Webinar explores religious context of America’s Founders

Understanding the nation’s founding requires insight into the religious context in which the framers lived and worked, political scientist Mark Hall said during a webinar hosted by Religion News Service.

“In the late 18th century, about 98% of Americans of European descent are Protestant, 2% are Roman Catholic and you have about 2,000 Jews in four or five American cities. And for them, they’re just assuming a Christian environment,” said Hall, a political science professor at Regent University.

Hall was one of four speakers featured in the webinar titled “One Nation Under God?” The live discussion was held two days after the Trump administration’s Christian nationalist prayer rally and ahead of formal celebrations of the country’s 250th anniversary next month.

Broadcast in partnership with NPR’s “1A” program, the discussion focused on the Christian faith of America’s Founders and how that compares to concepts of religious freedom in 2026. The event was moderated by RNS live events host Niala Boodhoo.

“In their imagination, religion equaled Christianity, but I think it’s broader than that,” Hall said. “We’re obviously a far different country today and it’s very reasonable to ask, ‘Is it not possible that other religions, other faiths traditions can generate the sort of morality necessary for Republican form of government?’ I think it certainly is.”

The Founders had a vision of religious freedom that extended to all Americans, Hall said. “They consciously built a nation that would be open to all people of all faith and no faith at all.”

It’s clear from the constitutional ban on religious tests for elected office that the framers sought to create “a robust understanding of religious liberty that protects all Americans,” he added. “You have George Washington’s wonderful letter to the Hebrew congregation in Newport, R.I., where he makes it crystal clear that Jews in America have a right to the free exercise of religion. It’s not a grant to the civil state, it’s a right.”

Boodhoo then asked Jeffrey Rosen, CEO emeritus of the National Constitution Center and a law professor at George Washington University Law School, whether the U.S. was founded as a “Christian nation.”

“No, we were not founded as a Christian nation because the core value of the Establishment Clause is that it’s not permissible to favor Christianity over any other religion,” he replied.

“Now, the Founders disagreed about exactly how to treat the question of religious liberty and (James) Madison, whose views were reflected in the First Amendment, insisted that the government should be non-cognizant of religion.”

Madison, who went on to serve as the nation’s fourth president, developed his perspective from battles against government-established religion in Virginia, Rosen said. “Patrick Henry wants a tax for all citizens to have to support the Christian church. Madison says the tax violates our natural rights of conscience, which are unalienable.”

Madison also argued the ideas and opinions of individuals are the products of reason and cannot be controlled by religious or any other force, making religious freedom an inalienable right.

“This is the most important of the unalienable rights protected by the Declaration of Independence, that you can’t tell anyone else how to think. And even if you want to, it won’t work because we’re product of reason, which means that no one religion can prevail over another,” Rosen said.

RNS reporter Jack Jenkins pointed out the vision of the Founders collided with Christian nationalism during last month’s “Rededicate 250” prayer rally on the National Mall. Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were among the administration officials to speak at the rally.

Meanwhile, many of those in attendance wore MAGA hats and “One Nation Under God” shirts and spoke of the importance of both rededicating the nation to God and showing support for Trump, Jenkins said.

“And so you saw people as they were walking into the crowd with hands raised in prayer, we saw people kneel together to pray and wearing clothes that were emblazoned with red, white and blue,” he added. “So, it was really kind of a synthesis of that that I was hearing from any number of people in the crowd.”

Rededicate 250 and its “One Nation Under God” message also was designed to communicate which religious groups belong in the U.S. and which do not, said Asma Uddin, a scholar of religious freedom and Muslim identity in the U.S. and an assistant professor of law at Michigan State University.

The rhetoric used in the prayer session was reminiscent of the anti-Muslim language and legislation premised on the claim that Islam is not a religion and therefore not protected by the Constitution, said Uddin, author of When Islam is Not a Religion: Inside America’s Fight for Religious Freedom.

“It basically says we are rededicating this country to this particular vision and those are the people who belong and everyone else is just a guest. And the (mosque shooting) incident in San Diego (May 18), and many other incidents, tell us that (Islam is) not a very welcome guest.”