★★★★★ 5
Exposing the Roots of Christian Nationalism
Format: eTextbook
Kevin M. Kruse’s One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America dismantles the enduring myth that the United States was founded as a “Christian nation.” Instead, Kruse demonstrates how this identity was deliberately constructed in the mid‑20th century as a political strategy. Beginning in the 1930s, business leaders alarmed by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal sought to counter what they perceived as government “slavery.” To resist these reforms, they partnered with clergy and promoted the idea of “freedom under God,” blending economic resistance with religious appeal.
This alliance reached its zenith during Dwight Eisenhower’s presidency. Eisenhower expanded religion’s role in public life, inaugurating the National Prayer Breakfast, adding “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance, and making “In God We Trust” the official national motto. These initiatives reshaped American identity, fueling a surge in church membership and embedding religious language into civic rituals. The phrase “one nation under God” became a widely accepted marker of patriotism, crossing political and denominational lines.
Kruse’s central argument is that Christian nationalism was not inherited from the Founders but deliberately cultivated by corporate and political interests in the 20th century. By exposing its origins, he reveals how this “invented tradition” continues to shape and divide American politics today.
C.S. Lewis, in The Screwtape Letters, anticipated this danger with remarkable clarity. He warned that the gravest temptation is not outright disbelief but the subtle corruption of faith—when Christianity is treated as a means to another end rather than as an end in itself. Lewis’s insight resonates with Kruse’s account: both show how faith can be co‑opted when believers confuse God’s kingdom with Caesar’s.
History is important, but it is equally important that we do not allow bad history to repeat—or even to rhyme—when each stanza leads us further from God. Kruse provides the historical scaffolding, Lewis the theological discernment. Together they invite us to vigilance: to name the temptations of Christian nationalism, to resist its allure, and to anchor our communities in the truth that God’s kingdom cannot be co‑opted by worldly power.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2025
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