FARGO — North Dakota was an outlier in a recent study which used the largest dataset ever assembled to determine attitudes toward Christian nationalism in the United States.

Data from the nonpartisan, nonprofit Public Religion Research Institute found

that while more than two-thirds of Americans are either skeptical of or reject Christian nationalism, half of 158 North Dakotans polled are supporters of or adherents to it.

The respondents of the survey were asked the degree to which they agreed or disagreed with the following series of statements, which are the main tenets of Christian nationalism:

• “The U.S. government should declare America a Christian nation.”
• “U.S. laws should be based on Christian values.”
• “If the U.S. moves away from our Christian foundations, we will not have a country any more.”
• “Being Christian is an important part of being truly American.”
• “God has called Christians to exercise dominion over all areas of American society.”

Once considered a far-right fringe ideology, Christian nationalism has been steadily gaining adherents in the U.S. over the last two decades. In recent years, that momentum has accelerated in parallel with the popularity of former President Donald Trump.

Christian nationalist ideology is often used as the primary driver behind the imposition of abortion and book bans, school curriculum restrictions, and limitations of the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals.

North Dakota appears to be at the vanguard of that growing movement, according to the study.

The study showed the top five states for support of Christian nationalism were North Dakota, Mississippi (50%), Alabama (47%), West Virginia (47%) and Louisiana (46%).

Republicans (55%) were more than twice as likely as independents (25%) and more than three times as likely as Democrats (16%) to hold Christian nationalist views, according to the study. Among Trump supporters, 55% have Christian nationalist sympathies, whereas only 15% of President Joe Biden supporters espouse Christian nationalism.

In North Dakota, the state legislature has been in the spotlight in recent sessions for constitutionally murky efforts to restrict transgender rights, allow public funding of religious schools, and authorize the posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools.

Cody Schuler, advocacy manager for the American Civil Liberties Union of North Dakota, said the constitutional right to religious belief and expression is being used to attack another Constitutional right — that which prohibits the government from preferring religion over non-religion, or favoring one religion over another.

“Regardless of whether they name it, or someone wears a Christian nationalist badge or not, we see those sympathies at every turn. The principles that are named in the study are clearly present in the practical and pragmatic way that politics are being exercised in our state today. We are seeing North Dakota lawmakers seek to put their religious perspectives into law and, in many cases, be very open about that. It has been at the heart of most of our culture war debates — this idea of imposing Christian ideals into the way that the state is governed,” Schuler said.

At least one North Dakota legislator has

recently and publicly professed Christian nationalist views.

In an October post on X, formerly Twitter, Bismarck Republican Rep. Brandon Prichard wrote, “Evey conservative state should put into code that Jesus Christ is King and dedicate their state to Him…We need a government of Christians, not fakers.”

Two other Republican legislators, Janne Myrdal and Mike Wobbema,

turned their backs

to a guest chaplain last session when her prayer paid tribute to racial and gender diversity. They accused the chaplain of lobbying from the pulpit, and

later accused

former Lt. Gov. Lloyd Omdahl, a North Dakota political columnist, of having a “misunderstanding of Christian, Biblical Doctrine having manifested itself under the umbrella of our current state of social issues,” when

he questioned their decorum.

Neighboring states showed mixed results in the study. In Minnesota, just 28% of respondents showed adherence or support for Christian nationalism, while 42% of South Dakotans espoused it.

Respondents in California, New York, and Virginia were the least supportive of Christian nationalism, with more than 75% identifying as rejectors or skeptics.