The Boundaries of Religion and The Government

by Daniel Burke, Senior Editor of Religion & Spirituality       NPR

According to surveys, more than 60% of Americans are Christian. But is the United States a “Christian” country?  If you ask members of the Trump administration, the answer is yes.  “The only thing that has truly served as an anchor of the United States of America is that we have been, and by the grace of God, we always will be, a Christian nation,” Vice President JD Vance said at a conservative rally in Arizona last December.  Vance went on to say that he does not believe that every American has to be Christian — but, he said, “Christianity is America’s creed.”

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As our religion team at NPR, along with our partners at Religion News Service, have reported, that kind of rhetoric is not unusual from members of the Trump administration. But it is fairly unusual in recent American history. Since the 1960s, presidents often have been careful to note that the United States is a pluralistic society, with adherents of dozens of faiths — and, increasingly, no organized religion at all. And the Constitution strictly prohibits  Trump, on the other hand, has said this: “We have to bring back our religion. We have to bring back Christianity in this country.”  It’s worth mentioning here that the First Amendment of the Constitution prohibits the government from “establishing” any particular religion.   But the Trump administration has been pushing the boundaries between church and state in unprecedented ways. The Justice Department established a task force to root out “anti-Christian bias” in federal agencies. It organized a prayer rally on the National Mall in which Cabinet members and Christian preachers prayed in front of a massive white cross to “rededicate America to God.” And it has invoked Scripture to justify policies as controversial as military invasions and ICE raids.  A small but growing number of Americans seem to agree with the special status the Trump administration has granted a particular kind of Christianity, according to a recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center. The survey found that 17% of Americans believe Christianity should be declared the official religion of the United States. That’s an increase of four percentage points since Pew asked the same question just two years ago.  Declaring the U.S. to be a Christian Nation might be called a textbook example of Christian Nationalism, but in our Church and State series, we wanted to go a bit deeper than labeling the phenomenon.  We wanted to see it not only through a political lens, but also a cultural one: to reveal how it’s expressed through songs and paintings; schoolbooks and lesson plans; church services and faith-infused gatherings like the memorial for the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk.  And we wanted to talk to people who push back vigorously against this idea of the United States as a “Christian nation.”   Did I expect that an old painting of George Washington praying at Valley Forge would be the focal point of one of our stories? Honestly, I did not.  But that’s the joy of being an editor at NPR: working with journalists, like Neda Ulaby, who bring a fresh perspective to stories that can seem, at first, a bit old hat. I learned a lot from Neda’s story —  and from all of our stories —  about our country’s past, but also about this present moment. I hope you do as well.

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