Saturday, November 8, 2025

Was America Ever a Christian Nation?

A Response to Current Events From Americans United

What an officially 'Christian Nation' looked like in America

    Three hundred and seventy-nine years ago today, the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony passed a lawmaking it a crime to deny that the Bible had divine origins. The penalty was stiff: Anyone found in violation would be executed . . . . In recent years, the most extreme voices of Christian Nationalism have called for stripping LGBTQ+ people of their rights, banning books, infusing public schools with fundamentalist Christianity and rolling back women’s rights, among other things – all because they believe freedom and equality run afoul of biblical strictures . . . . This theocratic agenda springs not from the time of the Founding Fathers. It would have been alien to them. Its origins rest with zealous Puritans; it comes from a time of witch trials, imprisonment for blasphemy and forced attendance at religious services . . . . Make no mistake, when Christian Nationalists talk about how our country ought to be a 'Christian nation,' this is what they’re yearning for – a government that acts as enforcer of their theology, a literal merger of church and state." For the full article and more articles from Americans United for Separation of Church and State see: What an officially 'Christian Nation' looked like in America.




Posted by Steve Rensberry

Fantasyland: Author Kurt Andersen

Above Video: Center for Inquiry / How can we make sense of America’s current “post-factual,” “post-truth,” “fake news” moment? By looking to America’s past. All the way back. To the wishful dreams and make-believe fears of the country’s first settlers, the madness of the Salem witch trials, the fantasies of Hollywood, the anything-goes 1960s, the gatekeeper-free internet, the profusion of reality TV….all the way up to and most especially including President Donald Trump. In this fascinating and lively talk, Kurt Andersen brings to life the deep research behind and profound implications of his groundbreaking, critically acclaimed and bestselling latest work.