The religious language of conservative Christian ideology is creeping into politics and the functioning of U.S. government. For example, Rev. Huckabee told the president in a text message, “God spared you in Butler, PA to be the most consequential president in a century—maybe ever.” He also wrote, “You have many voices speaking to you Sir, but there is only ONE voice that matters. HIS voice.” On the final night of the Republican Nation Convention, Tucker Carlson talked on the prime-time stage about God’s hand protecting Donald Trump from being shot to death. “That was a transformation. This was no longer a man.” Ralph Reed, an influential evangelical leader, said, “It is difficult not to see the hand of Providence in Trump’s survival of two assassination attempts, one by less than an inch.” And President Trump has said publicly he believes God spared his life, and millions of his supporters feel the same way.
In April 2025, Michael Dale Huckabee, an American Baptist minister and former talk show host, was confirmed as the new U.S. ambassador to Israel. “I feel like I’m getting an opportunity to serve my country, and even serve my faith,” he said to the New York Times. The article observes his appointment as a triumph for America’s Christian conservatives, a powerful part of Mr. Trump’s political base. It is also a success for Israel to welcome a U.S. ambassador, aligned with this Christian base, who believes Israel is the land that God promised to the Jews. The Israeli filmmaker Maya Zinshtein has explored what she called the “unholy alliance” between American evangelicals and religious Jewish settlers in the West Bank. “Ms. Zinshtein showed how evangelicals lavish money and political support on the settlers, which she argued helps them in their takeover of the West Bank. In return, evangelicals come closer to fulfilling the End Times prophecy that the Second Coming of Christ cannot occur without the return of all Jews to the Holy Land,” the article said.
The increasing influence of the religious right within the Trump administration is partially the result of the misperception that it represents the pillar and crux of the Christian faith. However, there are other significant Christian movements that are not interested in declaring that the U.S. is a Christian nation. They are motivated to speak justice and peace to the nation but do not to speak for the nation. They are more interested in advocating for social justice. They are more in line with the words of the Kairos Palestine document, “We are people who have consistently promoted nonviolence, dialogue, and equal rights for all …. Our struggle is based on our commitment to justice, international law, human dignity, and our Christian faith.”
So, here’s the rub. Conservative Christian language and imagery is used in governing parlance to claim the government and its leaders are endorsed by a Higher Power — given the divine right to rule. Some of the early settlers of this country were seeking to escape the oppression of a “Christian” nation that ruled by divine right. Therefore, they chose democracy as the authority and power to guide the nation. As the first amendment of the Constitution reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….”
The imposition of the authority of a singular expression of Christianity, or any religious ideology, within the workings of the government erodes democracy. There is no place for hegemony within the United States democracy. This is not an argument against the freedom of religious expression in all its forms. It is only a reflection upon the danger of using religion to manipulate people into accepting uncritically, the rule of the government and its leaders. Christian nationalists say, “we the chosen,” have the authority to rule over all others. The language of authority in a democracy is “We the people…”. Let us not mix them up.
John Buttrick writes from his Vermont Folk Rocker in his Concord home, Minds Crossing. Buttrick is also an ordained minister in United Church of Christ. He can be reached at johndbuttrick@gmail.com.