20th-century religious freedom doctrine protected religious minorities and dissenters and advocated a separation between church and state, but the current legal regime prioritizes religion’s role in shaping democratic norms, values, and governing structures. Religious freedom has also become a contentious political, cultural, and legal battleground. Many scholars frame these battles as pitting those who view expansive religious protections as restoring religion to its rightful place as an arbiter of values and morality in politics or as being weaponized by a conservative Christian religio-political-legal ecosystem. My preliminary research suggests that many Christians, including prominent leaders, view this politico-legal terrain with trepidation: they testify in state legislatures against codifying Christianity into law, organize against implementation, file lawsuits, and sign on to amicus briefs. In addition, while Christians’ fears that church/state entanglements may negatively impact religious life and promote religious intolerance are centuries old, these concerns are emerging anew in an era marked by political polarization and legal Christian hegemony (the normalization of Christian values, beliefs, and practices in secular, democratic public spheres, including the law). This project documents how Christians navigate the current legal terrain, complicates the binary described above, and addresses a broader question: how do disagreements about religion’s role in governing values in a multi-racial, pluralistic, multifaith society shape democratic institutions and the religious life of individuals and communities? This multi-sited and mixed-method study draws on interviews, ethnography, analysis of legal documents, and the creation and analysis of a unique database. I began the study with a focus on non-Christian religious minorities; a GFR would extend the study to examine how Christians, including ordinary people, leaders, and institutional stakeholders, deploy religious freedom claims and the impacts of the mobilization of the legal system on Christian individual and communal life.