President Donald Trump spoke recently to the Campaign for Life Gala, an annual Washington gathering of activists opposed to abortion. There he declared that Americans depend upon divine protection to ensure that “our nation will thrive and our people will prosper.” As long as we “trust in our God,” Trump said, “then we will never, ever fail.”
The speech was recent, but the sentiments were not. Presidents have been uttering similar sentiments for decades.
This may seem strange in a nation whose Constitution declares that the government will “make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” But in fact, from my perspective as author of the new book “Christian: The Politics of a Word in America,” these presidential invocations of religion reflect the fact that Americans have debated what it means to be religious in politics throughout American history.
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