Is America a Christian Nation?

As we approach the United States’ 250th birthday, a major question is raging.

The conundrum is this: Is America a Christian nation?

Now, many of you may have thought that at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia back in 1787 this issue was settled, and that America would have no state religion. Also, you may have felt that the concept of “separation of church and state” was enshrined in our Constitution.

But quite frankly, recent public opinion poll data indicates that a growing number of Americans are seeing this issue quite differently from what I was taught in my high school civics classes. Some of these Americans hold very high positions in public and private offices.

To celebrate America’s 250th anniversary, a group called Freedom 250 recently held a massive rally on the national mall in Washington DC supporting the notion that the USA was founded as being a Christian nation. This group expressed the belief that the future welfare of our country will depend upon our retuning America to it’s historical roots as a Christian nation.

The Vice President of the United States and the Speaker of the House of Representatives were both at the rally and spoke to the crowd on the mall—as well as numerous U.S. Senators and Members of Congress.

The President of the United States pre-recorded a video message that was played during the rally. The President is very prominently displayed on Freedom 250s website.

Let’s remind ourselves: Christian nationalism is a modern political‑religious ideology that seeks to fuse a particular form of Christianity with national identity and law, often in ways that undermine both religious freedom and democratic pluralism.

In the U.S. context, this ideology typically insists that America is, and must remain, a Christian nation and that government should actively privilege (usually white, conservative Protestant) Christianity in public policy and culture.

In the U.S., this includes beliefs that the country was founded as a Christian nation, that its laws should be based on Christian values, and that the federal government should declare the U.S. a Christian nation.

Based on public opinion survey data, about 29 percent of adults in the U.S. support Christian nationalist views. About another 10 percent of the adult population supports major parts of the Christian nationalist agenda, but they have not bought into it, hook, line, and sinker.

However, when we look at the historical facts, quite a different picture appears compared to the Christian nationalist perspective. At the Constitutional Convention of 1787 the delegates had ample opportunities to declare that America was and is a Christian nation. 

However, at every one of these opportunities the Constitutional Convention rejected  making Christianity the state religion. At the time of the convention in the 1700s most other nations/kingdoms required that one had to take a religious oath to serve in a public office. The Founding Fathers (and unfortunately there were no Founding Mothers at the Convention) totally rejected the need to take a religious oath.

And if the acts of the Constitutional Convention were not enough, the very first amendment to the constitution—in the Bill of Rights—protected these principles. George Washington felt very strongly about these principles. Our second President of the United States, John Adams, was a Unitarian—and he didn’t even believe in the Trinity!

Meanwhile, it is very easy to believe in a past that never existed. One can create the myth that when our nation was founded almost everybody was an active church member. However, that is just not the case. The historical data shows that while the majority of the population called themselves Christians at the time of the founding of our nation, a lower percentage of the population in the 1700s actually went to church compared to similar percentage figures in our modern era.

Don’t get me wrong: I believe that faith in God is of central importance. I also believe that it is very important to be an active member of a spiritual community. But I also believe that this should be a a choice made by the individual—and not some government entity, forcing it on it’s citizens. As a matter of fact, sometimes I believe that the surest way to kill the life spirit out of a spiritual path is to turn it into the state religion.

But while we are on this subject let me tell you about another group. It is called: faith250 (and, yes that is not error. The “f” in the groups’ name is lower case). 

Founded by a rabbi, faith250 now includes 254 congregations—Jewish, Christian, Muslim, etc.—that come together to study America’s founding texts and engage with what those texts ask of citizens today. The congregations from different faiths meet online and also by breaking bread together. faith250 is very much about protecting the values that I deeply treasured learning about in school and in the community where I grew up.

This Fourth of July, I hope that you celebrate in ways that bring you much joy. I know that I want to eat a hotdog and hamburger, and watch the fireworks light up the night sky.

However, on this 250th birthday of the land of  “E pluribus unum” I hope that we will remember that there is also a very serious side to all of this. In terms of religious liberty and whether or not America is a Christian nation, I believe that people with an interfaith heart have a key role to play in all of this, as we “form a more perfect union.”

Many blessings,

Rev. Rick