America 250: They Can't Celebrate What They're Trying To Erase

For generations, Americans have been told to celebrate diversity, honor every culture, and preserve the stories that shaped the nation. Yet when it comes to Christianity--the single greatest influence on America's founding and development--many of the same voices suddenly insist that history be edited, minimized, or investigated.

That contradiction was on full display this week.

Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva vowed that if Democrats regain control of the House, they will investigate the prominent inclusion of Christianity in America's 250th birthday celebrations organized under President Donald Trump.

Think about that for a moment.

As America approaches one of the most significant anniversaries in its history, the concern is not crime, debt, border security, or international threats. It is whether Christianity might receive too much recognition in telling the story of America's founding.

That says far more about modern politics than it does about American history.

The exchange began when MSNBC guest anchor Luke Russert suggested that the Freedom 250 celebrations reflected "Christian nationalism" and implied that Christianity was somehow "hijacking" America's story. Grijalva agreed and said congressional investigations would likely follow if Democrats win back the House.

The irony is difficult to miss.

Those criticizing Christianity often appeal to history--until history becomes inconvenient.

No serious historian argues that the United States was founded as a theocracy. There was no American equivalent of the Church of England. The Constitution wisely prohibited establishing a national church, preventing government from controlling religious belief.

But acknowledging that truth is not the same as pretending Christianity played little or no role in shaping America.

The Declaration of Independence appeals four separate times to God or divine authority. It proclaims that human beings are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights." That statement is not merely poetic language. It is the philosophical foundation of American liberty.

If rights come from government, government can remove them.

If rights come from God, government exists to protect them--not invent them.

That revolutionary concept separated the American experiment from much of the world's political philosophy.

Many of the Founders held differing theological views. Some were deeply orthodox Christians. Others leaned toward deism. But virtually all recognized that biblical morality provided the ethical foundation necessary for a free republic.

John Adams famously wrote that America's Constitution was made "only for a moral and religious people." George Washington repeatedly spoke of Providence guiding the nation and warned that religion and morality were indispensable supports for political prosperity. Benjamin Franklin called for prayer during the Constitutional Convention.

These are not fringe quotations. They are central figures expressing ideas that shaped the nation's founding culture.

America's legal traditions likewise reflect biblical influence. The concepts of equality before the law, the dignity of every individual, objective moral standards, charity, forgiveness, covenant, justice, and personal responsibility all bear unmistakable marks of the Judeo-Christian worldview that dominated colonial America.

The first colleges in America--including Harvard University, Yale University, and Princeton University--were founded primarily to educate ministers and promote Christian learning. The Great Awakenings profoundly shaped American culture, encouraging literacy, civic responsibility, abolition movements, charitable institutions, and missionary efforts that transformed communities.

One cannot tell America's story honestly while pretending Christianity was merely an incidental footnote.

Perhaps that is what makes this debate so revealing.

Notice what critics are not saying.

They are not arguing that historical facts are inaccurate.

Instead, they object to those facts receiving public attention.

There is an important difference.

Celebrating Christianity's contribution is not the same as forcing anyone to become a Christian. Recognizing history is not establishing a state religion. Teaching that biblical ideas influenced America's founders does not violate the First Amendment any more than acknowledging Greek philosophy influenced Western civilization.

History is history.

The First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion--not freedom from ever hearing about religion.

In fact, the very freedom that allows critics to denounce Christianity publicly exists because America's founders rejected governments that controlled religious belief. Many early settlers crossed the Atlantic fleeing religious persecution. They did not come to erase faith from public life; they came so government could no longer dictate it.

That distinction has been increasingly blurred in modern political discourse.

Today, many activists appear comfortable celebrating virtually every religious and cultural tradition except Christianity. Public institutions enthusiastically recognize countless identities and belief systems, yet displays acknowledging Christianity often generate lawsuits, accusations of extremism, or now, apparently, promises of congressional investigations.

One must ask why.

Could it be that Christianity is treated differently because it remains the faith most closely associated with America's historic identity?

If every historical reference to Christianity is labeled "Christian nationalism," then honest discussions about America's past become nearly impossible.

The term itself has become so broadly applied that it increasingly functions as a political weapon rather than a meaningful description. Loving one's country, appreciating its Christian heritage, or acknowledging biblical influence on the Founders does not automatically constitute some dangerous political ideology.

It constitutes historical literacy.

America's 250th birthday should not become another battlefield in the culture war.

It should be an opportunity for Americans to rediscover the ideas that made this nation exceptional: that rights come from God, that every person possesses inherent dignity, that liberty requires virtue, and that government exists under higher moral authority rather than above it.

Those principles did not emerge in a philosophical vacuum.

They grew from a civilization profoundly shaped by Christianity.

That heritage does not diminish Americans of other faiths--or of no faith at all. It simply tells the truth about where the nation came from.

A mature nation does not investigate its history because it is uncomfortable.

It studies it.

It preserves it.

And on milestone anniversaries like America's 250th birthday, it celebrates it.