A woman carries a child as an image of U.S. President Donald Trump is displayed on a screen during AmericaFest, the first Turning Point USA summit since the assassination of Charlie Kirk, in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. December 20, 2025. REUTERS/Cheney Orr
During his speech at AmericaFest 2025 — Turning Point USA's first convention since the fatal shooting of co-founder Charlie Kirk on September 10 — Vice President JD Vance declared that the United States "always will be a Christian nation." And he is far from the only MAGA Republican who is making that claim. Christian nationalists and the Religious Right have long claimed that the Founding Fathers meant for the U.S. to be a Christian theocracy.
The U.S. Constitution's First Amendment, however, promises freedom of religion but doesn't give Christianity preferential treatment over any other religion.
According to the First Amendment, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
In a December 22 column, MS NOW's Steve Benen argues that Vance and others are dead-wrong when they claim that the U.S. is a "Christian nation." And he notes what the Founder Fathers actually had to say on the subject, including the second U.S. president, John Adams, and the third, Thomas Jefferson.
"Indeed, Vance received an exceedingly warm welcome from the far-right crowd," Benen observes, "but his 'Christian nation' comment appeared to be the rhetoric the audience liked the most. The obvious problem with the Ohio Republican's assertion, which is popular within the Republican Party's theocratic wing, is that the claim is offensive, ahistorical nonsense. The United States is based on a secular Constitution — the nation's actual 'anchor' — which in turn created a secular government. Thomas Jefferson wrote, in 1802, that our First Amendment built 'a wall of separation between church and state.' In 1797, John Adams agreed: 'The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion.'"
When Vance and others claim the U.S. is a "Christian nation," Benen emphasizes, they are not only ignoring the First Amendment — they are also promoting unconstitutional discrimination against other religions.
"Americans unsure what to believe have a straightforward choice: They can listen to Vance, or they can read the Constitution and honor the declarations of actual Founding Fathers," Benen writes. "This doesn't seem like an especially tough call. But just as notable is the unsubtle message behind the rhetoric: Those who espouse the idea that the United States is a 'Christian nation' appear eager to tell those of minority faiths, as well as those who've chosen no religious path, 'You'll be tolerated, but you're still The Other, relegated to second-class status."
Benen adds, "That sentiment, rooted in the idea that those who think as Vance does are entitled to dominance over those who do not, is at odds with our most basic principles."
Steve Benen's full column for MS NOW is available at this link.