Christian leader debunks MAGA claim that America was 'intended to be a theocracy'

U.S. President Donald Trump participates in NORAD Santa tracker phone calls, on Christmas Eve, from the Mar-a-lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., December 24, 2025. REUTERS/Jessica Koscielniak

When Vice President JD Vance spoke at Turning Point USA's recent AmericaFest 2025 convention in Phoenix, he told the MAGA crowd that the United States "always will be a Christian nation." And Vance isn't the only MAGA Republican who is claiming that there is no separation of church and state in the U.S. Constitution.

Many Christian nationalists are claiming that the Constitution was designed to be a religious document even though the First Amendment clearly states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The First Amendment promises freedom of religion, but it also forbids government to give one religion preferential treatment over another.

In an op-ed published by The Philadelphia Inquirer on New Year's Day 2026, a Baptist minister, the Rev. Michel J. Faulkner, debunks the "Christian nation" argument coming from Vance and other Christian nationalists.

"America was shaped by Judeo-Christian principles, but it was never intended to be a theocracy," argues Faulkner, who chairs of the Philadelphia Council of Clergy's board of directors. "America's unity is powerful precisely because we do not have a state religion. Faith compelled by law is no faith at all. Genuine belief cannot be coerced; it must be chosen. The Gospel advances by witness, persuasion, and sacrificial love, not by legislation or force."

The 68-year-old Faulkner has a background in both sports and religion. In the early 1980s, he played American football for the New York Jets. And he has a connection to the Religious Right: After meeting the Moral Majority's Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr. in 1985, Faulkner, a registered Republican, worked at Falwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.

Yet Faulkner rejects the Christian nationalist claim that the U.S. government was meant to be operated as a theocracy.

"I say this as a Christian and a follower of Jesus Christ: The church does not need the power of the state to fulfill its mission," Faulkner continues writes. "History shows that when the church weds itself too closely to political power, it loses its prophetic voice and relinquishes its spiritual authority. America is not the Kingdom of God, and it was never meant to be…. If we confuse America with the Kingdom of God, we will ultimately diminish both — robbing the nation of its moral responsibility and the Gospel of its eternal power."

The Rev. Michel J. Faulkner's full op-ed for The Philadelphia Inquirer is available at this link (subscription required).

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