Christian nationalists see this prayer as evidence of a deeply religious body doing god’s work, but it was strategic piety. John Adams recorded that Joseph Reed said, “We never were guilty of a more Masterly Stroke of Policy, than in moving that Mr. Duché might read Prayers.”12 Policy, not piety. The Continental Congress was a political body debating politics, not religion. And just like the strategic piety in the Declaration, this pious move has no bearing or influence on our founding principles.
