The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American

by Andrew L. Seidel

This lack of influence makes sense because Christian nationalists have never convincingly answered a basic question: How, precisely, did the bible influence American political thought and America’s founding? The question is even more pressing knowing that the founders did not cite the bible when writing and debating the Constitution. It is assumed that our government was founded on biblical principles, on Judeo-Christian principles. Because this answer is assumed, few bother to explain which specific Judeo-Christian principles and ideas were so influential to America’s founding. Instead, we get vague assertions from men like Tim LaHaye, a Christian nationalist author and co-author of the popular Left Behind series, who lauds “the Christian consensus of our Founding Fathers and the Biblical principles of law that have provided the freedoms we’ve enjoyed for over two hundred years.”40 These partial answers rely on emotion and desire, not on history or fact, and therefore fail to truly answer anything.