Here’s how we can break free from patriarchal Christian Nationalism
Thousands of people flocked onto the National Mall in Washington, DC for an all-day prayer rally on Sunday, May 17. The event was promoted as a “re-dedication of our country as One Nation under God.” The rally’s official title was “Rededicate 250: National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving.” With the Washington Monument as a focal point, worship music played loudly from the main stage throughout the day, making it clear that the phrase “One Nation under God” was being framed specifically in Christian terms. The program and messaging centered on the Christian faith, rather than a broader, interfaith understanding of religion in public life. Related Here’s what the United States might have become if Kamala Harris had won the presidency… The stage design reinforced this point. Large columns echoing federal architecture were flanked by arched, stained-glass-style windows depicting the nation’s founders alongside a white cross. This visual combination of governmental imagery and explicitly Christian symbols highlighted a strong connection between national identity and Christian faith. Most speakers emphasized and celebrated Christianity’s historical ties to the United States. This fusion of religious and national themes has drawn criticism from various commentators and organizations, who argue that it reflects or promotes Christian nationalism rather than a pluralistic or religiously neutral vision of the country. Dive deeper every day Join our newsletter for thought-provoking commentary that goes beyond the surface of LGBTQ+ issues Subscribe to our Newsletter today In a pre-recorded video screened at the rally, President Donald Trump read a passage of scripture from the Oval Office. This same video was shown the month earlier at a marathon Bible-reading event. The verses from 2 Chronicles are often cited by those who believe America was founded as a Christian nation. “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways,” Trump read, “then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” Two women, one with an arm held upward toward the heavens, held a cloth flag in red, white, and blue announcing: “JESUS, MAKE AMERICA GODLY AGAIN.” Other top Republicans were also on the schedule of speakers including Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, as well as longtime Trump friend Paula White-Cain, who heads the White House’s so-called “Faith Office,” and conservative evangelist Franklin Graham. Secretary Hegseth seemed to have led a religious service in his video sermon by asking participants at the gathering to pray to “our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” He then referred to George Washington’s faith by saying, “Let us pray without ceasing. Let us pray for our nation on bended knee.” The wall of separation between church and state Following the Revolutionary War with Britain, Virginia adopted Thomas Jefferson’s “Act for Establishing Religious Freedom” (1786), which strongly influenced the First Amendment’s religion clause: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….” Several participants at the rally, when questioned by reporters, argued that the First Amendment’s “free expression” clause was mean to keep the government out of people’s religious practices, but not to keep the people from influencing the government on religious matters. The phrase “separation of church and state” does not appear in the Constitution; it comes from Jefferson’s 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association, where he spoke of a “wall of separation” intended to protect religious liberty. Later, Alexis de Tocqueville, in Democracy in America (1840), noted a paradox: The U.S. claimed church–state separation, yet Christianity — especially Protestantism — exerted powerful influence over public life. He concluded that denominational competition, absent from an official state church (religion), actually strengthened Christianity’s cultural and political influence, contributing to what he called the “tyranny of the majority.” Founding-era evidence, though, complicates claims that the U.S. is a Christian nation. For example, the Treaty of Tripoli (1797), ratified unanimously by the U.S. Senate and signed by President John Adams, states that “the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.” This was partly intended to reassure Muslim-majority countries that the U.S. bore no religious animus. At the same time, the historical record demonstrates that church–state separation has often been more aspirational than real. From the arrival of Europeans on this continent onward, Christian norms —particularly those of white European Christianity — have shaped law, land ownership, citizenship, and civil status. Examples include: The Catholic Church’s “Doctrine of Discovery” used to justify colonization and dispossession of Indigenous peoples. Puritan religious establishments and the Salem witch trials. Sunday “blue laws” restricting commerce. Forced Christianization of enslaved Africans. The Civilization Act of 1819, funding Protestant missions to Indigenous communities. General Grant’s order expelling “Jews as a class” from parts of his military command. The ideology of Manifest Destiny and “Providence” in U.S. expansion. Federal acts and policies steeped in Christian or implicitly Christian framing: The establishment of Christmas as a national holiday in 1870 “In God We Trust” on currency (Civil War era, expanded in the 1950s), “under God” added to the Pledge of Allegiance during the Cold War, religious mottos and symbols on national seals and currency, and government-funded Christian chaplaincies. Primarily Christian invocations at congressional, presidential, and other elected official inaugurationsExclusionary and racially targeted immigration and citizenship laws, including the Chinese Exclusion Act, racialized naturalization rules, and the internment of Japanese Americans (many of whom were Buddhist) during World War II. More recent policies and rulings are often grounded in specifically Christian conservative frameworks, such as attempts to ban Muslim immigration and the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. These examples suggest that the “wall of separation” has been porous in practice, with Christian norms — often white, Protestant, and patriarchal — deeply embedded in law and policy. Christian Nationalism and White Christian Nationalism | Shutterstock Historian Amanda Tyler (Center for American Progress) defines Christian nationalism as: “a political ideology and cultural framework that seeks to merge American and Christian identities, distorting both the Christian faith and America’s constitutional democracy. Christian nationalism relies on the mythological founding of the United States as a ‘Christian nation,’ singled out for God’s providence in order to fulfill God’s purposes on Earth. Christian nationalism demands a privileged place for Christianity in public life, buttressed by the active support of government at all levels.” Anthea Butler (Yale University) distinguishes, more specifically, what is white Christian nationalism: “Simply put, it is the belief that America’s founding is based on Christian principles, white Protestant Christianity is the operational religion of the land, and that Christianity should be the foundation of how the nation develops its laws, principles and policies…” Christian nationalism has taken different forms across U.S. history. William Wilsey, in his 2022 article, “The Many Faces of Christian Nationalism” in Peace and Freedom Magazine, lists several eras and forms: Puritan Millennialism in early New England colonies, Christian Republicanism during and after the American Revolution, Manifest Destiny and territorial expansion, Lincolnian Unionism grounding the preservation of the Union in divine providence, Wilsonian Idealism linking U.S. leadership in World War I to advancing “Christian civilization,” and The Christian America Movement (sparked by the book, The Light and the Glory, 1977 by Peter Marshall and David Manuel), which slants U.S. history from a religious perspective, arguing that God had a specific plan for the founding of the United States, from Columbus to the early republic, and that the U.S. is a new “chosen” nation. The Christian Right (more appropriately called “The Christian Theocratic Right”) Helena, Montana – Nov 7, 2020: Woman wearing red Make America Great Again hat praying at Stop the Steal rally in support of Donald Trump, perceives that the election was stolen by Joe Biden. | Shutterstock The modern Christian Right is a politically organized movement of mostly white evangelical Protestants, conservative Catholics, and allied groups seeking to shape policy and law according to their interpretation of Christian teaching. Though its roots go back at least to the National Reform Association (founded 1863, seeking a formal Christian amendment to the Constitution), it became especially prominent from the 1970s onward. Prominent initial leaders and organizations within the Christian right include Focus on the Family, founded by James Dobson in 1977; The Moral Majority, founded by Jerry Falwell Sr. in 1979; the Family Research Council, founded also by James Dobson in 1983 but later led as an independent organization by Tony Perkins; and The Christian Coalition, founded by Pat Robertson in 1987. Since its inception, a newer generation of organizational leaders have taken over. Politically conservative Christianity has achieved some of its goals, for example, reducing reproductive freedoms including abortion. The movement gained momentum in passing state laws outlawing marriage for same-sex couples until the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision Obergefell v. Hodges granted marriage equality nationwide. The Christian right movement and the politicians who support its goals continue to work to outlaw marriage for same-sex couples, prevent transgender people from using public facilities and compete on sports teams, ban gender affirming healthcare, impose a national ban on abortion services in states that continue to provide reproductive healthcare. It also works to restrict the right to vote from primarily people of color; censor and ban books and other curricular materials it deems inappropriate for youth (including materials and discussions on race, sexuality, and gender in public school classrooms); tighten even further immigration from the U.S. southern border; attack worker’s rights; protect corporate exploitation, fossil fuel production, and militarism; and ensure unrestricted and unregulated purchase and ownership of firearms, among other agenda items. Taking a liberatory social justice approach to religious oppression | Shutterstock It is no mere coincidence that heightened governmental imposition of a white Christian nationalist agency comes simultaneously with governmental restrictions and outright bans on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives against social institutions, such as educational and business. To reverse this devolutionary tide, we can employ social justice perspectives as lenses of perception through which we can view several forms of oppression, including religious oppression. Understanding how social group identity and issues of dominance and subordination are socialized, internalized, enacted, and reproduced from one generation to the next leads us to better conceptualize the route forward. Using social justice as a lens of perception also allows us to envision a socially just and liberatory future on multiple levels: the personal, interpersonal, institutional, and larger cultural and societal. Lee Anne Bell of Columbia University defines social justice as: “…both a goal and a process. The goal of social justice is full and equitable participation of people from all social identity groups in a society that is mutually shaped to meet their needs. The process for attaining the goal of social justice should also be democratic and participatory, respectful of human diversity and group differences, and inclusive and affirming of human agency and capacity for working collaboratively with others to create change for our collective wellbeing….” An inclusive model, one that ensures individuals’ and groups’ freedom of as well as freedom from religion, is the concept as well as a national goal of “cultural and religious pluralism.” The Jewish immigrant and sociologist of Polish and Latvian heritage, Horace Kallen (1915), coined the term “cultural pluralism” to challenge the image of the so-called “melting pot,” which he considered to be inherently undemocratic. Kallen envisioned a United States in the image of a great symphony orchestra, not sounding in unison (the “melting pot”), but rather, one in which all the disparate cultures play in harmony and retain their unique and distinctive tones and timbres. Young people have been and continue to be at the heart of progressive social change movements. Researcher Catherine Corrigall-Brown (2011), in her study of participation in social movements, found that activism is directly related with higher levels of self-esteem and self-efficacy, and also associated with verification and crystallization of identity development, especially in young people. Progressive social movements are transforming and revolutionizing the society and its institutions, and young people often are leading the way by challenging overall power inequities related not only to religious oppression and privilege, but also to other critical issues, such as the environmental crisis, gun violence, racial justice, reproductive freedoms, sexuality and gender identity categorizations and hierarchies, and other essential issues. They are also making links in the various types of oppression and are forming coalitions with other marginalized groups. They are dreaming their dreams, sharing their ideas and visions, and organizing to ensure a world free from all the deadly forms of oppression. Along their journey, they are inventing new ways of relating and being in the world. Their stories, experiences, and activism have great potential to bring us to a future where people across diverse backgrounds will live freely, unencumbered by social taboos and cultural norms related to dominance and subordination. Today, although power and wealth remain concentrated in the hands of a primarily Christian ruling class, the United States stands as one of the most religiously diverse countries in the world. This diversity poses great challenges to Christian dominance as well as opportunities to build a truly democratic, religiously pluralist, and inclusive society. To quote religious historian Diana Eck: “The presumption that America is foundationally Christian is being challenged, really for the first time. There is no going back. As we say in Montana, the horses are already out of the barn.” Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.
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