Over the weekend, I finished reading Jerome E. Copulsky’s new book, American Heretics: Religious Adversaries of Liberal Order, just in time to watch the second inauguration of Donald J. Trump into the office of the presidency. As Copulsky demonstrates time and again in American Heretics, our country has been here before.
The beauty of the book is the thoroughly researched way in which Copulsky takes us from the battles between those colonists who wished to declare independence from England and those who believed doing so was a rejection of God’s will to the present day.
Mara Bim
Episode after episode in the book shows this political-theological battle — this battle over whether the U.S. should be declared a “Christian” nation governed by a certain kind of Christian law or a religiously neutral one — has been going on from our country’s inception.
One section worth highlighting is the portion on the American Civil War. While I previously knew chattel slavery had been justified on theological grounds, Copulsky’s detailed examples of the theological arguments for founding a new nation — a Confederate nation — in which God and Jesus Christ were written into the founding documents to, in the views of slaveholders, more closely adhere to God’s word — was truly sobering.
“They saw the Confederacy as more ‘Christian’ than the Union because it preserved the ‘natural’ hierarchy within humankind as detailed in the Bible.”
These Southern Christian leaders were convicted in their belief that the Bible was on their side when it came to the continued practice of human enslavement. And the theological arguments they used to undergird that practice were rooted in their belief that the framers of the Constitution made a grave error in not explicitly establishing the United States as a Christian nation, so they were remedying that problem with a re-founding of the country. They saw the Confederacy as more “Christian” than the Union because it preserved the “natural” hierarchy within humankind as detailed in the Bible.
The justifications they used to uphold their political theology are truly mind-numbing. And yet, as Copulsky also details, the battle for the soul of America continues today.
Some Americans believe in defending the classic liberal order’s assertion of each person’s inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Others seek to overturn the liberal order and its guarantees for individual liberty in exchange for a Christian autocracy — much like the Confederates did during the Civil War.
As I watched the 60t presidential inauguration, I found it a comfort — albeit a cold comfort — that we have seen these kinds of American heretics before.
Today’s American heretics include people like Kevin Roberts, who oversaw creation of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 (the policy playbook for the new Trump presidency). They include Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, whose religious views even the leading news and information website for U.S. service members, veterans and their families has called attention to. And they include the president himself, who sees his return to power as some kind of mandate from God to remake the country in his image.
As I watched the inauguration of Trump taking place in the Capitol Rotunda, I couldn’t help but remember the images from January 6, 2021. Images of a mob searching for members of Congress and the vice president to murder. Images of the mob destroying artwork (some even left behind their defecation). Images of the Confederate flag marched through the Capitol building.
Trump’s second inauguration was filled with words and symbols that just as easily could have been a part of the inauguration of Jefferson Davis as president of the Confederate States of America in 1862.
The Marine Band provided the upbeat nostalgic military parade music both before and during the ceremony. Many selections were by John Philip Sousa (1854-1932) who composed in the decades between the Civil War and the First World War.
Before the procession began, there was a piano medley that began with a Christian song. Originally composed by Conrad Kocher in 1838, the tune was made popular by William Chatterton Dix in his 1859 Epiphany hymn “As with Gladness Men of Old” and by Folliott S. Pierpoint in his 1864 hymn “For the Beauty of the Earth.” (For those unfamiliar with Christian hymnology, many early hymns are set to a handful of traditional tunes. By setting hymns to familiar tunes, composers ensured church laity would be able to sing the hymns even if they were unable to read music.)
While the piano medley included only a short portion of the Dix-Kocher melody, the next Christian hymn was played in its entirety. “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” was composed by Methodist minister Thomas Chisholm in 1923 and set to music by William Runyan of Moody Bible College. The tune gained prominence when Billy Graham began using it in his “crusades” which he led from 1947to 2005 (although he began calling them “missions” after the September 11 attacks). Graham’s events initially were called “crusades” because the intention was to invade, conquer and convert people in locations at home and abroad.
The inclusion of this particular hymn, which is all about God’s faithfulness to a particular person as they faced hardships, was not incidental to the overarching message of the day and was amplified by the various prayers offered (including one by Franklin Graham, Billy’s son) and Trump’s own inaugural speech.
Lest we all forget: The music, words and symbols were intended to advance the narrative that Trump has been tested by Satan but overcome to stand as America’s Messiah, anointed by God, so he can usher in a re-founding of the country as a true “Christian” nation which, in turn, will conquer other nations around the world in God’s name.
“Trump announced his new America will be founded on evils once condemned by Christians.”
I guess Trump thinks God really cares with the Gulf of Mexico is called.
Like the Confederacy, which was founded on a political theology built on power and hatred, Trump announced his new America will be founded on evils once condemned by Christians.
During his speech, the president emphasized his new America will once again be prideful (mentioned six times) because it will “reclaim” its strength (mentioned five times) and its power (mentioned nine times).
The last time I checked, the Bible said God admonishes and destroys nations that are prideful and that seize power. In fact, God’s people are called “to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.” Jesus’ entire ministry and death was a rejection of pride and power, teaching instead that there is strength in service and humility.
Humility. That word was notably absent from the inauguration yesterday.
Just as the Confederacy was founded on a perversion of the gospel and led by false apostles, so too is Trump’s new America.
Copulsky’s book is a timely and prescient warning. It is also a cause for hope. Our country has been here before. The Confederacy did not last. Neither will Trump’s perverted vision of a “Christian” America.
Mara Richards Bim serves as a Clemons Fellow with BNG and as program director at Faith Commons. She is a spiritual director and a recent master of divinity degree graduate from Perkins School of Theology at SMU. She also is an award-winning theater artist and founder of the nationally acclaimed Cry Havoc Theater Company which operated in Dallas from 2014 to 2023.
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Trump didn’t take his oath on a Bible: What that means | Opinion by Brandan Robertson
A god of their own making | Opinion by Greg Jarrell
The testing of our faith | Opinion by Susan Shaw
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