Introducing Church & State 250+: How Religion Shaped America
America’s story cannot be told honestly without religion. This July, Faithful Politics is spending the month with historians, scholars, journalists, and faith leaders to understand why.
Last week, I shared the basic idea behind Church & State 250+. This week, I want to show you what the series will actually look like. If you missed that first announcement, you can read it here:
That announcement explains why we’re doing this, why the “+” matters, and how the series will run. In this essay I want to lay out how the show will be structured and give you a preview of some of the guests we will have on. I also want to show you how we’re organizing the series, what questions we’re asking, and what listeners can expect each week. For regular listeners this series will take the place of our usual content each week for July.
America’s Religious History Does Not Start In 1776
The easiest way to tell America’s religious history would be to start with the founders, quote a few familiar lines about religious liberty, say the pledge of allegiance, and call it a day. There will be no shortage of those celebrations in July, many of which will be sponsored by the government.
My hope is that if you follow Faithful Politics, you expect us to do something different. Not because we are trying to be contrarian, but because the story is more complicated than the version we usually get.
America’s religious story does not start with Jefferson writing in the Declaration of Independence that people are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” It starts much earlier, with land conquest, genocide, colonization, forced conversions, displaced Indigenous communities, European empires, and the religious beliefs that helped justify their actions.
That is why we are organizing the series around moments where Christianity played an outsized role in American history.
Each week will focus on a different period in the American story. Each interview will help us understand how religion shaped public life, political power, law, identity, race, reform, resistance, and the stories Americans still tell about the country.
The Series Roadmap
Origins: Before the Founding
Main question: What religious ideas shaped the earliest European encounters with this land?
What we’ll explore:
This first week looks at Indigenous land, colonization, the Doctrine of Discovery, missionary work, biblical interpretation, empire, and the religious beliefs that helped Europeans justify what they believed they had the right to claim. To help us start there, we’ll be joined by Mark Charles, Dan Hawk, and Matthew Sutton.
Founding: Making a Nation
Main question:
What did the founders actually build when it came to religion and government?
What we’ll explore:
We’ll look at the American Revolution, the Constitution, disestablishment, religious tests, the First Amendment, and the difference between a country shaped by Christianity and a government formally established as Christian. To help us walk through that, we’ll be joined by Katherine Carté, John Fea, and Warren Throckmorton.
Conflict: Belief Meets Power
Main question:
How did the same Bible used to defend slavery get used to fight against it?
What we’ll explore:
We’ll look at how religion shaped identity, public life, leadership, and the deeper conflicts that exposed the gap between America’s ideals and America’s actual practices. To help us think through that, we’ll be joined by Robert P. Jones, Russell Hawkins, and Katharine Gerbner.
Power: Fighting for Influence
Main question:
How did religion shape racial hierarchies, the schools, gender roles, and the legal system, and what effect did that have?
What we’ll explore:
We’ll move through Jim Crow, civil rights, public education, religious arguments over race, the Black church, white resistance, school desegregation, the rise of the Religious Right, and court fights that helped define the modern church-state landscape. To help us make sense of that, we’ll be joined by Andrew L. Seidel, Jemar Tisby, Leah Payne and Kristin Kobes Du Mez.
Present: Faith & Politics
Main question:
How is religion shaping American politics today?
What we’ll explore:
This final week looks at Christian nationalism, charismatic political movements, religious media, legal strategy, public institutions, January 6th imagery, and the ongoing fight over what pluralism means in a country where Christianity remains powerful but no longer culturally uncontested in the same way. To help us end there, we’ll be joined by Andrew Whitehead, Samuel Perry, Matthew Taylor, and Brian Kaylor.
Confirmed Guests
The full schedule is still being finalized, but here are the guests currently confirmed for Church & State 250+:
Mark Charles - Navajo writer, speaker, and co-author of Unsettling Truths, focused on the Doctrine of Discovery, race, faith, and American history.
L. Daniel Hawk, Ph.D. - Professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at Ashland Theological Seminary and author of Undoing Manifest Destiny: Settler America, Christian Colonists, and the Pursuit of Justice, focused on biblical interpretation, conquest, empire, and colonization.
Matthew Avery Sutton, Ph.D. - Historian at Washington State University and author of American Apocalypse and Chosen Land, focused on modern American evangelicalism and apocalyptic politics.
Katherine Carté, Ph.D. - Professor of History at Southern Methodist University and author of Religion and the American Revolution: An Imperial History, focused on religion, empire, Protestantism, and early American politics
John Fea, Ph.D. - Distinguished Professor of American History at Messiah University and author of Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?, focused on the founders, religious liberty, and the myths Americans tell about the founding.
Warren Throckmorton, Ph.D. - Retired professor of psychology at Grove City College, co-author of Getting Jefferson Right, and author of the forthcoming The Christian Past That Wasn’t: Debunking the Christian Nationalist Myths That Hijack History, focused on Thomas Jefferson, founding-era myths, church-state separation, and Christian nationalist uses of history.
Robert P. Jones, Ph.D. - President and founder of PRRI and author of The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future and The End of White Christian America, focused on religion, race, politics, and American identity.
J. Russell Hawkins, Ph.D. - Historian and author of The Bible Told Them So: How Southern Evangelicals Fought to Preserve White Supremacy, focused on Southern evangelicalism, race, segregation, and white supremacy.
Katharine Gerbner, Ph.D. - Historian of religion, race, slavery, and the early Atlantic world. She is Associate Professor of History and Director of Religious Studies at the University of Minnesota, and author of Christian Slavery: Conversion and Race in the Protestant Atlantic World and Archival Irruptions. For this series,
Andrew L. Seidel, J.D. - Constitutional attorney and author of The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American and American Crusade: How the Supreme Court Is Weaponizing Religious Freedom, focused on church-state separation, religious liberty, and Christian nationalism.
Jemar Tisby, Ph.D. - Historian and author of The Spirit of Justice: True Stories of Faith, Race, and Resistance and The Color of Compromise, focused on race, Christianity, and the Black freedom struggle.
Leah Payne, Ph.D. - Historian of American religion whose work focuses on evangelicalism, Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity, popular culture, music, politics, gender, race, and class. She is Professor of American Religious History at Portland Seminary and author of God Gave Rock & Roll to You: A History of Contemporary Christian Music.
Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Ph.D. - Professor of History at Calvin University and author of Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation, focused on evangelical culture, gender, power, and politics.
Andrew L. Whitehead, Ph.D. - Sociologist and author of American Idolatry: How Christian Nationalism Betrays the Gospel and Threatens the Church, and co-author of Taking America Back for God, focused on Christian nationalism and American public life.
Samuel L. Perry, Ph.D. - Sociologist and author of Religion for Realists: Why We All Need the Scientific Study of Religion, and co-author of Taking America Back for God, focused on religion, politics, race, gender, family, and sexuality.
Matthew D. Taylor, Ph.D. - Senior scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies and author of The Violent Take It by Force, focused on charismatic Christianity, the New Apostolic Reformation, and political extremism.
Brian Kaylor, Ph.D. - President and editor-in-chief of Word&Way and co-author of Baptizing America: How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism, focused on religion, politics, media, public institutions, and Christian nationalism.
What Listeners Can Expect
Starting June 30, the series will run every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday through the end of July.
Each episode will focus on one part of the larger story. Some conversations will be historical. Some will be legal. Some will be theological. Some will connect directly to current debates in American politics.
By the end of July, listeners will have a better framework for understanding why religion continues to shape American public life, why the founding remains debated, why Christian nationalism has become an important topic of study, and why religious liberty debates often depend on how different communities understand the relationship between faith, law, and public power.
How You Can Help
Church & State 250+ is going to be one of the most ambitious projects we have done through Faithful Politics. I’ll keep sharing more details as we get closer, including the full schedule, guest bios, episode topics, and resources connected to each week.
For now, I’d just ask this: if this project sounds useful, share it with someone who cares about faith, politics, history, religious liberty, or the future of pluralism in America.
We’re a small platform trying to take a serious look at a topic with a huge impact.
Help us get it in front of people who would benefit from it. We are forever thankful.
This sounds amazing, and you've got an impressive group of experts to dive into the topics!