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This article was published 14/03/2026 (232 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For Manitobans, North Dakota is a place to take vacations and go shopping — or, at least, it was until Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Canada and threatened our country with annexation or invasion.

While many of us aren’t going to Fargo and Grand Forks anymore, we still retain a fondness for our North Dakota neighbours. For me, that includes being interested in the role religion plays in that mostly Lutheran and Roman Catholic state.

I have long known that North Dakota is a red state — that it votes Republican. But last month I also found out that it ranks high for supporting Christian nationalism.

That news comes from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), which found that 42 per cent of North Dakotans believe in Christian nationalism — the idea that the U.S. is a Christian nation, that its laws should be based on Christian values, and that to truly be American a person should be Christian.

This compares to 30 per cent of Americans who believe that way. It places North Dakota among the top states that support Christian nationalism after Arkansas (54 per cent), Mississippi (52 per cent), West Virginia (51 per cent), Oklahoma (49 per cent) and Wyoming (46 per cent).

Before going deeper into what’s happening in North Dakota, here’s some more background on Christian nationalism from PRRI.

According to the research, white Christians are more likely to be Christian nationalists than anyone else in the U.S., with white evangelicals the group most likely to hold Christian nationalist beliefs.

Regular church attendance also plays a role. The majority of those who attend worship services weekly or more are supporters of Christian nationalism. Support for Christian nationalism is also strongly linked to voting for the Republican Party; less than five per cent of those who vote for the Democratic Party lean that way.

How does this play out in North Dakota? I reached out to Rob Port, a columnist with the Fargo Moorhead Forum, who has written about this issue in that state.

Port suggested that while many North Dakotans support Christian nationalism, he believes it is mostly because of their support of the Republican Party — not because of specific religious convictions.

“They align themselves with Christian nationalism and symbolism because they line up with Donald Trump,” he said, noting that 66 per cent of residents voted for Trump in 2024. “It’s like a uniform they feel they have to put on to be part of the team.”

There are some “true believers,” he said, including at some evangelical churches in the largely Lutheran and Roman Catholic state. And there are state legislators who push it, such as Republican state representative Nico Rios. In 2025 he proposed a motion that North Dakota declare the “Kingship of Jesus Christ over all the world.” It was defeated by a vote of 59-31, with some Republicans also voting against it.

For Port, it was sad that even 31 lawmakers voted for something that was, in his mind, “entirely at odds with the U.S. Constitution and the North Dakota Constitution, each of which guarantees religious freedom.”

I also reached out to Sue Koesterman, a Lutheran minister in West Fargo. She doesn’t hear much about Christian nationalism at her church, but knows it is all around her.

“I have a very blue congregation in a red state,” she said of Faith Journey Lutheran Church, which has 1,600 members. Most clergy she knows don’t support Christian nationalism, but are careful about what they say. “I have more freedom to talk about it in my church than some of my colleagues,” she said.

For her, Christian nationalism is a form of idolatry. “It places political ideology ahead of faith,” she said. “We ought to be wary when people mix faith and politics.”

I also spoke with Barry Nelson of Fargo, a social worker and member of the North Dakota Human Rights Coalition.

Nelson has spoken to many in the state, including clergy, who are privately concerned about Christian nationalism. But they are cautious about what they say in public for fear of what others might say.

He especially worries about North Dakota’s small Muslim community of about 5,000 people, many from Somalia, who keep quiet “for fear of putting targets on their backs.”

Nelson, who is Lutheran, regrets how Christianity has been used by some to bolster Christian nationalist beliefs, and also how it’s been conscripted to influence state laws targeting the transgender and LGBTTQ+ communities.

He understands why some Manitobans are reluctant to visit North Dakota, due to Trump’s talk about invasion, annexation and his tariffs, along with ideas about America being a Christian nation. But he wants us to know that “not everyone in the state feels this way.”

“We are not in a good place now, but give us time,” he said. “Hopefully, we can turn things around. And pray for us. We can use all the prayers and support we can get.”

The PRRI survey about Christian nationalism can be found at http://wfp.to/icy.

faith@freepress.mb.ca

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