Review of Baptizing America: How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism, by Brian Kaylor and Beau Underwood. Danvers, MA: Chalice Press, 2024.
Over the past few years, scholars have devoted increased attention to the rise of Christian nationalism in general and white Christian nationalism in particular. This development is most frequently associated with the far right, with President Donald Trump, and with fundamentalists, evangelicals, and/or charismatics.
Critics point to the tensions between the establishment clause of the First Amendment and attempts to identify the U.S. as a Christian nation.
Dr. Brian Kaylor, one of the authors of “Review of Baptizing America,” is a Baptist minister who is president and editor-in-chief of Word&Way and the author of other books. Beau Underwood, the other author, is the senior minister of a Disciples of Christ church in Indianapolis, Indiana, and is a contributing editor to Word&Way who is working on a terminal degree.
The two authors compellingly dissect the roots of Christian nationalism, which they trace back to mainline Protestant denominations, often with a boost from leading Roman Catholics.
Religious symbols that once united people beve become more divisive
Words, symbols and practices that were once used primarily to unite a people around democratic values have mutated into those that have become divisive, if not outright idolatrous. The individuals who stormed the Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021, often carried Christian flags, along with Confederate flags, and signs proclaiming that Jesus was their savior and Trump —whose electoral defeat they were hoping to reverse — remained their president.
Although the authors cite sociologist Robert Bellah’s long-standing argument that a healthy civil religion can help unite a nation in a positive way (Abraham Lincoln’s rhetoric being a stellar example), they observe that achieving such unity is far less possible today. This is because the nation has become much more religiously diverse, with an increasing number of citizens (some of whom appear to have disaffiliated because of the political stances their churches have taken) claiming no formal religious identification.
They also note that even during an earlier time of greater religious homogeneity, an emphasis on civil religion likely made non-Christian believers feel as though they were outsiders.
The roots of American civil religion reach deep into colonial times. Such religious establishments continued into a number of early state governments, and references to God are found in political documents and speeches throughout U.S. history.
Book focuses on development of national religion since Cold War
Despite the establishment clause of the First Amendment, Miles Smith has recently argued that, through its early years, the U.S. was for all practical purposes a Protestant Republic. Kaylor and Underwood’s book, which notes how evocations of the divine often increase during times of war, focuses chiefly on developments from the Cold War, and especially the Eisenhower Administration, to the present.
Although the term “In God We Trust” was first put on U.S. coins during the Civil War, it appeared on an 8-cent stamp in 1954, and it became the national motto in 1956. At about the same time, the National Prayer Breakfast was established, and the words “under God” were added to the Pledge of Allegiance.
Just as religion had been used in earlier wars to baptize the justice of the American (or Confederate) cause as just, it was particularly ubiquitous during the Cold War when America faced a foreign foe whose governing ideology was explicitly atheistic. Although such developments were endorsed by Billy Graham and other evangelicals, civil religious connections emerged primarily from mainline Protestant denominations.
Trump used St. John’s Episcopal Church as a prop long after it had been designated as the church of the Presidents. Long before Trump held up a Bible (and later offered them for sale), President Harry Truman had presided over the unveiling of a new Bible translation. Long before Trump used a National Prayer Breakfast to lambast his political opponents and revel in his victory over impeachment efforts, presidents had used the venue to parade their own religiosity and to mingle with foreign diplomats.
More militant uses of Christian nationalism have emerged
As members of mainline denominations, the authors believe strongly in the separation of church and state but acknowledge that their own denominations paved the way for more militant uses of Christian nationalism. They point to such practices as displaying the U.S. flag in church sanctuaries, attributing salvific power to those who fight and die for the nation, referring to America as a Christian nation, including patriotic songs in denominational hymnals, and in employing liturgies for patriotic holidays.
It should be remembered that one of the mainline churches in the United States, that of the Episcopalians, derived from the established Anglican Church of England where prayers for the monarch were an obligatory part of the liturgy. Moreover, one can hardly fault Christians for praying for leaders (as long as they do so in a nonpartisan fashion) when Scripture commands them to do so. There is surely a line between recognizing and honoring the legitimate role that governments play and worshiping the state or its current occupants.
First Amendment seeks to avoid state domination of church and church domination of state
The wisdom of the First Amendment is that it combined protection for the free exercise of religion with a prohibition against its establishment. It thereby sought to avoid the danger both of state domination of the church and church domination of the state. Kaylor and Underwood recognize that when the relationship between church and state becomes too cozy, the church finds it difficult to carry out its own prophetic role, which often calls for calling leaders to account, and the state tends to replace God as what theologian Paul Tillich identified as the “ultimate concern.”
Although the book is well written and amply footnoted, it lacks an index, which somewhat limits its use as a scholarly resource.
John R. Vile is a political science professor and dean of the Honors College at Middle Tennessee State University.