We shall overcome?

News of the results from a recent survey by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and the Brookings Institution has again stoked fears about the influence of Christian nationalism in the United States. The poll measured respondents’ attachment to propositions that indicate support for Christian nationalism. For some, the numbers are alarming. What adds to the survey’s import is its reach. The poll, which received responses from over 6,000 Americans, is claimed to be the largest survey yet to measure the appeal of Christian conceptions of American nationalism.

According to Robert P. Jones, president and founder of PRRI, one of the survey’s most striking findings is the correlation between church attendance and Christian nationalism. “There’s a strong positive correlation between frequency of church attendance and likelihood of being a Christian nationalism adherent or sympathizer,” Jones said. “Christian nationalism adherents are more than six times as likely as Christian nationalism rejectors to attend church weekly.”

Anyone who remembers President Joe Biden’s sermon at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church on the Sunday before Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (Jan. 15) may wonder if the PRRI/Brookings poll included church members who applauded Mr. Biden’s exhortations from the church’s pulpit. Ebenezer Baptist is the congregation where King spent most of his ministerial career. Its current senior pastor, Raphael Warnock, is the Democratic U.S. senator from Georgia. Biden’s presence was hardly surprising given Mr. King’s contribution or Mr. Warnock’s budding political career.

But the PRRI/Brookings survey does raise questions about Christian nationalist elements in such events.

Rather than regarding Mr. Biden’s sermon (more like a political speech) as a threat to the secular character of American government, believers should realize that Christian nationalism can often be just a bland and predictable form of American exceptionalism.

One the one hand, Mr. Biden did what presidents always do—he turned the ideals of American government into Christian categories. According to the president, not only did Mr. King’s advocacy of civil rights for Black Americans follow “the word and the way” of Jesus, “His Lord and His Savior.” Mr. King’s activism also “redeemed the soul of the nation.” Such religious work lined up with and reinforced America’s fundamental proposition—namely, that everyone is “created in the image of God. This truth, Mr. Biden reminded his predominantly black audience, is “rooted in Scripture and ... the Declaration of Independence.” In instances like the service in Atlanta, Christian nationalism is often wholesome, reassuring, and uplifting. It adds luster to American greatness.

Mr. Biden also employed a version of Christian nationalism when he placed faith on the side of democracy over against autocracy. After praising Mr. King for cultivating the “Beloved Community,” Mr. Biden told worshipers from the pulpit that they needed to be ever vigilant in the pursuit of “economic justice, civil rights, voting rights,” and “protecting our democracy.” Mr. Biden’s location in a church worship service may account for a less strident version of his defense this year of voting rights. As opposed to a previous militant speech in Philadelphia when Mr. Biden threatened to support overturning Senate rules to secure voting rights, this year a Christian setting brought out what he called his “inveterate” optimism. Christian nationalism should take credit for the change of tone.

The consoling side of Christian nationalism was also evident in the song sung at the service in Atlanta. After Mr. Biden’s sermon, congregants sang “We Shall Overcome,” a Pete Seeger song popularized during 1960s protests. It was easy to sing because each stanza repeated uplifting bromides—such as “We shall overcome” and “The Lord will see us through.” Then come “We’re on to victory” and “We’ll walk hand in hand.” Finally: “The truth shall set us free.”

Seeger’s lyrics stemmed from an earlier song, written by Methodist pastor Charles Albert Tindley. The older hymn was also inspirational but in ways not obviously user-friendly to the non-religious. The last stanza, for instance, captures the challenges of personal piety:

Tho' many a time no signs appear,

Of answer when I pray;

My Jesus says I need not fear,

He’ll make it plain some day.

I’ll be like Him some day.

Comparing “We Shall Overcome” and “I’ll Overcome Someday” could lead someone to conclude that nationalism waters down Christianity even as it turns the personal political. Tindley’s song expresses serious devotion. Seeger’s song relies on platitudinous slogans.

That is not, however, what interpreters of the PRRI/Brookings poll would have observers believe. According to Jemar Tisby, a historian and activist who participated in a forum at Brookings about the survey, “White Christian nationalism is the greatest threat to democracy and the witness of the church in the United States today.”

If true, someone needs to tell Mr. Biden, his speechwriters, and Mr. Warnock’s Atlanta congregants. That is not the crowd PRRI intended for you to fear.