The Christian Past that Wasn't: Debunking the Christian Nationalist Myths that Hijack History (Warren Throckmorton) - Review
There has been a decades-long
debate as to whether the United States is a Christian Nation. It has become a
major debate in recent years and even months as the nation approached its 250th
anniversary, while the country is being led by a President who has embraced,
largely for political reasons, a nationalist vision with a “Christian” tint. Although
Christians of some stripe have indeed formed the nation’s religious majority,
even what defines a Christian has long been contested. To give a recent
example, the Department of Defense listed the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints separately from a series of Christian denominations. Once
upon a time, many Protestants would have excluded Roman Catholics from their
definition of Christian. The truth is that the nation has been religiously
diverse from the beginning, especially if we include the indigenous population
who were not Christians (of course, they were not included in the definition of
American citizenship). Regarding the indigenous population of the Americas, one
would be well served by reading Daniel Hawk’s recent important book: Undoing Manifest Destiny: Settler America,
Christian Colonists, and the Pursuit of Justice. As Hawk demonstrates,
European settlers, most of whom claimed to be Christian, have a
less-than-stellar reputation. Although there are efforts underway during the
250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, marking the American
colonies' break from British rule, to emphasize only what makes the nation look
good ("Patriotic History"), things are a lot more complicated than some
would like us to believe.
So, is the United States a
"Christian nation?" While some would make that claim, at least
constitutionally, we are not. The Constitution says nothing about Christianity,
and in fact, rules out religious tests for political offices. Then there is the
First Amendment, which prohibits the establishment of religion. So, although
there are plenty of mythmakers and storytellers who would tell us otherwise, respondents
have demonstrated that there is significant evidence that what these
storytellers are doing is hijacking American history in support of their
version of Christian nationalism.
I have shared word about a number
of the respondents to the Christian nation proponents, and in this review I
offer my take on one of the latest efforts to address the myths surrounding the
idea that the United States was, at its birth, Christian. The book I offer here
is Warren Throckmorton's The Christian Past that Wasn't: Debunking the
Christian Nationalist Myths that Hijack History (Broadleaf, 2026).
Throckmorton is a retired psychology professor who taught for many years at an
evangelical Christian College and, with Michael Coulter, is the author of Getting
Jefferson Right: Fact-Checking Claims About Thomas Jefferson. He has devoted
significant time pushing back against purveyors of Christian nationalist myths
such as David Barton. He has committed himself to unmasking efforts to portray
the Founders as evangelical Christians, intent on making the United States a
Christian nation. He writes not as a non-believer, but as a committed
Christian. In this excellent, must-read book, Throckmorton unpacks, step-by-step,
the myths told by such figures as the pseudo-historian David Barton (who has
the ear of the President and others around the President), and his supporters. Although Throckmorton is
not a professional historian, in offering his responses, he has consulted with
leading American historians, while bringing his background in psychology to the
conversation. One of the values of this book and other works by Warren
Throckmorton is that he helps us understand why people embrace myths about the
nation's founding.
In the opening chapter of
Throckmorton’s The Christian Past that Wasn’t, which is titled "Why
Do People Believe America was Founded as a Christian Nation? he speaks to the
psychological elements of belief in the idea that the United States was founded
as a Christian nation. This is a belief that has important implications for an
increasingly diverse and pluralistic nation. Fear of change, especially in
demography, makes people susceptible to believing myths told by people like
David Barton and allies, which includes, for example, the current Speaker of
the House. In this opening chapter, Throckmorton defines Christian nationalism
as the belief that the United States was born as a Christian nation and should
stay that way. Thus, there is an effort to pursue power to enforce a particular
form of Christianity on the nation. Why? Because there is a sense of safety in
being part of a state that shares your beliefs. Plus, one can find hope in the
power that comes from believing God is on one's side.
While there might be psychological
triggers to belief that the United States is and always has been a Christian
nation, where does one find support for the myths that undergird this belief
system? History plays an important role, or I should say
"pseudo-history." In Chapter 2, titled "Hijacking History,"
Throckmorton explores how proponents of a Christian nation ideology have misused
and misconstrued history to support their position, starting with the famed
painting of George Washington kneeling in prayer at Valley Forge. Throughout
the book, the name David Barton, a self-proclaimed historian with no
credentials, will come up as the key storyteller. Barton has the ear of
powerful leaders, including Mike Johnson and even Donald Trump. One of the
figures that Barton depends on in his portrayal of his vision of the United
States as a Christian nation is Parson Mason Weems (1759-1825), who is
responsible for many of the myths told about Washington and the nation’s
founding. These myths include the story of Washington's famous encounter with a
cherry tree. Then there is Barton's book The Jefferson Lies, which was
pulled from production by its publisher after it was demonstrated that Barton's
book was full of historical errors. Nevertheless, Barton remains an important
contributor to the hijacking of history, supported by leading evangelical
entities such as Focus on the Family. There are other contributors to the
mythos, including Francis Schaeffer and, more recently, Speaker of the House Mike
Johnson. Letting go of the myths might be difficult, but as Throckmorton notes,
it might make us a bit freer.
Having introduced us to why people
are susceptible to the mythmaking that goes with belief in a Christian founding
of the United States, aided by the hijacking of history in pursuit of an
agenda, Throckmorton offers a series of seven chapters that lay out the myths
that go with this embrace of Christian nationalism. While this is an important
effort, I'm afraid that many who embrace the idea of a Christian founding of
the United States are immune to this important medicine for the soul of the
nation. This is unfortunate because it prevents the nation from embracing its
true ideals as set out in the Declaration of Independence.
The first myth that Throckmorton explores
is found in Chapter 3, "Myth One: America Is a Covenant Homeland for
European Protestants." There is a myth being told by figures such as
Kenneth Copeland that God made a covenant with the founders so that the United
States would be a covenant nation for European Protestants. That should give us
pause because not only would this covenant rule out Jews, Muslims, Hindus,
etc., from being part of the national ethos, it would also rule out Roman
Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians. Of course, some defenders of a
Christian America go back to Columbus in their efforts to define the nation as
Christian, pointing to the papal declaration that gave support to the European conquest
of the Americas (Doctrine of Discovery). As for North America, the settlers in
what became the United States were largely Protestant, which led to religious
establishments that affirmed Protestant dominance. They also tended to portray
the indigenous people as savages whose land could be seized. He goes through
the stories starting with Jamestown and moving through the Plymouth colony to
George Washington's oath of office. The goal of the efforts by purveyors of
this covenant idea is to show that the United States is designed to be a nation
for White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Besides the racist dimension of this idea, it
ignores how, according to Scripture, God makes covenants.
In Chapter 4, we look at "Myth
Two: America is a Christian Nation Because the Colonies Had State
Churches." While it is true that during the colonial period the majority
of colonies had established churches, the exceptions being Rhode Island and a
few others, that doesn’t mean that this is precedent for continued
establishment after the Constitution, with the Bill of Rights put in place. The
question is whether those establishments provide support for a Christian
founding, such that the structure of the government was designed to support
Protestant Christianity. It should be noted that by 1833, even the states with
religious establishments, namely Massachusetts, had disestablished their
church-state relationships. Disestablishment actually proved to be a boon for
the churches, as well as the states. Thus, the emphasis would be on religious
freedom. The next myth, "Myth Three," has to do with the suggestion
that "America Is a Christian Nation Because the Founders Were Orthodox
Christians" (Chapter 5). Here is where things get tricky because some of
the Founders were orthodox Christians, while others were not. A number of them,
including George Washington, appear to derive more of their religious thought
from their involvement with Freemasonry, including much of the language used to
speak of divinity. The suggestion that
Jefferson and Adams were orthodox is clearly a myth, as both were
Deists/Unitarians. This leads us to "Myth Four: The Founders Created a
Christian Government" (Chapter 6). In this chapter, Throckmorton explores
the role of religion in the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of
Confederation, and the Constitution to see what they say about Christianity and
the government, addressing suggestions that the founders wanted a Christian
form of government. If anyone pays attention to the Constitution, God is not
mentioned, while religious tests are explicitly rejected. Then, of course,
there is the First Amendment. Throckmorton speaks to the ways in which all of
these decisions were made. He also addresses Jefferson's letters with the
Danbury Baptists, in which Jefferson declares that the Constitution created a
wall between church and state, something these early American Baptists
supported. There is a lot more here that speaks to the diversity of religious
views among the Founders, something underscored by the Treaty of Tripoli, which
stated clearly that the United States was not a Christian nation. Therefore,
legally, there is no support for the United States being a Christian nation.
As we move on to the next myth—
"Myth Five: The Charter Documents Are Based on the Bible and
Christianity" (Chapter 7)—once again Throckmorton debunks the myth of a
Christian foundation for the United States. Here, he addresses the myth that suggests
the founders based the founding documents on the Bible, even arguing that large
chunks of the documents are biblical quotations. He demonstrates quite clearly
the falsehood of these suggestions, noting that not only did the authors of
these documents not mention the Bible, but they regularly appealed to Greek and
Roman philosophers, along with Enlightenment
figures such as John Locke.
There is a move endorsed by Donald
Trump, and people in his orbit, that has called for the teaching of what they
call Patriotic History. This form of “history” seeks to highlight the positives
of American history while downplaying the negatives, such as slavery and the
genocide of Native Americans. Supporters of Christian Nationalism are clearly
embarrassed by these realities because they want to eliminate them from the
story, especially since supporters of both slavery and manifest destiny often rooted
their support of these efforts in their reading of the Bible. Thus, in the view
of supporters of the Christian founding of the nation, America's virtues so outweigh
America's sins, such that they can be ignored. Throckmorton, fortunately,
doesn't let this pass scrutiny.
The final myth, "Myth
Seven," suggests that "Christianity Should be Promoted in Public
Education." There is a myth that, before the 1963 Supreme Court case that
abolished school prayer because it functioned as an establishment of religion,
the Bible and Prayer were prominent in the nation's public schools. Because
this was once true, to return the nation to its roots, school prayer and Bible
reading should be restored. So, we see efforts to post the Ten Commandments and
even mandate the teaching of the Bible in places like Texas and Oklahoma. In Oklahoma,
the former Superintendent of Public Education wanted to mandate use of the
so-called Trump Bible, which included within its covers the founding documents,
suggesting that the Bible was a founding document. While some states did
mandate prayer and Bible reading in their schools before 1960, it was not
universal. Besides, publicly funded/mandated education didn't develop until
long after the nation's founding. As he points out, one of the reasons why
public education was developed, and Bibles were to be used, had to do with the
Protestant confrontation with Roman Catholics. The mandated use of the King
James Version did not sit well with Roman Catholics, who responded by creating
a parallel school system. Now, the question concerns whether the current
Supreme Court will open things up for the introduction of religion into public
education by undermining the wall of separation.
Warren Throckmorton’s The Christian Past that Wasn’t is an important book that is essential reading
at this moment in history because it addresses many of the myths put forth by
supporters of Christian nationalism. These efforts seek to embed a particular
form of Christianity in the founding so that it might be used to push back
against the growing pluralism of the nation. As he notes in his conclusion, this
book offers important evidence for those who question this Christian-America
folklore, enabling them to push back against the purveyors of this folklore as
they pursue a quasi-establishment of Christianity as the state religion. I, for
one, am grateful for Throckmorton’s efforts because if the purveyors of this
Christian nation mythology succeed, I believe that their efforts will end badly
for both church and state because the end result will be a reduction of freedom
for everyone to practice the faith of their own choosing.
Copies of The Christian Past that Wasn't can be purchased at your favorite retailer, including my Amazon affiliate and Bookshop.org affiliate.
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