The Myth of America’s Founding as a Christian Nation--and the “Historian” Who Promotes It
The first tenet of “Christian" nationalism
I was brought up understanding that the “separation of church and state” was part of the bedrock upon which this country was founded. I was taught that many of the Founders were Deists, people who doubted the absolute authority of all religious texts and, instead, based their beliefs in the rational thought. One’s religious beliefs were best kept as a private matter (one of the things you weren’t supposed to bring up in polite company, along with one’s monetary worth, politics, and sex). Certainly an upright and good moral character should be required in anyone seeking public office, but those attributes could grow out of a variety of belief systems.
With that background, it has been disturbing to me to hear people I know assert that the United States was founded exclusively as a “Christian” nation. It follows that the First Amendment stating that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” only means that government should stay out of religion rather than religion stay out of government. This latter is a fundamental tenet of Christian nationalists like Rev. Douglas Wilson, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, and head of the Department of Defense Pete Hegseth, and many others who champion the idea that the United States should be explicitly governed by “Christian” principles and “Christian” laws, essentially a “Christian” theocracy. (Of course, exactly which version of Christianity is to be adhered to is conveniently left unspecified. One must assume that the specific version is that of the person espousing the idea.)
Reputable polling suggests that about 10 percent of the U.S. population now qualify as avowed “Christian” nationalists and another 20 percent more loosely align with the ideology that “Christian” values should be closely integrated with government policy. Such views are now abundantly represented in the federal government and Republican dominated state governments.
How did we come to this?
You don’t change the minds of 30 percent of the population from “separation of church and state” as I was taught in school to what amounts to “Christian” supremacy without an effort to re-write history to conform to the new narrative. Enter David Barton, a self-proclaimed and self-promoting “historian”, book writer, speechifier, evangelical Christian activist, and tireless promoter of the position that the modern view of separation of church and state is not consistent with the views of the Founders. It should come as no surprise that Mr. Barton’s education is not in any discipline related to history. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in religious education from Oral Roberts University, a private, evangelical university in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1976.
Barton sees history through the lens of a man committed to an idea doggedly in search of scraps to support it. He has built an extensive speaking and writing empire to put forward his convictions, mostly in the evangelical community. He is the founder and president of WallBuilders, an organization dedicated to publishing and selling Barton’s books and videos. The WallBuilders website (worth a quick visit) announces that “WallBuilders helps people discover the true story of America and our Biblical foundation”. The website provides a blinding array of “educational” materials offered, one must presume, mostly for the use of teachers and professors in evangelical “Christian” schools. The WallBuilders Store, advertising “Restore America’s Biblical Foundation” offers a wide array of David Barton’s books, including “Setting the Record Straight” (Barton’s interpretation of Black history), a Barton pamphlet “Separation of Church & State: What the Founders Meant”, and Barton’s $79.99 “Founders’ Bible” with annotations by Mr. Barton tying Bible passages to his view of America’s history. Particularly galling to me is “The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You've Always Believed About Thomas Jefferson” a Barton book so twisted that it was voted “the least credible history book in print”, widely panned by conservative Christian professors, and finally withdrawn by the publisher. (Of course it is still available on the WallBuilders website.)
Over decades of self promotion within the evangelical movement Barton has gained a number of prominent adherents who find their idea of truth in Barton’s cherry-picked view of history, “including Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann, Sam Brownback, and Trinity Broadcasting Network president Matt Crouch”, and, rather frighteningly, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.
Barton’s book and speaking empire based on deceptive interpretations of history has permeated the minds of many evangelically-minded legislators, many of whom may have no idea from where their historical misinformation has come, since they grew up in the evangelical information bubble. For me, a striking example of Barton’s influence came from a February 19 Substack post by Brian Kaylor, a Baptist minister with a Ph.D., describing his testimony in the Missouri legislature in opposition to a bill that would required the teaching of several points of Barton’s fanciful history in Missouri classrooms. Here’s the link to the whole post, “The Room Where the Bad Bill Happens”. Below I quote one example from the post, the myth of the “Black Robe Regiment”:
Both the Ohio bill and the Missouri copycat one include historical errors listed as “examples” of the “positive” impact of religion. That makes the Missouri bill worse since it would mandate that those Christian Nationalist tall tales be taught as history. For instance, one required item to teach would be “the historic role of the black robe regiment.” Popularized by pseudo-historian David Barton, pundit Glenn Beck, and some Christian Nationalist pastors, the claim is that the “Black Robe Regiment” was a group of clergy supporting American independence during the Revolutionary War. The story they particularly like to tell is of Rev. Peter Muhlenberg, a Lutheran minister who later became a U.S. senator, giving a patriotic sermon to his congregation in 1776 and then pulling off his clerical robe to reveal a Revolutionary Army uniform and encouraging his congregants to enlist.
There’s a big problem with the Muhlenberg story and the claims of a so-called “Black Robe Regiment.” None of it happened. The tale about Muhlenberg’s robe-stripping sermon was first told 73 years after it supposedly occurred (and 42 years after his death). That is, it was made up by later generations. And the phrase “Black Robe Regiment” is an even more modern invention, perhaps arising from Barton misreading the historical records. Yet, this fake history is popular with Christian Nationalists today who like to imagine themselves as the new “Black Robe Regiment” while supporting the Jan. 6 insurrection and pushing for Donald Trump. Now, some lawmakers want public schools to teach the so-called “Black Robe Regiment” as a historical fact.
David Barton’s decades of promoting his Christian nationalist ideology is another example of a lie going around the world before the truth gets its boots on. Spending a little time to make oneself fully aware of the origin of the myth of our founding as an exclusively “Christian” nation is a big step in combating myth using historical truth. Check out Mr. Barton and pay attention to his detractors.
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry