Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? - Lecture 2

Open your Bible and you might find a founding document. That's the provocative argument at the heart of this second lecture, where historian John Fea moves from modern culture war debates into the 18th century itself — examining the raw evidence of how scripture shaped, and was shaped by, the American Revolution.

At the center of the lecture is a landmark study by political scientist Donald Lutz, who analyzed every citation made by the founding fathers across thousands of published writings. His surprising finding: the Bible was quoted more than any other single source — outpacing Montesquieu, Locke, Rousseau, and the classical Greeks and Romans. But what does that actually mean? Fea unpacks the data carefully, showing why the answer is more complicated than it first appears.

What makes this lecture stand out:

Drawing on historian James Byrd's Sacred Scripture, Sacred War, Fea walks through the eight most-cited Bible passages of the revolutionary era and shows exactly how preachers and politicians deployed them — not as timeless spiritual truths, but as live ammunition in a political conflict. The results are startling:

· Exodus 14–15 cast George Washington as Moses and King George III as Pharaoh

· Galatians 5:1 — traditionally interpreted as freedom from sin — was rewritten by a New Jersey preacher to mean freedom from British tyranny, with a note in the margin substituting "New Jersey militia" for "Christ"

· Romans 13, the command to obey governing authorities, became the Loyalists' most powerful counter-argument — wielded by Anglican ministers who accused the Revolution of being "conceived in sin"

· Judges 4–5 was used to shame pacifist Quakers and Mennonites for refusing to take up arms

The bigger question Fea raises: When patriots and loyalists both turned to the same Bible to justify opposite positions, what does that tell us about scripture's role in the founding — and about those who claim today that America was built on biblical principles?

This lecture doesn't deliver easy answers, but it opens a window into a world where theology and revolution were inseparable — and where the interpretation of a single verse could determine where a congregation stood on independence.

Ideal for: students of American religious history, pastors and theologians curious about scripture's political

legacy, history buffs, educators, and anyone engaged with debates about faith and civic life in the United States.

Bible and American Revolution, founding fathers religion, Romans 13, Christian nationalism, revolutionary era sermons, patriot preachers, James Byrd, Donald Lutz, church and state, colonial American history, scripture and politics