Intersecting identities, diverging visions: Christian nationalism, race, gender, and prioritizing equality or liberty

Liberal democracies hold in tension two socio-political values, liberty and equality, with the understanding that prioritizing one often means sacrificing the other. In the United States, views on which value to prioritize (and even how to define them) are shaped by the intersections of race, gender, and religion. We theorize Christian nationalism's association with prioritizing equality or liberty is contingent on Americans' racial and gender identities, and specifically, their status as majority- or minority-group members. Though Christian nationalism in general is associated with prioritizing liberty over equality, results reveal clear racial, gender, and race-gender divergence. Unlike non-Black Americans, Black Americans do not prioritize liberty as Christian nationalism increases, and women are less likely to do so than men. The most striking pattern, however, appears at the intersection of race and gender: unlike every other race-gender combination, Black women are more likely to prioritize equality over liberty as Christian nationalism increases.