America is a Protestant nation at its core, Assistant Professor of History Miles Smith IV said in a speech March 28.
Smith’s speech, sponsored by the history department, promoted his new book, “Religion and Republic: Christian America From the Founding To the Civil War,” and was hosted in the Formal Lounge.
“There are so many conversations that happen about politics and history these days without either side defining what each is,” he said. “I hope to highlight why this conversation is an important one to have.”
While the Christian principles America is founded on have historically been Protestant, today they are blended with ideas of nationalism, Smith said.
“From 1789-1861, the U.S. was a Christian nation of a sort,” he said. “Now, Christianity and nationalism have seemed to mix, for better or for worse.”
The beginning of Donald Trump’s presidency brought about a new change in evangelical America, with the discussion of Christian nationalism being at the forefront, according to Smith.
“There’s even more confusion about the relationship between religion and civil order today than in 2016, even,” he said.
Smith said the term “Christian nationalism” has begun to be thrown around more often and has led to overuse of the term without defining it.
“It has essentially become a meaningless term,” he said. “One side names everything they dislike as ‘Christian nationalist,’ while the other side names everything they do like as ‘Christian nationalist.’”
The overuse of this term has led to cultural confusion about America’s roots and founding principles, Smith said.
“Whatever meaning and whatever historical meaning it had in the founding republic, it’s essentially useless now,” he said.
Smith also said that while many believe America to be a Christian nation, it is not that. Instead, it is a nation founded by people who hold Christian beliefs, but that does not explicitly endorse a specific church.
“The federal union was never meant to inhibit religion, but it was not founded to support it, either,” he said.
America’s founders, who were mainly Protestant, wanted to use the principles of Christianity for the foundation of their nation without forcing those beliefs on their citizens, Smith said.
Professor of History Paul Moreno said Smith’s perspective on America’s founding principles are true regardless of one’s religious beliefs.
“He had it exactly right about the church and state relationship,” he said. “Even though I’m Catholic, his point that the country is fundamentally, at the founding, a Protestant country, and these are Protestant principles, is right.”
Senior Addy Longenecker attended the speech and said she appreciated Smith’s views on the history of Christian principles in America.
“I think it’s a really insightful look at what we are as a Christian nation and what that meant historically and the effects of that today,” she said.
Smith’s book will be released on May 23 through the Davenant Institute, a nonprofit that seeks to “retrieve the riches of classical Protestantism to renew and build up the contemporary Church,” according to the organization’s website.
“Everyone should buy his book and have him sign it so that one day it’ll be really worth something,” Longenecker said. “Give it to your Republican grandma for Christmas. She’ll love it.”
