America at 250: A “Christian Nation,” But Which Christianity?

Arvind Kurian AbrahamAs fireworks lit up the sky this Fourth of July, the United States of America turned 250. Barring the heatwave, the celebrations were spectacular, the patriotism genuine, and the questions, as ever, complicated. Among the most persistent: Was the United States founded as a Christian nation? The question has gained fresh attention this year. The White House’s Rededicate 250 initiative, hosted under its America Prays framework, has made faith central to the semiquincentennial, inviting Americans to see prayer and religious heritage as inseparable from the founding. Vice President J.D. Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, recently remarked in an interview, “I do think in a very foundational sense the country is a Christian nation.” However, if we are going to invoke the Christianity of the Founders, we need to ask which Christianity they had in mind. The answer, buried in the fine print of the Declaration of Independence itself, is more uncomfortable than the…