JD Vance “Always a Christian Nation” Christian Language in America’s Founding Documents
Vice President JD Vance drew thunderous applause and sharp criticism for remarks he delivered on December 21, 2025, at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest in Phoenix, Arizona. Speaking before a crowd of over 30,000 young conservatives at the organization’s annual gathering, Vance declared: “The only thing that has truly served as an anchor of the United States of America is that we have been, and by the grace of God, we always will be, a Christian nation.”
The speech came at the first AmericaFest event following the assassination of Turning Point USA founder and outspoken Christian Charlie Kirk. Vance’s comments about America’s Christian identity received the loudest applause of his entire address. He went further, stating that “Christianity is America’s creed” and arguing that Christian principles form “the thread that runs through the nation’s foundation.”
According to Vance, “That creed motivated our understanding of natural law and rights, our sense of duty to one’s neighbor, the conviction that the strong must protect the weak, and the belief in individual conscience. And our famously American idea of religious liberty is a Christian concept.”
Critics immediately challenged Vance’s claims as historically inaccurate, pointing to the Constitution’s secular framework and the First Amendment’s establishment clause. The Maddow blog, an opinion platform affiliated with MSNBC, argued that the United States is based on a secular Constitution that created a secular government, citing Thomas Jefferson’s 1802 statement that the First Amendment built a wall of separation between church and state.
The blog also referenced the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli, in which John Adams stated that the government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion. According to critics, Americans face a straightforward choice between listening to Vance or reading the Constitution and honoring the declarations of actual Founding Fathers.
However, an examination of America’s founding documents at both federal and state levels reveals extensive Christian language and requirements that shaped the nation’s formation. The Declaration of Independence contains four explicit references to God: “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God,” “all men are created equal…endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,” “appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions,” and “with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence.”
The document was dated “in the Year of our Lord” 1776. The phrase “Divine Providence” specifically means God actively intervenes in human affairs, which contradicts deism.
The Northwest Ordinance of 1787, re-enacted by the First Congress in 1789, states “Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.”
The U.S. Constitution contains less religious language than state constitutions. Article VII dated it “in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven.” Article I, Section 7 exempts Sundays from the 10-day period for presidential bill consideration. The First Amendment protects religious practice.
The federal Constitution deliberately avoided establishing national religion because states already had established churches, religion was considered a state matter under federalism, and religious diversity among states prevented any single denomination from becoming national. Religious tests were banned at the federal level under Article VI, but every state maintained them for state offices.
The Federalist Papers contain limited but significant religious references. Federalist No. 2 states “Providence has been pleased to give this one connected country, to one united people…professing the same religion.” Federalist No. 37 declares “It is impossible for any man of candid reflection not to perceive in it a finger of that Almighty hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the revolution.”
Federalist No. 10 acknowledges that “A zeal for different opinions concerning religion” has divided mankind. The authors themselves expressed strong Christian convictions. Alexander Hamilton called Christianity “the best and purest religion” and said “the sacred rights of mankind…are written, as with a sun beam…by the hand of the divinity itself.”
James Madison stated “The belief in a God who is all-powerful, wise, and good is so essential to the moral order of the world and to the happiness of man.” John Jay wrote “The Bible is the best of all books, for it is the word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next.”
George Washington’s Inaugural Address in 1789 declared “It would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official Act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the Universe…No People can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand, which conducts the Affairs of men more than the People of the United States.” The Presidential Oath has been concluded with “So help me God” from George Washington forward.
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