The semiquincentennial celebration unofficially kicks off this coming Sunday, May 17, on the National Mall. The Marine Band will play. Fanfare trumpets will sound across the Reflecting Pool.
Amanda Tyler
From a stage at 12th Street, top government officials — the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, the speaker of the House — will address the crowd. Choirs from Liberty University and Hillsdale College will sing. And it will all kick off on the grounds of the United States Capitol, in the shadow of the American flag, as the crowd is asked to solemnly “rededicate” this nation as “One Nation under God.”
It will be, by any measure, a spectacular production — and a deeply troubling attack on religious freedom.
For one, the event perpetuates a flawed narrative of the country as a “Christian nation” — a cherry-picked version of history that is easily corrected by reference to the founding documents, most importantly the U.S. Constitution. Far from making a religious dedication of the country, the Founders made a deliberate effort to break from their Colonial past in separating the spheres of religion and government, making space for growing religious pluralism.
“When governments claim the mantle of God, they find perdition instead of salvation.”
Those Founders knew what our present leaders seem to have forgotten: When governments claim the mantle of God, they find perdition instead of salvation. They betray the very principles they claim to honor, marginalizing Anglicans and atheists, Baptists and Buddhists, Catholics and Calvinists, humanists and Hindus, Jews and Jehovah’s Witnesses, Muslims and Methodists.
As a Baptist Christian and an attorney, I speak from a tradition that learned this lesson early in this country’s history. Baptists were fined, jailed and beaten in Colonial America for worshipping outside the established church. That suffering is why Baptists became among the most passionate early advocates for the separation of religion and government.
Of course, people are free to pray and to dedicate whatever they wish to God. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and the president himself are free to participate in any religious activity — as private citizens. But government officials, who all swear an oath to uphold the Constitution, must act on behalf of all Americans, not just those who may share their religious beliefs.
When Secretary Hegseth prays from the Pentagon podium — in his official capacity, on behalf of the United States military — reciting Psalm 144 at a press briefing, praying for enemies’ “eternal damnation,” comparing a rescued pilot to the resurrection of Christ — he is not speaking as a private citizen.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth prays over Pastor Doug Wilson during a Pentagon chapels service. (DOD photo)
When Secretary of State Marco Rubio uses the State Department’s official account to mark Christian holidays while going silent on Ramadan, Eid and Yom Kippur — holidays the department routinely observed under every prior administration, including Trump’s first — he is not curating a personal Instagram.
These are just a few examples of government favoritism of religion. Recently, the administration released a report on “eradicating anti-Christian bias” that follows the same logic. It opens by asserting the Constitution reflects a Christian worldview — a claim made without citation, because the evidence does not support it.
“That is the federal government proclaiming what it deems to be orthodox.”
The report then proceeds to define what “the vast majority of Christians” — and in at least one place “all Christians” — believe. That is the federal government proclaiming what it deems to be orthodox. It is a stunning act of theocracy, and it is precisely what the Founders meant to prohibit, specifically in the First Amendment’s bar against government establishment of religion.
But here is what concerns me most. When a government frames its wars as holy, its authority as divinely ordained and its policies as the expression of God’s will, it does something more than cross a constitutional line. It makes disagreement tantamount to blasphemy.
The potential impact is a silencing of dissent, sending multiple reinforcing signals that to oppose this government is to oppose God. This is not the hallmark of a free country; it is a country where political power has claimed religious authority.
Religious freedom requires the government to remain neutral among faiths, and between faith and non-faith, allowing religion to flourish without government support or denigration. Religious freedom is present when every American, regardless of their tradition, can participate fully in civic life without being made to feel that their country belongs to someone else’s God.
In its misguided advocacy for a particular version of Christianity, this administration is not protecting religious freedom. It is undermining the conditions that make religious freedom possible for everyone.
That is not a Baptist position. That is not a Christian position. It is an American one.
Amanda Tyler serves as executive director of Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and is the author of How to End Christian Nationalism.
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