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Samuel Perry

@profsamperry

Aug 11

Whatever the Founders thought about church & state may help inform us. But honestly I care so much less about what Madison meant in the establishment clause or what Jefferson meant by "wall of separation," than what is right for us now & going forward. (And I think they'd agree.)

It actually plays into a weird Christian nationalist game with CN assumptions to throw quotes from the Founders at each other like they're Bible verses. ("If we could only get down to what Madison REALLY meant, we'd just do that forever.") Times change. He & TJ understood that.

I'm not in any way suggesting the Constitution/Declaration aren't important. We have foundational creeds & rights. But I'm saying the documents aren't Scripture, originalism is dumb, and we should care the most about what's right now given our reality & change what doesn't work.

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Samuel Perry

@profsamperry

Jul 8

🧵 In the thick of book-writing, I've been thinking a lot about how non-social scientists intuitively define "religious." I think average folk get closer to the heart of what religion is: sacralized us-ness, demonstrated more by proven loyalty than rituals, doctrines, morals. 1/4

Here's an example. March 2021, Pew asked Americans how religious are Donald Trump & Joe Biden. By traditional criteria, Biden is quite religious. Trump not religious at all. But as Americans affirm #ChristianNationalism, they're WAY more likely to say Trump is religious. Why? 2/4

Most obviously because folks who strongly affirm CN genuinely believe Trump demonstrates fidelity to "our group." Joe Biden hasn't. Whether Trump attends church, prays, affirms orthodox doctrine, or demonstrates Christ-like behavior means nothing.

What if "religious"... 3/4

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Samuel Perry

@profsamperry

Jun 25

Clearly being conservative is correlated with opposing abortion. But is it correlated w/actually having abortions? Data from Regnerus's 2014 RIA survey. As women swing more conservative, they oppose abortion. But conservative women are hardly any less likely to have had one. 1/3

Same story when we're looking at the average number of abortions women report. Across political ideology, women in the survey reported between .37 & .49 abortions (zeroes bring avg down). But again conservativism more associated with opposing abortion in theory than practice. 2/3

Disclaimer: I can't tell what came first. Maybe conservative women had abortions in their past, became conservative, felt bad, & then opposed them. Regardless, conservatism tells us little about women's personal experience w/abortion. Just their views.
thearda.com/Archive/Files/… 3/3

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Samuel Perry

@profsamperry

Jun 12

🧵It's #LovingDay. Interracial families are what initially got me interested in white #ChristianNationalism. Our first study. We found this weird pattern: even though CN questions never mention race, whites higher on CN were more likely to oppose interracial marriage. Why? 1/6

Curious, we found the same pattern regarding transracial adoption. Whites higher on #ChristianNationalism were less supportive of people adopting children of a different race. Why?

These patterns indicate CN:
1) is racialized.
2) sacralizes rigid boundaries & social order. 2/6

For whites, we've shown indicators of #ChristianNationalism are read through the lens of white experiences & myths. Talk of "Christian nation/heritage" is heard as "our nation/heritage." In other words, CN questions have implied ethno-racial content: "our kind of Christian." 3/6

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Samuel Perry

@profsamperry

Jun 3

@ndrewwhitehead

Looks like Christian Nationalism is trending. For those interested, follow & read scholarship by @ndrewwhitehead @GorskiPhilip @RuthBraunstein @AntheaButler @kkdumez @praxishabitus, @Marah_Alkire @MikeyPasek @Shortle @EricLMcDaniel @RiccardiSwartz & myself. #ChristianNationalism

@ndrewwhitehead

@ndrewwhitehead @GorskiPhilip @RuthBraunstein @AntheaButler @kkdumez @praxishabitus @Marah_Alkire @MikeyPasek @Shortle @EricLMcDaniel @RiccardiSwartz Along with other scholars like @PennyEMN @EvanStewart23 @jack_dele @MilesArmaly @PaulDjupe and journalists & writers like @jackmjenkins @sarahposner @kathsstewart @anelsona @AndrewLSeidel and @PaulDMiller2.

@JemarTisby

And of course there are other writers, activists, & leaders who write about a variety of threats to democracy and faith that include Christian Nationalism like @JemarTisby @AmandaTylerBJC @BradleyOnishi @marcia_pally.

Please tag anyone I missed.

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Samuel Perry

@profsamperry

May 28

Here's where you can lead disingenuous partisans like Ted Cruz when they insist declining church attendance causes gun deaths. Sad fact is gun deaths RISE w/the % of state who attends weekly & they FALL as the % of a state who seldom/never attends increases. Strong correlations.

But why stop there? Here we see gun deaths also rise with the percent of a state's adult population who is Evangelical Protestant. A VERY strong correlation, in fact. (Religion data taken from Pew Religious Landscape Study, btw)

And one more. Here we see gun deaths FALL as the percent of a state's adult population who is religiously unaffiliated increases. Not as strong a correlation ("unaffiliated" is a problematic catch-all). But definitely DOES NOT show declining connection to religion ➡️ gun deaths.

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