What is causing the American public to move more openly into alt-right terrain? What explains the uptick in anti-immigrant hysteria, isolationism, and an increasing willingness to support alternatives to democratic governance? The Everyday Crusade provides an answer. The book points to American Religious Exceptionalism (ARE), a widely held religious nationalist ideology steeped in myth about the nation’s original purpose. The book opens with a comprehensive synthesis of research on nationalism and religion in American public opinion. Making use of survey data spanning three different presidential administrations, it then develops a new theory of why Americans form extremist attitudes, based on religious exceptionalism myths. The book closes with an examination of what’s next for an American public that confronts new global issues, alongside existing challenges to perceived cultural authority. Timely and enlightening, The Everyday Crusade offers a critical touchstone for better understanding American national identity and the exclusionary ideologies that have plagued the nation since its inception.

The Everyday Crusade is available from the publisher, Cambridge University Press and Amazon.

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Church political activism results from complex negotiations between the pastor and the congregation. The church’s traditions, its institutional organization, and its cultural traditions influence the choice to make politics part of the church’s mission. The needs of the local community and opportunities to vote, lobby, campaign, or protest are also significant factors. By probing the dynamics of churches as social groups, this research opens new perspectives on civil rights history and the evangelical politics of the twenty-first century. Politics in the Pews contributes to a clearer understanding of the forces that motivate any organization, religious or otherwise, to engage in politics.

Politics in the Pews is available from the publisher, The University of Michigan Press and Amazon.

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