Missed it in august! But this (with @sumitra.bsky.social) also is out at @bjpols.bsky.social We map how religious beliefs and identities affect the endorsement of falsehoods, and use an experiment in India to test. More to do on the contextual drivers of misinfo, but this is a start. Check it :)

Great stuff from a wonderful group of scholars. I'm really forward to digging in!

Our special issue of Sociological Focus on Religion and Politics in American Congregations is now published and all articles are open access (at least for now). This is the highest concentration of such work ever published together and it's very good. I put the details and links in a blogpost.

*Readers should be extremely careful about accepting claims that worship attenders are actually more liberal.* Those findings are usually an artifact of stat modeling decisions. Excited to see this posted in Sociology. While it may seem like inside baseball, the public implications are important.

As we face worldwide democratic backsliding, can we count on civil society orgs like the Catholic Church (CC) to intervene as a backstop? In new research, @dinaosama.bsky.social‬ finds no unified response from natl CCs, but religious competition and previous 3rd wave support make it more likely.

Can foreign direct investment substitute for foreign aid? I offer my take in my latest Substack post. open.substack.com/pub/mileswil...

Join us Tuesday, August 5, at 1:00 PM ET for a conversation on charismatic Christians’ influence in American politics. We will be joined by experts @drleahpayne.bsky.social, @pauldjupe.bsky.social, Dara Delgado, Ph.D., and @melissadeckman.bsky.social. Register now: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

NEW from me: My dispatch from the first worship service of Christian nationalist Doug Wilson’s new church plant in DC over the weekend, where Pete Hegseth sat near the front and the pastor preached beneath an American flag. “Worship is warfare,” the pastor said. religionnews.com/2025/07/14/w...

New at RIP from @alenasmith13.bsky.social and ​​@julthomson.bsky.social. Elevating Spkr Mike Johnson was a symbolic permission structure that pushed House GOP to use religious language more in their newsletters to constituents. religioninpublic.blog/2025/07/14/t...

OK, journal publishers are baaaad, but this is another level of hell. We can't even see Springer journal content unless we consent to a high level of individualized tracking or else pay you money? How about I just not publish in or cite work in your journals? I'll do that for free. How about that?

The academic’s mid-summer crisis is a mid-life crisis in miniature: You realize summer is half gone, & not only that: you see that the longest & least burdened days came early, & they are well past. You compare all you thought you’d do against the days remaining & grieve for what never will be

Delighted to help put this together - there’s excellent work in this collection that makes a big jump forward in religion + politics in American congregations.

What do #Christian persecution beliefs (CPBs) reveal about racial boundaries? Walker, @pauldjupe.bsky.social, & Calfano explore the question ➡️ Do CPBs vary by #race in their adoption, constitution, & consequences? #OpenAccess in the @jssreligion.bsky.social. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Fun research project with the indomitable @brooklynwalker.bsky.social

We saw research showing Christian nationalism promoted anti-immigrant views but more frequent church attendance promoted pro-immigrant views and thought that finding was implausible. The same method showed that attendance promoted more positive feelings toward atheists. And that's bonkers. 1/4

New study from @pauldjupe.bsky.social et al. out in @polbehavior.bsky.social. We've often found Christian nationalism & churchgoing are signed in opposite directions in regressions. Authors propose viewing such findings as suppression effects & explore implications. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Many have remarked on the charismatic religious training of the MN shooter and remarked on whether spiritual warfare is confined to the unseen realm. But we have data! No, believers in spiritual warfare connect it to the physical here and now and support violence to make desired changes.

Brand New Research! We (@Brooklyn Walker) continue to push back on the concatenation of "White Christian nationalism". That framing drastically underestimates the threat to the US. Our new article shows a common support base for a more extensively subscribed Christian nationalism across race. 1/3

After reading excellent reporting from @oyousef.bsky.social on NPR about the violent gender ideology behind the anti-abortion movement, we (@brooklynwalker.bsky.social + I) had to dig into our data to see whether this exists in the mass (Christian) public. 1/2 religioninpublic.blog/2025/05/16/t...

It has been conventional wisdom for so long that abortion is one of a few mobilizing issues on the Right. So much so that it didn't seem worth investigating. Good thing we did (w @brooklynwalker.bsky.social). 1/3 religioninpublic.blog/2025/04/22/t...

Check out this excellent review of the Christian nationalist advance in Texas where legislation is openly touted that it will bring kids to Christ.

we are f*cked

It seems like a universal experience in the social sciences to face problems with peer reviewing - it's certainly taking longer and editors report that it's hard to recruit reviewers. I've been interested in getting data on this for a decade and we just pub'd the 2nd installment. Peer review is...

In a new piece titled 'Jesus and John Wayne Wannabes', now out at Sociology of Religion, @pauldjupe.bsky.social and I explore the role of felt gender on Christian nationalism. We find that men who describe themselves as feminine use Christian nationalism as a compensatory tool.

“extreme politics acts as compensatory mechanisms to project masculinity when it is lacking otherwise.” New Christian nationalism study from @pauldjupe.bsky.social and @brooklynwalker.bsky.social just dropped. Been waiting for this one. @kkdumez.bsky.social academic.oup.com/socrel/advan...

Important study finding that it's not hyper-masculine men who embrace Christian nationalism; it's men who see themselves as more feminine. Why? Because Christian nationalism (and extremist politics) are likely compensatory mechanisms for men insecure in their own masculinity. doi.org/10.1093/socr...

The authors @pauldjupe.bsky.social & @brooklynwalker.bsky.social further show that the combination of Christian nationalism and self-identification with femininity among men (regardless of race) predicts more sexism, support for political extremism, and violence. doi.org/10.1093/socr...

After release of the Pew Report last week, @brooklynwalker.bsky.social and I dig in to our data to find "The Reactionary Religious Reengagement of Young Men." It's stunning to see how distinct they are from not just younger women but older Christians too. religioninpublic.blog/2025/03/05/t...

***NEW Research*** From @brooklynwalker.bsky.social & @pauldjupe.bsky.social, two leading researchers on Christian nationalism-- "Christian Nationalism is Unbounded by LGB Identity" Check it out: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

I've been concerned that commentators have been too quick to segment Christian nationalism to just "White CN" as particularly problematic. In reaction, I've been looking at CN within other groups, even those targeted in typical CN policy. In our new piece... religioninpublic.blog/2025/02/17/i...

In a new religioninpublic.blog post, Brooklyn Walker takes up the argument that Christian nationalism is just a dressed up version of authoritarianism. While related, she shows that they're doing different things and are not synonymous (using recent GSS data). religioninpublic.blog/2025/02/12/i...

Calling all sociologists, political scientists, psychologists, & more: we want your cool papers & panels on religion! Check out the CFP & pitch us something to share in Minneapolis this fall!

After @mccrummen.bsky.social's excellent piece in The Atlantic I've had a number of thoughtful emails looking for more info about 7 mountains belief and the size of the NAR. Some substack posts questioned my findings based on...their sense of things. My response religioninpublic.blog/2025/01/27/d...

The religioninpublic.blog is back after a bit of a break to get some academic writing done. In this first of many in 2025, we have Andy Williams and colleagues David King and Brad Fulton writing about their recent article in the Politics & Religion journal. They interviewed a range of clergy...

My latest Substack — first in a series on foreign aid to Ukraine. open.substack.com/pub/mileswil...

U.S. aid to Ukraine has far surpassed U.S. giving to any other country since 2022. The orange line is aid to Ukraine in billions of dollars. The blue lines represent aid to all other individual countries in the U.S. foreign assistance database. More to come on by substack: mileswilliams.substack.com

I've argued that, in the Trump era, charismatic (i.e. ecstatic, supernaturalist, revivalist) evangelicals have displaced the old guard of the relig right & brought a new more aggressive evang'l politics. That was on vivid display in TX today. 1/ h/t @robertdownen.bsky.social x.com/RobertDownen...

Pete Hegseth is alleged to have trapped a barely conscious woman in a hotel room, ripped her phone away, stripped and raped her. After the 2017 rape allegation, Hegseth claims he had a “come to Jesus” moment. Hegseth said a spiritual awakening led him to become heavily involved with the…

The tragic fires now blazing in California are clearly a direct result of climate change--despite calls to politicize their cause as policy choices; @prripoll.bsky.social research shows that deep party & religious polarization on climate change. www.prri.org/research/the...

It’s crazy how few pairs of countries are jointly members of the same international order in recent history. The way I often hear folks talk about international order, I expected the rate to be higher.

Proud to have a bit of my work mentioned in this great new piece by @mccrummen.bsky.social in The Atlantic. I think she nailed it in her coverage about the rapidly growing charismatic army of God in the US. Nice to see the ubiquitous @matthewdtaylor.bsky.social . www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

As someone who teaches undergraduate poli sci stats and data analysis, I endorse this message. #rstats #dataviz open.substack.com/pub/musgrave...

I may have stated the obvious here, but sometimes folks still need to hear it… #dataviz #rstats #foreignaffairs #trade open.substack.com/pub/mileswil...

Happy Patriot's Day to ALL who Must Observe. May you reflect on the sacrifices of those who sought to save This Great Christian Nation and how you may appropriately sacrifice yourself for The Leader in the coming year.

This will be worth following - I’ll check it for the data viz and grudgingly stay for the international relations stuff.

Look what showed up for Christmas Eve Jolabokaflod reading! Very excited about Angelia Wilson’s new book about the Christian Right: The Politics of Hate.

Happy Jolabokaflod to all who partake!

We are finally on Blue Sky! Just in time to report that our show and its affiliates is close to 3 million downloads for 2024! Thanks to @swajdan.bsky.social @bradleyonishi.bsky.social @drleahpayne.bsky.social @smgonzalezwi.bsky.social and so many others who help make it happen!

Day 6 of the 12 Days of Potato hit a high note - poutine with mushroom (veg) gravy. Wish the curds were squeakier but this was delicious.

I wrote about Pete Hegseth and Religion, it's an analysis I don't think you'll see elsewhere: theconversation.com/why-the-reli...