Funding for this podcast comes from Math Works, creators of Mat Lab and Simulink software,

accelerating the pace of engineering and science. Learn more at Mathworks.

com. Work's dot com. This is on point. I'm Meghna Chocrobardi. For decades, when covering the views of American Christians, the media, including this show,

have often focused on right-wing Christianity, largely because of its significant political influence.

Think of groups such as the Christian Coalition,

the moral majority focus on the family,

just to name a small few.

And more recently, the rise of Christian nationalist extremism cannot be denied, especially

after the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.

A growing movement led by right-wing politicians is increasingly challenging on the

right wing politicians is increasingly challenging a centuries-old value of America's political

system, the separation of church and state.

During the January 6th attack on the Capitol, there were Trump banners and Confederate flags,

the Gansden flags.

There's also Christian imagery, the wooden cross, people in prayer, the Jesus Save slogan and while these groups dominate media coverage of

Christianity and for good reason they also represent only a fraction of the

more than 60% of Americans who identify themselves as

followers of the Christian faith. And American Christians overall have a spectrum of

belief as broad and diverse as the country they live in.

In fact, many American Christians profess beliefs that their more conservative fellow churchgoers find outright heretical.

We have a biblically heretical statement that says the Bible, like all sacred writings,

contains helpful accounts of ancient myths, but it is not literally true.

...