{"id":672,"date":"2026-06-29T10:10:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T10:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=672"},"modified":"2026-06-29T10:10:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T10:10:00","slug":"this-isnt-the-first-time-christians-have-tried-to-claim-the-united-states-as-their-own","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=672","title":{"rendered":"This isn\u2019t the first time Christians have tried to claim the United States as their own"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Amid celebrations of America\u2019s 250th anniversary, assertions of the country\u2019s religious, and specifically Christian, character have grown louder in political discourse.<\/p>\n

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In May 2026, House Speaker Mike Johnson and other prominent officials participated in a prayer service in Washington, D.C. Johnson proclaimed, \u201cWe hereby rededicate the United States of America as one nation under God.\u201d Though planners invoked the nation\u2019s \u201cJudeo-Christian\u201d heritage, most religious leaders at the event came from the evangelical Christian tradition. In a prerecorded video, President Donald Trump read from the New Testament book of 2 Corinthians.<\/p>\n

Many ordinary Americans who attended the prayer service seemed to recognize the desire to link the United States with Christianity. One told a reporter that the U.S. was \u201cfounded on a Christian doctrine,\u201d while another insisted it was \u201can important thing for our nation, just to put Christ back first.\u201d<\/p>\n

These ideas weren\u2019t limited to this one-time gathering. In speeches and prayers at public events, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth proclaimed the U.S. to be \u201cone nation under God.\u201d In February 2026, at a Christian broadcasters convention, he declared that \u201cChrist is King\u201d and claimed \u201ca direct through line from the Old and New Testament Christian gospels to the development of Western civilization and the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

At first glance, these expressions might seem triumphalist declarations that link the nation\u2019s success over the past 250 years with Christian faith. As a historian of U.S. Christianity, however, I recognize expressions like these often arise when Christian Americans are feeling anything but triumphant.<\/p>\n

Civil war and committing to God<\/h2>\n

As the U.S. plunged into Civil War in 1861, both the Union and Confederacy sought to link their side to God. The preamble of the Confederate constitution noted a desire for \u201cthe favor and guidance of Almighty God\u201d for their new government.<\/p>\n

In the North, the Pennsylvania clergyman M.R. Watkinson successfully lobbied for a reference to God to be added to coins. Watkinson believed the nation was guilty of \u201cdisowning God\u201d and urged the treasury secretary to make declarations of religiosity. This would \u201cplace us openly under the divine protection,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

Three years later, as war dragged on, a group comprising members of the North\u2019s major Protestant denominations urged a change to the preamble of the U.S. Constitution. Its members sought to declare that Americans recognized \u201cAlmighty God as the source of all authority and power in civil government\u201d and desired \u201cto constitute a Christian government.\u201d<\/p>\n

The amendment was not ratified during the Civil War, but the efforts in both the North and South revealed how an existential political crisis pushed language of God into government.<\/p>\n

Efforts to declare America Christian<\/h2>\n

Soon after the Civil War, Protestant Christians in the U.S. perceived a new threat. Beginning in the 1870s, atheism and indifference to religion became popular, especially among younger intellectuals. Rising numbers of Catholic and Jewish immigrants brought greater religious diversity.<\/p>\n

Fearing a loss of their significant clout and influence, devout Protestants revived the earlier campaign to write their faith commitments into the Constitution.<\/p>\n

In addition to placing references to God and Jesus in the Constitution, their proposed amendment declared the Bible \u201cthe supreme rule for the conduct of nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was at odds with the beliefs of Roman Catholics, who look to church teaching and tradition along with the Bible as sources of religious authority. The strong emphasis on the Bible made clear that the amendment was written primarily for Protestants.<\/p>\n

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Supporters of the amendment included William Strong, a justice on the Supreme Court. In 1873, Strong suggested that the Constitution must either be made \u201cexplicitly Christian\u201d or else Christianity would be \u201cobliterated\u201d from every U.S. institution.<\/p>\n

The Christian amendment ultimately failed, largely because not all Protestants supported it. But anxieties about growing diversity and rising indifference had convinced many Americans of the need to enshrine Christianity in the Constitution.<\/p>\n

A godly nation with Cold War anxieties<\/h2>\n

Anxieties in the aftermath of World War II and the dawn of the Cold War brought another rise of Christian rhetoric in U.S. civic life.<\/p>\n

In 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower signed a bill adding the phrase \u201cunder God\u201d to the Pledge of Allegiance. The president\u2019s signing statement noted that the phrase represented a \u201creaffirming\u201d of \u201cthe transcendence of religious faith in America\u2019s heritage and future.\u201d This was important given the \u201cviolence and brutality\u201d the world had experienced and the worrying \u201cprospect of atomic war,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

The following year, Eisenhower signed a bill placing the phrase \u201cIn God We Trust\u201d on all American currency. One of the bill\u2019s sponsors, U.S. Rep. Charles Bennett, a Florida Democrat, invoked the now-familiar idea of the nation\u2019s religious character. Bennett insisted that the U.S. \u201cwas founded in a spiritual atmosphere and with a firm trust in God.\u201d<\/p>\n

These developments stemmed from the goal of strengthening Americans\u2019 religious commitment amid the conflict and competition of the early Cold War. Scholars have demonstrated that political leaders like Eisenhower and religious figures, such as the increasingly popular evangelist Billy Graham, all stressed the importance of strong religious faith. In their eyes, that faith set the U.S. apart from the \u201cgodlessness\u201d of Soviet communism.<\/p>\n

The historian Kevin M. Kruse has shown that the rise of religious language reflected domestic political concerns as well. President Franklin D. Roosevelt\u2019s New Deal programs, designed to respond to the Great Depression, had expanded the federal government\u2019s role in the economy and empowered organized labor.<\/p>\n

An alliance of conservative business leaders and ministers feared a loss of influence in this new political and social reality. During the 1950s they linked their values \u201cfaith, freedom, and free enterprise,\u201d Kruse writes, all under the ideal of the U.S. as a nation under God.<\/p>\n

250 years of faith and fear<\/h2>\n

More often than not, the insistence that the U.S. is \u201cone nation under God\u201d is not a triumphant statement of success.<\/p>\n

This fear was evident in the response of an attendee at the \u201cRededicate 250\u201d prayer service in May. When interviewed by PBS, this attendee declared, \u201cAmerican is built on the Christian faith,\u201d and added, \u201cif we lose this faith, the whole country will collapse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout the nation\u2019s history, that existential fear has inspired efforts to declare the U.S. a Christian nation.<\/p>\n

This article includes material from an article published on Feb. 2, 2018.<\/em>