I grew up a few miles from where George Washington and his Continental Army crossed the Delaware River to launch a surprise attack on Hessian mercenary soldiers stationed in Trenton, NJ. As luck would have it, Washington launched this daring military coup on Christmas Day, sending three parties (only one succeeded) across the ice-choked waters in small boats during a ferocious storm.
In my teenage years, a friend and I recreated the crossing in his canoe. The river is only 300 feet wide at the crossing, and I attempted it on a summer day, but wrecked the metal boat on some rocks. Either way, Washington’s maneuvers—commemorated by a German-American artist in 1851—represented a turning point in our country’s history.
As America prepares for its Semiquincentennial—a tongue-twisting term that refers to its 250th anniversary—we’ll be hearing a lot about the revolution, our history, and the nation’s future. The think tank I work for, the R Street Institute, hosts countless related events as an opportunity “to reinvigorate the American creed of self-government and principled pluralism in an era of political division and institutional mistrust.”
American democracy is going through some trials because we are dealing with a ruling party that is committed to disruption, relishes the abolition of long-held democratic norms, and is devoted to a leader who often acts like a would-be despot. We have also seen the rise of discourse on the right and left that openly rejects democracy and plays with authoritarianism.
This is not entirely new, but it is a new twist in the modern age. One of the most harmful ideas gaining ground among some MAGA followers is the concept of Christian nationalism. It’s the idea that America was founded as a Christian nation and should function, if not as a theocracy, at least as a close cousin of one. Its defenders argue that the term is just a “dog whistle” pushed by liberals to discredit Christianity in the public domain, but that’s mostly nonsense.
Christian nationalists, some of whom are influential among members of the Trump administration, do not hide their views. A prominent pastor, Douglas Wilson, calls himself “a theocratic libertarian” in a New York Times interview. He says “if we’re going to ban something, I want a Bible verse, ideally the Ten Commandments.” But when it comes to, say, “making and selling widgets, or the thoughts a person thinks, or the beliefs a person has, I’m a libertarian.” It sounds contradictory, but I suppose they will ban things based on reading the Bible, but leave us alone economically.
Wilson, who admits she is not against stoning (though not necessarily in favor of it either), is one of the least outrageous of their lot, with some calling for the repeal of women’s suffrage. It’s a fringe move, we’re assured, but it would be more reassuring if the defense secretary didn’t post cute videos. Many of these sound like America’s Taliban. Christianity is an international religion, so I consider “Christian nationalism” heresy. But I will leave the theology to others.
We are witnessing the resurgence of an old debate. Most people see America as an experiment in classical liberalism, where the founders created a system of limited government, religious pluralism, and freedom. Religious leaders are free to spread their message through culture, but not to take control of the levers of power and base legislation on their sectarian interpretations of the Bible. The Constitution protects the natural rights of everyone, its primary purpose being to limit the scope of government, not to implement rules to ensure proper religious observance.
Indeed, there is no other way to seriously read our Constitution, but many religious people still maintain that the founders were Christians who envisioned a Christian nation. Some of the founders were indeed devout Christians, and these people pick Christian quotes from them. The Heritage Foundation, which has recently taken a nationalist detour, argued in 2011 that the most reasonable reading is that the founders were simply “influenced by Christian ideas”.
Indeed. I am a Christian who believes that our faith centers on goodness, charity, redemption, and free will, rather than empowering the courts to decide who is publicly stoned or flogged for violating some biblical admonition. Consider the madness that will ensue if religious interpretation becomes the legal standard. Then again, the hilarious city council battles between Calvinists and Catholic integralists over the correct manifestation of God’s will might be worth the price of admission.
Christian nationalists often argue that America cannot survive as a multicultural, multi-religious nation. To which I will quote a 1788 rebuttal from George Washington: “I have always hoped that this land would become a safe and agreeable asylum for the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they may belong.” As we approach the 250th anniversary of our founding, Americans must not let Washington’s shining legacy and the nation’s ideals be hijacked by idiots.
This column was first published in The Orange County Register.
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