{"id":32543,"date":"2026-07-30T10:41:35","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T14:41:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=32543"},"modified":"2026-07-30T10:41:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T14:41:35","slug":"gorsuch-cited-god-given-rights-then-said-america-isnt-a-christian-nation-christians-noticed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/07\/gorsuch-cited-god-given-rights-then-said-america-isnt-a-christian-nation-christians-noticed","title":{"rendered":"Gorsuch Cited God-Given Rights \u2014 Then Said America Isn’t a Christian Nation. Christians Noticed."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Left: Shutterstock.com | Right: PBS \/ YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch has dipped his toes into America\u2019s Christian Nationalism debate. Justice Gorsuch joined hostess Margaret Hoover<\/a> on PBS\u2019s \u201cFiring Squad with Margaret Hoover\u201d to reflect on America\u2019s 250th<\/sup> birthday and his new children\u2019s book, Heroes of 1776<\/em>, a look at some lesser-known heroes of the American Revolution. He told Hoover his hope for the book was that it would expose young people to American heroes of the past and provide them with inspiration. Regarding the United States after 250 years, Gorsuch described himself as an optimist, saying, \u201cI\u00a0see problems with civic education\u2026Are we going to disagree? Yes, we\u2019re going to disagree. But that\u2019s the way the whole system works. And if you look over 250 years, what we\u2019ve achieved, I don\u2019t know why you wouldn\u2019t be optimistic about America.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the conversation, Gorsuch touched on the idea of America being founded as a Christian nation, a pillar of so-called Christian nationalism. \u201cI just don\u2019t see it that way. We have a First Amendment for crying out loud. No established religion,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were founded, a lot of our colonies, for our religious pluralism, right? And the opportunity to practice your own faith in your own way,\u201d he told Hoover. \u201cAnd we were never supposed to be a nation that was about one race or one religion, it was about those ideas. And those things are perfect ideas that speak to every human heart and that unite us all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gorsuch\u2019s words sparked controversy amongst conservatives, who have argued over the exact meaning of Christian Nationalism. \u201cChristian Nationalism\u201d has become a catch-all phrase for anyone who expresses a belief in the founding principles of the United States as being Christian. At times, it seems to be used by those who push for a white American society with Christianity set as the nation\u2019s established religion. At other times, however, it appears to refer to anyone who stated that America\u2019s founding principles were based on Christian concepts. John Daniel Davidson, Senior Editor for The Federalist<\/em>, pushed back against Gorsuch. \u201cThe tell here is in the phrase \u2018founded as a Christian nation.\u2019 No one is actually arguing that,\u201d he wrote on X<\/a>. \u201cThe argument is that America was founded by a Christian PEOPLE, and therefore derives its form of government on obviously Christian principles. To survive as a nation, we must be the kind of people who adhere to and respect those principles. Which is to say, we must continue as a predominantly Christian people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even Gorsuch himself, when describing the principles of the Declaration of Independence, noted their reliance on a belief in God. \u201cThe Declaration [of Independence] has three ideas at its heart: That we’re all created equal, every one of us. And that each of us has rights given to us by God, not from government, right. And third, that we have the right and the power to rule ourselves.\u201d He called such ideas \u201cradical\u201d for 1776. Which <\/em>God those innate rights come from seems to be the crux of the Christian nationalist argument. In a religious pluralist society, it could refer to any god albeit Allah, Buddah, or Jesus Christ. The Federalist\u2019s <\/em>Brianna Lyman<\/a>, however, cited letters from founding fathers like John Adams to point to a specifically Christian God. \u201cThe\u00a0general Principles, on which the Fathers Atchieved Independence, were the only Principles in which, that beautiful Assembley of young Gentlemen could Unite\u2026And what were these\u00a0general Principles? I answer, the general Principles of Christianity, in which all those Sects were United,\u201d Adams wrote to Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, in 1813. \u201cIn other words,\u201d wrote Lyman, \u201cGorsuch is partially right: the Founders did codify \u2018ideas\u2019 \u2014 but those ideas came from somewhere, and that somewhere was Christianity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch has dipped his toes into America\u2019s Christian Nationalism debate. Justice Gorsuch joined hostess Margaret Hoover on PBS\u2019s \u201cFiring Squad with Margaret Hoover\u201d to reflect on America\u2019s 250th birthday and his new children\u2019s book, Heroes of 1776, a look at some lesser-known heroes of the American Revolution. He told Hoover his…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":32545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nGorsuch Cited God-Given Rights \u2014 Then Said America Isn't a Christian Nation. Christians Noticed.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Justice Gorsuch says America was never about 'one religion.' 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