The United States as a Christian nation

American wingnuts and figures on the Religious Right commonly assert that the United States was founded as a Christian nation. This theory does not simply reference that the majority of Americans were (and many still are) Christians (albeit of a rather large variety of denominations), but claims as a corollary that the state and its institutions should openly embrace and promote Christianity and (in some cases) the Old Testament legal code (which is a terrible foundation for [modern] laws). This is, of course, a textbook example of negationism as well as pious fraud.
==History==
Christian nationalists were active at the time of the founding of the United States, but in contrast to contemporary Christian nationalists, those of the mid-1800s and earlier believed that the US Constitution was an abomination because it lacked any mention of Jesus Christ rather than a Christianity-affirming document as modern Christian nationalists would try to have people believe.Plunging Down The Rabbit Hole: Over The Years, Christian Nationalists Have Been Responsible For The Spread Of Some Rather Strange Ideas by Rob Boston (Apr 29, 2022) Church & State (Americans United for Separation of Church and State). In 1789, the same year that the Constitution came into effect, George Washington received a message from Christian clergy that complained:
In 1793, pastor John M. Mason preached that the US would be punished by God for not having a Christian constitution.Occasional Sermons, and Reviews and Essays by James Floy (1866) Carlton & Porter,. When Thomas Jefferson, co-author of the Declaration of Independence, became president in 1801, he was accused of atheism and of being an infidel by Christian nationalist and Presbyterian William Lynn:
In 1811, Congregationalist Samuel Austin complained that the Constitution "is entirely disconnected from Christianity.” In 1845, Presbyterian Reverend David X. Junkin claimed:
It was not until the 1840s when a few Christian nationalists began to claim that the Constitution was designed to perpetuate Christianity and that Washington and Jefferson were actually Christians rather than the deists whom they actually were. This remained an unpopular view among Christian nationalists for long afterward, however.
In 1864, ministers from 11 Christian denominations created the The purpose of the Association was:
Updated versions of the Christian nation amendment were proposed in Congress in 1961, 1963, and 1965, but never went very far. So after more than 170 years, Christian nationalists changed their tune from "the US should be a Christian nation" to "the US already is a Christian nation" — despite repeated and utter failure to get their Constitutional amendment passed. As Edward Cain noted in the early 1960s, "Not until the advent of twentieth century fundamentalism do we find a native version of clericalism on the Right."They'd Rather Be Right by Edward Cain
==Common arguments==
===The Puritans===
The English Puritans, known for coming over to New England in tiny numbers (and for being, well, puritanical), are cited as precedent in this case, as noted below. The argument is that the legal and social systems of these New England Puritans, which were indeed very theocratic and repressive, are the quintessential example of American tradition.
By this logic, of course, the U.S. should give up its sovereignty and restore British Imperial rule, since the Puritan states were based on royal charters. Of course, the modern UK is far more liberal than many right-wing nuts would like, but that's not the point.
This also overlooks that the first successful British settlement was Jamestown (from 1607) and the purpose of that colony was much closer to the true American tradition: get rich quick.
Not only the Puritans, but the reaction against them, are important to understanding the American Revolution; the reality is quite a bit more complicated than the "United States as a Christian nation" narrative suggests. The Puritans who did not go to America in exile mounted an ultimately successful insurgency that resulted in a Puritan victory in the English Civil War, the execution of King Charles I, and the establishment of a republican Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell. The excesses of this dictatorship led to a monarchist reaction, but the result of this reaction was the firm establishment under English law of the principle of Parliamentary supremacy over the monarch, as codified in the Bill of Rights 1689 following the replacement of James II with William and Mary. 
The "Whig" ideology that emerged from these events was quite influential in the debates that led to the American Revolution. They included the notion that the government was subject to its own laws and the rejection of the divine rights of princes. They also included a deep suspicion of the kinds of religious and sectarian radicalism that they viewed as responsible for the war, the excesses of the Puritan regime, and the resulting social unrest.The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution by Christopher Hill (1972) Temple Smith. ISBN 0851170250. John Locke's Two Treatises of Government was one manifestation of this Whig ideology that influenced the American Revolution.The Politics of Liberty in England and Revolutionary America by Lee Ward (2004) Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521179637.
===The Founding Fathers===
Rather than address explicit constitutional provisions (which, through omission, contradict their position), American fundamentalists often like to quote-mine the Founding Fathers in order to divine their intentions and "prove" that they actually envisioned the new state as a Christian nation. They primarily target George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, the first three Presidents of the United States, and claim that they were deeply devout Christians whose actions were to a large degree inspired by their faith.Let's look at what some of the Founders wrote by ldguy (Sep 29, 2008) Opposing Views (archived from 7 Jul 2013 14:07:45 UTC).Citizens for Better Government: Was the United States founded as a Christian Nation? by Tex Browning (May 1, 2003) Citizens for Better Government.
This notion is patently false: Jefferson's deistic convictions are evident from his writings, and he was a high-profile critic of established Christian dogma; he even wrote his own version of the New Testament, the Jefferson Bible, expunging the Gospels of all references to the supernatural. Washington never attended communion services at his church and took great pains to refer to his god by deistic terms like "Great Author" and "Almighty Being" in his inaugural address. While Adams credited religion in general with bolstering public morality, he was personally a deist, if churchgoing, Congregationalist and later a Unitarian (yes, the kind that eventually became Unitarian Universalism), and consistently argued that the United States had been founded on rationalist and Enlightenment principles and rejected the notion of divine legitimation for political leadership.Let’s Look at What Some of the Founders Wrote by ldguy (Sep 29, 2008) Opposing Viewpoints (archived from 7 Jul 2013 14:08:10 UTC).Secular Web: The Cristian Nation Myth by Farrell Till, The Secular Web.
These eminent figures were heavily criticized for their lack of religious devotion in times past. Rev. Bird Wilson had this to say about them in an 1831 sermon: 
As an aside, the thirteen colonies were not entirely Christian (there were about 3000 Jews at the time of the revolution), and it has been documented that 160 JewsImagining the American Jewish community by Jack Wertheimer (2007) University Press of New England. ISBN 1584656700. and two Muslims fought on the side for independence.Encyclopedia of Muslim-American History by Edward E. Curtis IV (2010) Facts on File. ISBN 0816075751. Haym Solomon, a Jew, was a personal friend of George Washington and was a key financier of the Continental Army.
===First Amendment===
A common argument is that the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution was intended to mean different denominations instead of different religions because the idea of non-Christians living in the United States would have been unthinkable at the time (George Washington's 1790 letter to the Jewish Congregation of Newport notwithstanding).Letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport by George Washington (August 21, 1790) Teaching American History.
This is of course not paying attention to the fact that several of the founding fathers were deists, and the Christian ones were almost all secularists. There was generally a liberal feeling throughout the Christian establishment in the U.S. at that time. The New England Puritans had really lost their steam by that point (indeed, a great number of Congregational churches would become Unitarian over the course of the next half-century, including, as mentioned, John Adams' congregation); the Anglicans were, well, Anglicans; the Quakers were quite a liberal bunch as usual; other groups had insufficient political clout to do anything but support a completely secular state under which they would not be persecuted — and of these, the Baptists (oh, the irony!) were the most vocally in favor of absolute secularism.
There is positive documentation that mere non-sectarianism was not what was meant by "free exercise of religion." In his Detached Memoranda, James Madison recounted the following occur during the passage in 1786 of Thomas Jefferson's Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which was specifically intended to guarantee at the Virginia state level what the U.S. Constitution did at the federal level:
In the same document, Madison opined that it was an encroachment on separation of church and state to "exempt Houses of Worship from taxes," and in response to a proposed measure to provide state support to all Christian ministers, he warned against the very concept that was being put into his mouth:
To showcase a prime example of how deeply the "Christian nation" mythographers stick their heads in the sand, Christine Millard, the owner of a Washington, D.C. touring outfit called "Christian Heritage Tours," actually quoted the above statement of Madison's and then, in a jaw-dropping non sequitur, concluded that Madison was talking only about freedom for Christian denominations.The Rewriting of America’s History by Catherine Millard (1991) Christian Publications. ISBN 0889650926.James Madison – Father of the U.S. Constitution (Excerpted from, The Rewriting of America’s History) by Catherine Millard (1991) excerpted by Christian Heritage News.
==Treaty of Tripoli==
The most obvious falsification of this myth is the Treaty of Tripoli, a peace treaty signed with the Ottoman possession of Tripoli in 1797. Tripoli being a Muslim state, and accustomed to the hostility shown to Muslims by the established Christian states of Europe, the U.S. wanted to demonstrate that its religious policy was not of a similar sort, and so inserted the following language in the treaty:
The text of the treaty was printed on the front page of many newspapers without any sort of public outcry.Does the 1796-97 Treaty with Tripoli Matter to Church/State Separation? by Ed Buckner (1997) The Unofficial Stephen Jay Gould Archive (archived from February 13, 2006).
In the face of such a smoking-gun falsification, the best that the "Christian nation" mythographers have been able to do is assert that this was mere politics designed to keep the Ottomans happy and to harp on the point that the treaty no longer holds the force of law, having been superseded by later treaties; the latter a neat example of moving the goalposts.
==Dominionist perspective==
Gary North, the son-in-law of the Dominionist kook R.J. Rushdoony and a noted dominionist kook in his own right, has written against this idea as well, complaining that the U.S. Constitution, democracy, etc. was the result of an apostasy from the Calvinist Puritanism espoused by such figures as the pilgrims of the Plymouth Colony (which was responsible for such holy happenings as the Salem witch trials). In his own words:
==Neo-Confederate perspective==
Neo-Confederates have their own spin on this idea, which dates back to the time of the actual American Civil War. Some claim (as part of the Lost Cause of the South mythos) that the Civil War was a theological war between the heretical North and True Christian™ South, which is utter bullshit. They then use this to argue in favor of secession to establish the South as a separate dominionist Christian nation.The US Civil War as a Theological War: Confederate Christian Nationalism and the League of the South by Edward H. Sebesta & Euan Hague (2003) Canadian Review of American Studies 32(3):253-284. Reprinted in Theocracy Watch.
==God & Country==
In 2024, a documentary about Christian nationalism God & Country, directed by Dan Partand, was released.God & Country — Official Trailer Oscilloscope Laboratories via YouTube. The film is based on Katherine Stewart’s 2019 book The Power Worshippers,The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism by Katherine Stewart (2019) Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 163557787X. and includes interviews with Christian leaders who are opposed to Christian nationalism. Regarding criticism of the film by Christian nationalists themselves, the director had this to say:
==Christian nationalism and correlated beliefs==
Frequent religious practice is not correlated with Christian nationalism.Christian nationalism and the January 6, 2021 Insurrection Section I: What Is Christian Nationalism by Andrew Whitehead & Samuel Perry (2022) Christians Against Christian Nationalism. Pages 1-3. Christian nationalism was correlated with:
==Coup attempt==
White Christian nationalists were heavily involved in both the January 6 rallies and the storming of the Capitol.Attack on The Capitol: Evidence of the Role of White Christian Nationalism by Andrew L. Seidel (2022) Christians Against Christian Nationalism. Pages 25-40. The main Trump rally was opened by Paula White, evangelist and White House 'adviser', who quoted a favored Bible passage among Christian nationalists, , “Blessed is the nation whose God is Lord.” Senator Mo Brooks and Representative Madison Cawthorn spoke at the main rally and repeated Christian nationalist talking points. Christian symbolism was widespread at the siege of the Capitol. Insurrectionist Jacob Chansley gave a prayer in the Senate chamber that referenced Christian nationalist ideology, that the country would be "reborn" "In Christ’s holy name". Other Christian nationalist ideology by insurrectionists was widespread and observed both during and after the riot.
==See also==
*Letter to a Christian Nation, a response by Sam Harris
*Islam in the United States
==External links==
* Ed Brayton, The Other Fundamentalist Perspective, part 1, 2, 3, 4 
*The Myth of a Christian Nation, Charlie Rose interview with Pastor Gregory Boyd
==Bibliography==
==Notes==
==References==
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