There’s a widespread belief that America was founded as a Christian nation, but the historical record tells a different story - one that’s actually worth celebrating, regardless of your faith or lack thereof.
The Historical Reality
The founders were remarkably deliberate about creating a secular government. The Constitution mentions religion exactly twice: Article VI bans religious tests for office, and the First Amendment prohibits government establishment of religion. There’s no mention of God, Jesus, Christianity, or divine authority in the document that structures our government. This wasn’t an oversight - earlier state constitutions often invoked God, so the founders clearly knew how to include religious language. They chose not to.
James Madison, the Constitution’s primary architect, championed a “wall of separation” between church and state. Thomas Jefferson valued Jesus’s moral teachings so deeply that he created his own edited version of the Bible, though he questioned supernatural claims. Many founders were deists who believed in a creator but not in Christian doctrine or divine intervention.
The Treaty of Tripoli, signed in 1797, explicitly stated that “the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.” It passed the Senate unanimously. That tells you how the founding generation actually understood their own creation.
The Real-World Consequences
When the Christian nation myth takes hold, policy follows. We see it in fights over school prayer, Ten Commandments in courthouses, and religious exemptions that apply only to Christian business owners. It shows up in opposition to mosque construction or treating Islam as inherently foreign. It manifests in the assumption that Christian moral views on abortion, LGBTQ rights, or marriage should be law for everyone, regardless of their beliefs.
This creates second-class citizenship. Americans who aren’t Christian are told this isn’t really “their” country. Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and atheist Americans get treated as guests rather than equal owners of the democratic project. That’s fundamentally contrary to what the founding documents actually establish.
The Self-Defeating Irony
Here’s what makes this especially frustrating: the founders’ approach was actually brilliant for religion itself. They recognized that government-backed religion corrupts both government and religion. European history showed them that established churches became tools of political power, and political authorities used religion to control populations. Neither institution stayed true to its purpose.
By separating them, America created space for genuine religious pluralism and voluntary participation. Christianity has thrived in America precisely because it’s not state-sponsored. Churches compete on merit, people choose freely, and faith remains personal rather than coerced. There’s no state church dictating which denomination is correct, no religious bureaucracy intertwined with political power and corruption.
Christian nationalism threatens this success. When you try to legislate Christianity, you inevitably have to decide which Christianity - Catholic? Baptist? Methodist? Evangelical? These traditions don’t agree on major theological and moral issues. You end up with government defining religious doctrine, which is exactly what the First Amendment prevents. You get political Christianity: a watered-down, power-focused version that serves political interests rather than spiritual ones.
The Political Tool
Christian nationalism also functions as a political strategy. By convincing people that America is fundamentally “theirs” and under threat from outsiders, political operatives mobilize voters and justify policies that might otherwise be unpopular. You can oppose immigration, social programs, or civil rights by framing them as threats to “Christian values” or “our way of life.” It’s more effective than arguing policy on its actual merits.
The people pushing this narrative hardest are often the ones least interested in Jesus’s actual teachings about humility, service, welcoming strangers, and helping the poor. They’re interested in power and using Christianity as a vehicle to obtain it.
The Fundamental Betrayal
The founders created something genuinely new: a government that doesn’t care what you believe. That was radical. That was the actual American innovation. Christian nationalism wants to undo that achievement and return to the old European model of religious/political fusion that failed everywhere it was tried.
The real American principle is that your neighbor’s different beliefs don’t threaten you because the government won’t enforce either of your religions on the other. Christian nationalism rejects that mutual respect and tries to install Christianity in a privileged position - which inevitably means someone’s particular version of Christianity gains state power while others lose freedom.
The founders gave us religious freedom by keeping government secular. That’s the principle worth defending - for Christians and non-Christians alike.