Religion: Christian nationalism on the Mall

The nation just got “a preview of what American theocracy would look like,” said Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons in MS.now. Thousands of people gathered on the National Mall last week for Rededicate 250, a White House–backed and taxpayer-funded prayer event that featured “a who’s who of religious-right figures,” including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and evangelical preacher Franklin Graham, who blasted America as “sick with sin, transgenderism, same-sex marriage.” The kickoff for a series of events celebrating America’s 250th anniversary, the rally framed the U.S.’s founding as an explicitly Christian project. It’s the most aggressive attack on the Constitution’s guarantee of religious freedom “that the Christian nationalist movement has yet attempted on American soil.” And it’s one based on a lie: The U.S. was founded 250 years ago as a secular democracy, not a theocracy. “We cannot rededicate something to God when the nation was never dedicated to one narrow religious movement.”

President Trump, who was busy playing golf, appeared in a prerecorded video reading from the biblical book of Chronicles, said Sarah Posner in Talking Points Memo. Still, his supporters spent the day “trying to turn the anniversary of our independence from a king into a spectacle of worship of their wannabe king.” Evangelical podcaster Eric Metaxas even claimed in his speech that God had “raised up” Trump to build a White House ballroom. But Rededicate 250 made it clear that not all Christians are welcome under Trump’s tent, said Amanda Marcotte in Salon. Sure, there was “a smattering of token Catholics” among the speakers—and even one rabbi. But the event was dominated by white, far-right evangelicals. “Promoting voices like these sends a message loud and clear: The rest of you don’t matter.”

Such brazen displays of Christian nationalism could push us into “a vicious cycle,” said Andrew Egger in The Bulwark. The “charlatans” who spoke at Rededicate 250 are increasingly the only “Christians” encountered by irreligious types on the Left. And the more those on the religious right tie Christianity to MAGA, the less they can be surprised “if their political opponents turn out to be hostile not only to MAGA but to Christianity itself.” For those believers who years ago made peace with Trump on the “spurious argument” that only he stood between them and “a political movement hostile to their faith, I worry that they may meet their destiny on the road they took to avoid it.”

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Latest Videos From