From the earliest days of the republic, leaders recognized that self-government required more than brilliant constitutional design. It required a moral citizenry.
Speaker Mike Johnson touts passing of spending bill as Dems lament
After Republicans’ sweeping spending bill passed out of Congress, House Speaker Mike Johnson said it’ll be “a great thing” for every American.
On Oct. 25, 2023, Rep. Mike Johnson, R-Louisianastood before his colleagues and the world in the well of the U.S. House of Representatives. It was his first speech since his unlikely rise from relative obscurity to House speaker.
“I believe that Scripture, the Bible, is very clear that God is the one that raises up those in authority … for this specific moment and this time,” Johnson said.
It was the kind of acknowledgment of divine providence political leaders have made throughout American history. Yet, the reaction from some quarters was hyperbolic. History Kristin you copes mez told politico that Johnson’s a “right-wing, white evangelical Christian nationalist,” and that “conservative Christianity is at the heart of Johnson’s understanding of the Constitution and an understanding of our government.” Robert P. Jones of PRRI called him “the embodiment of white Christian nationalism in a tailored suit.”
This isn’t new. President George W. Bush was pilloried for saying his favorite philosopher was Jesus Christ. President Ronald Reagan drew similar criticism for his expressions of faith. In each case, acknowledging that faith shapes one’s public service was treated as proof of theocratic ambition.
As America approaches the nation’s 250th birthday in 2026, our national conversation is thick with anxiety about the health of our democracy. The headlines are full of dire warnings − about polarization, authoritarian temptations and the unraveling of civic trust.
Not all those concerns are misplaced. But in certain corners of the media and political class, it is Christianity itself, particularly in its conservative form, that serves as the greatest threat to the American experiment.
However, this narrative ignores both history and reality. Christianity − far from being an enemy of democracy − has been one of its most important allies. Without it, this project of ordered liberty we take for granted might never have taken root.
Founding Fathers understood importance of faith
From the earliest days of the republic, leaders recognized that self-government required more than brilliant constitutional design. It required a moral citizenry. John Adams declared that “our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People.” George Washington called religion and morality “indispensable supports” to political prosperity.
Thomas Jefferson warned: “Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis − a conviction … that these liberties are of the gift of God? … Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.”
Even Jefferson, the least pious of our founders, understood that liberty untethered from a divine source is fragile and easily corrupted. The men who created America and my Baptist forefathers who influenced them didn’t seek a state church. They wanted liberty of conscience for everyone. Yet they knew that a society without faith would fail.
Catholic thinker George Weigel has observed“Democracy is not a machine that can run by itself.” It needs the fuel of virtue and the moral vision that faith communities have long provided.
The late theologian Richard John Neuhaus put it plainly: “The truly naked public square is at best a transitional phenomenon. It is a vacuum waiting to be filled.”
Remove religion, and you strip democracy of the moral resources that animate its commitments to human dignity, liberty and justice.
Faith belongs in public square of our democracy
Democracy depends on citizens capable of governing themselves. At its church-going best, Christianity has historically nurtured such citizens by teaching that humans are made in God’s image, endowed with inherent dignity and accountable to a higher moral law. It often tempers lust for power by reminding leaders and voters alike that their authority is not ultimate.
Of course, Christians have at times failed to live up to these ideals. Our past and present contain glaring contradictions by some who profess the faith. But Christianity has also supplied the moral resources to correct social wrongs and fuel social action.
The abolitionist and civil rights movements, for instance, were powered by ideals rooted in Scripture.
Today, while headlines focus on political theater, millions of Christians are quietly strengthening civil society − mentoring children, feeding the hungry, caring for refugees and working for justice. Studies consistently show people of faith volunteer and give to charity at higher ratesand churches provide billions in social support each year.
If we strip faith from the public square, we don’t get a morally neutral utopia. We get a vacuum − and as Neuhaus warned, it will inevitably be filled. If not by the virtues, restraints and hopes shaped in part by transcendent truths, then by other ideologies less generous in their judgment and less equipped to sustain a free people.
As we approach America’s 250th birthday, we should resist the false choice between being good Christians and good citizens. The two callings can reinforce each other. Christians can love their heavenly citizenship while stewarding their earthly one, seeking the welfare of the nation where God has placed them.
Democracy flourishes when citizens are virtuous, when they see neighbors not as enemies to be destroyed but as fellow image-bearers to be persuaded. Christianity, at its best, forms exactly that kind of citizen.
For the sake of our common future, we should welcome its contributions − not push them to the margins.
Daniel Darling is director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of a new book, “In Defense of Christian Patriotism.”
