Not Just Proud Boys: Women Espouse Christian Nationalist Views Too

PRRI’s CEO Melissa Deckman, Ph.D., writes in a new spotlight analysis that more than two years after the January 6 attack, our nation continues to grapple with the challenges to democracy. The Proud Boys, who played a disproportionate role in organizing the events of the insurrection, do not allow women to become members. Regardless of the Proud Boys’ exclusionary tactics, data from a recent PRRI/Brookings survey on Christian nationalism show that women are just as likely as men to embrace nationalist views, including traditional gender hierarchies. Nearly 7 in 10 Christian nationalism adherents (69%) agree that “in a truly Christian family, the husband is the head of the household, and his wife submits to his leadership.” Conversely, two-thirds (64%) of Americans overall disagree with that sentiment. Deckman writes that today, conservative elected officials like Marjorie Taylor Green are following Phyllis Schlafly’s example, appealing to a traditional family structure which can hold strong political appeal for both women and men.

From Christchurch to Emanuel AME, We Must Recognize the Patterns of White Supremacy

Danielle N. Boaz writes for Religion News Service that in the past 10 years alone, North America has seen white supremacists carry out mass shootings at multiple religious sites. She cites a recent report published by the International Commission to Combat Religious Racism (ICCRR) suggests these attacks are not rare, and the perpetrators are seldom acting alone. The ICCRR report found that the perpetrators of these attacks were nearly all white males, and many were part of larger conspiracies and tied to white supremacy ideology. In total, nearly two-thirds of the cases involved a series of attacks, multiple perpetrators, and/or affiliation with an extremist group. Boaz also highlights PRRI’s recent study, which found that Christian nationalism adherents overwhelmingly agreed with arguments that are fueling racially motivated attacks on places of worship: more than 70% believe immigrants are “invading our country and replacing our cultural and ethnic background,” and more than two-thirds believe people from some majority-Muslim countries should be prevented from entering the United States.

Parents’ Rights: Republicans Wage Education Culture War As 2024 Looms

Lauren Gambino for The Guardian reports the debate over parent’s rights took center stage in the House last week, where Republicans broke into cheers after narrowly advancing their “Parents Bill of Rights.” The bill outlines five pillars that Republicans say will guarantee a parent’s right to scrutinize library books and classroom curricula and review school budgets, in addition to requiring a parent’s consent before a student is allowed to change their gender designation, pronouns, or name. The origins of the “parents’ rights” movement can be traced back to the 1925 “trial of the century” in which a Tennessee biology teacher was fined for teaching evolution in violation of state law. The term has come to fore again, though it has previously been centered around desegregation, the red scare, sex education, and homeschooling. “The idea of parents’ rights is really nothing new in American politics,” said PRRI’s CEO Melissa Deckman. PRRI research finds that Republicans (84%) and Democrats (95%) support efforts to tell the truth about the history of slavery, violence, and discrimination against racial minorities.

Ancient Judaism Recognized a Range of Genders

“In recent years, I’ve accompanied mourners through the losses of many more very young trans people than in the past,” writes Elliot Kukla in The New York Times. Kukla is a transgender and nonbinary rabbi who has offered bereavement spiritual care for the past 17 years. In 2023, more than 450 bills have been introduced in 44 states, according to the Trans Legislation Tracker. Kukla continues: “This legislative attack is often framed as a battle between traditional religious values and modern ideas about gender. But […] we have always existed, including within age-old religions.” For example, in Judaism, some of the most sacred texts reflect a multiplicity of gender: there are four genders beyond male or female that appear in ancient Jewish holy texts hundreds of times. Furthermore, Kukla highlights that in the Mishna, the oldest and most authoritative source of Jewish legal theory, anyone who kills or harms an “androgynos” (either accidentally or on purpose) is subject to the exact same ramifications as someone who hurts a man or woman.

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Read PRRI’s new LGBTQ report “More Acceptance but Growing Polarization on LGBTQ Rights: Findings From the 2022 American Values Atlas” here.