March 2026 Newsletter

Issue #109

Christian nationalism is an ideology merging American identity with a specific, often fundamentalist, interpretation of Christianity, holding that the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation and that the government should actively promote this status. It seeks to blend Christian values with public policy, sometimes creating, an exclusionary atmosphere regarding non-Christians and

non-white citizens.

American Civil Liberties Union

Key attributes often include:

• Believing that being a "true American" is inherently tied to being Christian, which frames religious minorities and the non-religious as "second-class citizens" or outsiders.

• Advocating for policies that enforce a specific religious moral order, such as requiring the Ten Commandments in public schools or restricting rights for groups (like LGBTQ+ individuals) that conflict with their interpretations of scripture.

• Undermining the separation of Church and State by seeking to merge religious and

secular authority.

• Emboldens hostility or violence toward religious minorities, as their presence is viewed as a threat to the nation’s "divinely

ordained" identity.

• Less likely to have regular, meaningful interactions with people of other faiths, which can decrease empathy and mutual understanding. 

Center for American Progress

Statistics

30–33% of U.S. adults identify as Christian nationalism adherents or sympathizers.

             Public Religion Research Institute

46% of White Christians identify as Christian nationalists, including 67% of White evangelical Protestants and 54% of Hispanic Protestants.

Public Religion Research Institute

54% of those who attend religious services weekly or more, qualify as Christian nationalists.

Public Religion Research Institute

The states with the highest levels of support for Christian nationalism are Arkansas (54%), Mississippi (52%), West Virginia (51%), Oklahoma (49%), and Wyoming (46%).

Public Religion Research Institute

53% of Christian nationalism sympathizers agree that “because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence to save the country.”

Public Religion Research Institute

Immigration

67% of Christian nationalism adherents and 53% sympathizers believe that “immigrants are invading our country and replacing our cultural and ethnic background.”

Public Religion Research Institute

54% of Christian nationalism sympathizers agree with “the U.S. government deporting undocumented immigrants to foreign prisons without due process.”

Public Religion Research Institute

56% of Christian nationalism sympathizers agree with “stripping U.S. citizens of their citizenship and deporting them if they are determined to be a threat to the country.”

Public Religion Research Institute

58% of Christian nationalism sympathizers agree that immigrants entering the country illegally today are “poisoning the blood of our country.”

Public Religion Research Institute

Vaccinations

34% of Christian nationalists say that mandatory vaccines for children should be illegal in all or

most cases.

Public Religion Research Institute

Conspiracy Theories

50% of Christian nationalist adherents and 32% of sympathizers endorse Q-Anon beliefs, compared with 19% of Americans nationally.

Public Religion Research Institute

Prosperity Gospel

76% of U.S. Protestant churchgoers—a key demographic for Christian Nationalism—agree that God wants them to prosper financially, and 52% say their church teaches that giving money results in divine blessings.

Lifeway Research

Gender

30% of women qualifying as adherents or sympathizers of Christian nationalism.

Public Religion Research Institute

51% of Christian nationalism sympathizers agree that in a "truly Christian family, the husband is the head of the household, and his wife submits to

his leadership."

Public Religion Research Institute

73% of Christian nationalists agree that society as a whole has become too soft and feminine.

Public Religion Research Institute

54% of Christian nationalism sympathizers agree with the statement, “Society is better off when men and women stick to the jobs and tasks they are naturally suited for,” compared to 35% of

all Americans.

Public Religion Research Institute

Voting Rights

A 2026 analysis of 3,000 American Christians found that 20% support repealing women's right to vote, (the 19th Amendment), including 24% of men and 17% of women.

Religion in Public

Education

There has been a 90% increase in classical, right-wing charter schools since 2016, with many adopting curricula aimed at promoting specific, often revisionist, narratives of American history.

Public Religion Research Institute

Gun Rights

49% of those identifying as Christian nationalists support access to guns.

Public Religion Research Institute

Authoritarianism

Christian nationalism adherents stand out as the most authoritarian group: 79% score high or very high, while only 7% score low or very low.

Public Religion Research Institute

For more on Religious Intolerance, click here.

The Gospel of Revolution

A documentary from Icarus Films that focuses on the phenomenon of Liberation Theology in Central America, examining key figures and tracing the history of the movement. Through archival footage and contemporary interviews, the film shows how radical Catholics in Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Brazil, fought injustice alongside peasants, workers, and Indigenous people, refusing to accept poverty and oppression At a time when evangelical Christianity is on the rise and associated with conservative politics, serves as a reminder that it doesn’t have to be this way. Watch the trailer.

For more Justice resources, click here.

Worship, Justice, and Joy:

A Liturgical Pilgrimage

By Neal D. Presa. Connects the pilgrimage of life and faith to parallel movements of worship as communities gather to hear, read, proclaim, receive, and witness to the word of God. The author sees that the entirety of life is worship, the totality of the world is the arena of God’s work of justice in which we participate, and in being connected to God and to God’s work, there lies the core of joy. Draws upon liturgical theology, ritual studies, and is a guide for living out faith everyday, in community, for the common good of justice in the world. Read more.

For more Justice resources, click here.

The Stations of the Cross for

Migrants and Immigrants

A resource from the Archdiocese of Seattle and Daylesford Abbey. Each of the 15 stations has an image, prayers, a Scripture reading and a reflection of Christ's suffering in the plight of migrant people in our world today. Learn more.

For more on Immigration, click here.

Hope on the Border: Immigration, Incarceration, and the Power of Poetry 

By Seth Michelson. Faces the U.S. immigration crisis head on―by learning and sharing the stories of migrating people fleeing violence and poverty, and from minors held inside a maximum-security detention center. Using poetry, the children share their pasts, struggles, hopes, and dreams. Among them, Carlitos, a 13-year-old boy who escaped a gang to try to make a safe and honest life on his own after his mother’s death, and Karla, a teenager whose family begged her to flee for safety after she was shot. Introduces readers to migrating people at the border, including a woman who was chased from her home amid violence, and a dedicated father who was arrested and beaten while searching for work to make a more secure life for his wife and daughter. Offers insights into ways we might create a better immigration system that treats all people with dignity. Read more.

For more on Immigration, click here.

In Guns We Trust: The Unholy Trinity of White Evangelicals, Politics, and Firearms

By William J. Kole. Takes readers into sanctuaries where worshippers raise hands and pack heat; to a rural church that does outreach through target practice with assault rifles; and into the lucrative gun-making industry, in which evangelicals play an outsized role. Introduces global Christians who can't imagine owning firearms and dissidents in the US who are working for change -- including activists beating guns into garden tools, and nuns who bought company stock so they could sue a gun manufacturer. Through research, interviews, and narrative, the book pulls back the curtain on a locked-and-loaded Christianity. Argues that ignoring gun-toting believers means the violence will continue. But when intentional conversation and faithful resistance bear fruit, peace may yet prevail. Read more.

For more on Gun Violence, click here.

The Student Debt Crisis:

America’s Moral Urgency

By Jamal Watson. Based on extensive interviews with students, college administrators, policymakers, and other leaders, illuminates one of the nation's most urgent and pressing civil rights questions of the last three decades -- the history and current state of the student debt crisis in the US. With a focus on the moral imperative of ensuring equal access to higher education, highlights the disproportionate impact of student debt on Black and brown students, particularly Black women. By delving into the history and practical realities of student debt, sheds light on the challenges faced by debt-laden college graduates and non-graduates alike. From the rising number of borrowers defaulting on their loans to the barriers that hinder accessibility for those from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, offers a deeper understanding of the student debt crisis. Read more.

For more on the Education System, click here.

A Different Way to Measure Success in

Health Care

 A TED Talk, featuring eye surgeon Andrew Bastawrous, who after building a smartphone app to bring eye care to millions of people in remote areas, asks "What do we lose when health care chases speed and efficiency?" Then he offers a quiet provocation how to get better outcomes for patients and health care workers alike. Watch now.

For more on Health Care, click here.

The Tiny Organisms Transforming Farming

A TED Talk, featuring bioengineer Karsten Temme, who says that the key to feeding humanity has been hiding in the soil for millions of years. Crops relied on soil microbes to convert atmospheric nitrogen into food — until modern farming severed that ancient partnership. He shows how we can reawaken those dormant microbes using gene editing, creating “living fertilizer” that delivers nutrients to crops and transforms farms around the world. Watch now.

For more on Hunger, click here.

Food Fight: How What We Eat is Weaponized

Edited by Miguel A. De La Torre. Unveils the intersections of food, environmental injustice, and social disenfranchisement from a global perspective. Invites readers into the essential theological work of decentering colonialism. Read more.

For more on Hunger, click here.

Catholic Social Teaching --

Revealing the Treasure

By James J. Bacik. This book is divided into four chapters. The first deals with Catholic Social Teaching as an organic developing tradition with a prehistory of influential movements and a post-history of diverse responses to the official teachings. The second chapter includes commentaries on the seven themes of Catholic Social Teaching as identified by the U.S. bishops. The third chapter analyses and comments on the major pastoral letters of the U.S. bishops. The final chapter has a series of meditations on important justice and peace issues with personal examples and questions to guide reflection. Read more.

For more Catholic Social Teaching resources,

click here.

Light for the Way: Seeking Simplicity, Connection, and Repair in a Broken World 

A collection of pieces from the last fifty years of Sojourners magazine, exploring how contemplative practices, rest, simplicity, environmental engagement, and communal care are essential for sustaining resistance and repairing the world. Includes essays from spiritual writers, including Julia Alvarez, Margaret Atwood, Walter Brueggemann, Kaitlin Curtice, Rosemarie Freeney Harding, and Richard Rohr. Read more.

For more Justice resources, click here.

The Missing Piece in Climate Action

A TED Talk, featuring Yi Li, co-founder of Farmworks, who tells the story of her plan to build 1,000 climate-smart farms across Kenya, complete with dams, irrigation and organic fertilizers. The science was sound, but reality proved more complicated. She shares what she discovered along the way about the missing ingredient behind failed climate solutions — and how it challenges a core assumption of the environmental movement on how to create lasting impact. Watch now.

For more on the Environment, click here.

Stand.earth

A nonprofit organization that challenges corporations and governments to treat people and the environment with respect. Investigates, exposes, organizes, collaborates, and resolves-- applying a just-right strategy to each issue it addresses. Its approach makes it one of the most efficient, effective problem-solving entities working on climate and environmental issues today. Learn more.

For more on the Environment, click here.

With My People: Life, Justice, and Activism Beyond the University

By Jonathan Pulphus. Tells the story of the author's journey toward justice after Michael Brown's murder in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. Suggests how should students organize by bringing together ethnography and notes on community-building, taking readers on a yearlong journey from the front lines of Ferguson to undergraduate campus life at Saint Louis University. Using the author's account of events and notes to students, reveals how youth can navigate setbacks to resist state violence and create opportunities for justice to prevail. Learn more.

For more on Public Witnessing resources,

click here.

The Beatitudes Center for the

Nonviolent Jesus

A nonprofit organization that strives to teach and promote the nonviolence of Jesus, to help end violence and to create a new culture of nonviolence through workshops, podcasts, and conferences. Also offers programs, books and the weekly Nonviolent Jesus podcast with John Dear. Learn more.

For more Peace resources, click here.

Prayer

O God let us do something!

If we cannot protest, let us pray.

If we cannot speak, let us serve.

If we cannot march, let us serve in mercy.

If we cannot chant, let us offer comfort.

If we cannot rally, let us reach in compassion.

If we cannot change the world, let us care for the corner of it that is ours.

O God, let us do something, for the sake of love.

Bishop Deon K. Johnson

Since 2017, there have been more than 500,000 visitors to the Social Justice Resource Center website. We provide a wide variety of facts and figures on specific social issues as well as thousands of free resources including films, publications, links to other organizations, prayers, quotes, principles of social justice, key dates throughout the year, action ideas, Diocesan office contact information and biographies of famous people who have worked for social justice.

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