A 'sloppy error': Analyst slams 'theocratic' Josh Hawley for using fake historical quote
Ever since the Religious Right achieved prominence in the Republican Party in the early 1980s —much to the dismay of the late conservative Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Arizona) — far-right Christian fundamentalists and white evangelicals have been claiming that the United States is a "Christian nation." But there is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that gives Christianity priority over any other religion.
The Constitution's 1st Amendment states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
Catholics and Protestants most definitely enjoy religious freedom under the 1st Amendment, but so do Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Bahais, Rastafarians and members of other faiths.
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In a July 4, 2023 post on Twitter, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) promoted the false claim that the U.S. was "founded on" Christianity — and misquoted Founding Father Patrick Henry in the process.
The far-right MAGA Republican quoted Henry as saying, "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here."
But Henry never said that. Twitter users fact-checked Hawley by pointing out that the quote was from a 1956 article about Henry in The Virginian — not something that Henry, who died in 1799, actually said. The article was written 157 years after Henry's death.
MSNBC's Steve Benen, producer of "The Rachel Maddow Show," did some additional fact-checking in an opinion column for MaddowBlog published on July 5.
"On the surface," Benen argues, "it's obviously unfortunate to see a senator — a graduate of Stanford and Yale — make a mistake like this, especially as so many other Republicans also fall for fake quotes. But let's not brush past the underlying point the Missouri Republican was trying to make by way of a made-up line: Hawley seems certain that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, with members of one faith tradition — his own — enjoying exalted status over others."
Benen emphasizes that the U.S. was not "founded on the gospel of Jesus Christ" as Hawley claims.
"Thomas Jefferson — in an actual quote — wrote in 1802 that our 1st Amendment built 'a wall of separation between church and state,'" Benen notes. "In 1797, John Adams agreed: 'The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion.'"
The Religious Right has repeatedly claimed that "separation of church and state" isn't in the U.S. Constitution, but while the 1st Amendment doesn't use those exact words, the concept is mostly definitely present in the "no law respecting an establishment of religion" declaration. And "separation between church and state," as Benen points out, were the exact words of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson.
"It's unfortunate that Hawley made a rather obvious mistake," Benen laments, "but more important than the senator’s sloppy error is the fact that a prominent Republican senator thought it’d be a good idea to tout an inherently theocratic vision on the 4th of July."
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Read Steve Benen's full MaddowBlog column at this link.
