoracial out-groups. We argue that right-wing Christian support for law enforcement stems not from a commitment to “law and order,” but to the use of state authority to privilege White conservative Christians and control ethnoracial out-group threats.

Authors

• Christopher H. Seto, Purdue University

• Popy Begum, Saint Louis University

• Darci Kathleen Schmidgall, University of Oklahoma

• Samuel L. Perry, University of Oklahoma