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This week, I take a look at two revealing surveys of religious groups in the United States, pick the distinguished person, and share a recent visit to a magnificent presidential library and museum.
The last survey from the Public Religion Research Institute tells us there is a large group of authoritarian-inclined Americans who are overrepresented among Republicans and White evangelical Christians. Republicans are about 2½ times more likely than Democrats to agree with measures of political violence: that “patriots may have to resort to violence to save our country” (27 percent vs. 8 percent); that “everyday Americans will need to ensure the rightful leader takes office, even if it requires taking violent actions” (24 percent vs. 10 percent); and that “armed citizens are needed as poll watchers” (24 percent vs. 10 percent),” the pollsters found in a survey of 5,000 Americans.
Using the Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale (RWAS), a questionnaire developed to measure authoritarian-inclined ideologies, the study also found, “Two-thirds of Republicans score high (67 percent),” compared with 35 percent of independents, and 28 percent of Democrats. Republicans who hold favorable views of Trump are 36 percentage points more likely to score high on the RWAS than those with unfavorable views of Trump (75 percent vs. 39 percent). Similarly, White evangelical Protestants are the religious group most likely to score high on the RWAS (64 percent), followed by smaller majorities of Hispanic Protestants (54 percent) and White Catholics (54 percent).”
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Whether authoritarian personalities are inclined to certain religious sects or those sects already foster this disposition is unknown. What we do know is that a high percentage of Americans who favor Christian nationalism are authoritarians. (Christians who believe “the final battle between good and evil is upon us” are strongly linked to support for authoritarianism and Christian nationalism.) That makes their attachment to authoritarianism essentially an article of faith, not something........