Inside Christian nationalists’ war on religious freedom

Opinion>Opinions - Campaign The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill Inside Christian nationalists’ war on religious freedom Comments: by David Wippman and Glenn C. Altschuler, opinion contributors - 08/02/26 8:00 AM ET Comments: Link copied by David Wippman and Glenn C. Altschuler, opinion contributors - 08/02/26 8:00 AM ET Comments: Link copied

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Earlier this year, a presidential commission staffed almost entirely by conservative Christians urged Americans to rethink the separation of church and state and build “bridges” between them. Last week, the Department of Justice directed federal agencies to expand protections for religious expression in public employment, military service, education, healthcare and federal contracting.

These policies reflect the influence of Christian nationalism, a movement predicated on the belief that the United States is divinely chosen,” the New Testament should shape government policies, and white Christians should dominate American culture.

In a compelling new book, “No Prophets: The Fight to Save Democracy From Christian Nationalism,” Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), the only self-declared Humanist in Congress, chronicles the movement’s rise and documents its great and growing impact on American politics.

For decades, Christian nationalists sought influence within the Republican Party. Presidents Reagan and Bush talked the talk, but largely accepted the traditional constitutional framework regarding church-state relations. But as traditional churches and denominations began to shrink in the 1990s, “independent charismatic ministries” expanded. The New Apostolic Reformation, a network of evangelical leaders, maintained that America was a Christian nation under siege by secular elites, including “demons” who must be “vanquished.”

Alongside The New Apostolic Reformation, two other influential strands of conservative Christianity — radical traditionalist Catholics and the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches — emerged. Although differing in theology and tactics, all three claim that God has chosen Christians to run the country.

According to the Public Religion Research Institute’s 2025 national survey, roughly 11 percent of Americans identify as Christian nationalists. An additional 21 percent sympathize with the movement. Most Republicans are adherents or sympathizers; 55 percent of them “embrace ‘dominion’ theology,” and more than 60 percent “want America to be officially declared a Christian nation.”

What’s more, many believe God anointed Donald Trump to save the country. Pillars of the MAGA movement, they helped elect him president. Legions of Christian nationalists, Huffman reveals, participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.

In his second term, Trump has gone a long way to justify their faith in him.

Trump has pledged to defend Christianity from the “radical left” and “root out anti-Christian bias.” He formed a task force to investigate the “targeting” of Christians, promoting the false narrative that the country’s dominant religious group is being systematically persecuted.

Trump also established a White House Faith Office, led by a pastor who called the “Black Lives Matter” movement “anti-Christ” and insisted Jesus would not have been the Messiah had he broken immigration laws. The office is part of a broader effort to bring “a renewal of faith in our schools, military, workplaces, hospitals, and halls of government.”

Most importantly, Trump has put Christian nationalists in some of the most important positions in the federal government.

A principal architect of Project 2025, Russell Vought has recommended addressing the problems of a “too secular” America by criminalizing pornography; using biblical definitions of gender, marriage and family; and making the Christian Sabbath a government-enforced day of rest. As director of the Office of Management and Budget, Vought has fused notions of presidential power with his explicitly Christian vision of national renewal.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth hosts monthly Christian prayer services at the Pentagon and bears a large Jerusalem cross tattooed on his chest and a Crusader slogan on his arm. At the beginning of the war against Iran, a Muslim-majority country, Hegseth prayed for U.S. troops to inflict “overwhelming violence against those who deserve no mercy … with bold confidence in the might and powerful name of Jesus Christ.”

Vice President JD Vance represents the Catholic postliberal wing of the Christian-nationalist coalition. He insists that “by the grace of God we will always be a Christian nation,” claims that “religious liberty is a Christian concept,” and seeks a greater role for faith in the public square.

Christian nationalism also runs rampant on Capitol Hill, where, as Huffman points out, “a ministry-industrial complex” composed of “faith leaders, religious networks, advocacy groups, and a steady wave of religious programs” seeks “to embed right-wing Christian influence in government and manifest biblical dogma into policy.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), for example, dismisses the separation of church and state as a “misnomer,” considers the Bible “an appropriate course of study in our public schools,” and advocates “biblically sanctioned government.” Johnson opposes same-sex marriage, considers homosexual relationships “sinful” and denigrates no-fault divorce.

Christian nationalism may be even more influential in state governments dominated by Republicans. New laws mandate religious displays in public schools, authorize school chaplains, expand religiously infused history curricula, and increase public funding for religious schools.

The danger is clear. Liberal democracy rests on the premise that citizens of every faith — and the approximately 28 percent of American adults who describe themselves as atheists, agnostics or “nothing in particular” — stand as equals before the law. When government defines national identity in explicitly Christian terms, it marginalizes religious minorities, weakens constitutional protections for dissent, and transforms political disagreement into heresy.

As Justice Sandra Day O’Connor pointed out more than 20 years ago: “Those who would renegotiate the boundaries between church and state must … answer a difficult question: Why would we trade a system that has served us so well for one that has served others so poorly?”

David Wippman is emeritus president of Hamilton College. Glenn C. Altschuler is The Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Emeritus Professor of American Studies at Cornell University.