Christian Nation, History, and Religious Liberty in the 21st Century United States

In the United States, religious people frequently ask whether America is a "Christian Nation," and this question has come to draw renewed attention along with evangelicals\u27active participation in the public arena since the late 20th century. Today\u27s Christian Nation theorists often cite the Founding Fathers, claiming that they were devout Christians and built the United States as a Christian Nation. While many evangelical and other religious Americans embrace this argument and believe they should restore Christian America as originally intended, others, especially professional historians, are concerned about its tendency toward historical revisionism. This paper analyzes the historically supported Christian Nation argument of today and its criticism, together with how this controversial argument is influencing wider American society through public education and electoral politics. This paper also points to the interrelationship between the growing popularity of the Christian Nation argument and the emergence of a new understanding of American religious liberty, which appreciates the public role of religion and a wider protection of religiously motivated action and speech, challenging the once well-established understanding of building "a wall of separation" between Church and State.論文/Article