The 2025 inaugural prayer service sparked controversy, notably across the remarks by Mariann Budde, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. Talking on to the president, Budde implored, “I ask you to have mercy upon the folks in our nation who’re scared now,” emphasizing the fears of the LGBTQ neighborhood and immigrants. This prophetic utterance delighted some Christian progressives, whereas conservative Christians condemned her phrases as disrespectful and inappropriate.
Amid the talk over Budde’s remarks, it was straightforward to miss the profound religiosity on show on the inauguration. Leaders from varied faiths—Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, and Christian—provided prayers and reflections. Most prevented outright political statements, however some invoked divine intervention within the election. Some secularists reported feeling marginalized by these spiritual overtones.
Brian Kaylor and Beau Underwood’s 2024 e-book Baptizing America offers precious insights into this contested panorama. Subtitled How Mainline Protestants Helped Construct Christian Nationalism, the e-book reveals how clergy participation in occasions just like the inauguration have fostered a tradition of nation worship. Christian nationalism, a “heresy that distorts the gospel and leads Christians away from listening to and following the teachings of Jesus,” builds on the long-standing practices of mainline Protestants.
Whereas this assertion might anger Christians throughout the political spectrum, Kaylor and Underwood goal to encourage Christian faithfulness and help democracy. Each ordained ministers, they write from a distinctly Christian perspective, searching for to pave the way in which for a revitalized “mainline social witness” that affords the gospel’s core message a renewed listening to.
Within the face of widespread criticism of Christian nationalists, Kaylor and Underwood present that mainline Protestant ministers have traditionally dominated government-related occasions—prayer companies, congressional invocations, and vital events like inaugurations. They contend that mainline Christians laid the groundwork for the intertwining of church and state pursuits, primarily “baptizing the state.” Whereas evangelical and Pentecostal teams usually face backlash for merging divine and nationwide pursuits, many progressives overlook the historic function that their very own department of Christianity performed in creating this risk.
Mainline Christians might discover it difficult to confront Kaylor and Underwood’s assertion that they and their forebears “introduced church to state.” The authors contextualize this argument with insightful narratives all through the e-book. They draw parallels, for instance, between the prayer provided by Jacob Chansley (the so-called QAnon Shaman) in the course of the January 6, 2021, Capitol siege and the prayers of Senate chaplain Barry Black and Presbyterian minister Margaret Kibben. Whereas Chansley’s prayer was overtly partisan, denouncing globalists and traitors, Black’s and Kibben’s prayers are a part of the “nation’s official discourse” and are included verbatim within the Congressional Document. Black and Kibben utilized “inclusionary language” that subtly masked their sectarian views, however the authors’ cautious studying reveals their sectarian pursuits.
The e-book constantly makes use of this framework—what was presaged by the mainline is sustained by at this time’s Christian nationalists—to discover American spiritual and political life throughout time. Kaylor and Underwood supply interpretations of the Nationwide Prayer Breakfast, Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidency, the Pledge of Allegiance, the Iraq Struggle, and a number of other different components of nationwide historical past. Every foray reveals how critics of Christian nationalism usually inadvertently help the deeper framework.
Kaylor and Underwood additionally illuminate the irony of how mainline Christians “introduced the state to the church.” They recount the incident, in the course of the Could 2020 protests following George Floyd’s homicide, through which President Trump posed in entrance of St. John’s Episcopal Church in downtown Washington, DC, holding a Bible. Kaylor and Underwood interpret the gesture as an try and align “regulation and order” with “God’s regulation.” Bishop Budde—sure, the identical one—expressed outrage to an NPR reporter, claiming the president had no proper to misuse such a sacred image. However Kaylor and Underwood level out that St. John’s, often known as “the Church of Presidents,” has designated a particular pew for presidential use. For Trump’s first inauguration, the St. John’s pulpit was turned over to Southern Baptist pastor and Trump supporter Robert Jeffress—a mainline Protestant church offered a platform for a Christian nationalist endorsement of the president.
Baptizing America concludes with suggestions for a way Christians can uphold democracy whereas resisting the attract of energy. This consists of confronting Christian nationalism by exposing its mainline roots and dismantling the shut connections between Christianity and political energy. Such entanglements have confirmed detrimental to each the church and the state. By reaffirming the prophetic messages of the gospel, sharing congregational narratives, eradicating flags from church buildings (after considerate discussions), and advocating for repentance, Christians can improve their social witness, strengthen their religion identification, and bolster the well being of democracy.
One chapter explores as an space for social witness the supply of sanctuary to undocumented immigrants, which is particularly necessary now that an government order has granted ICE authority to enter church buildings for enforcement. The themes offered on this vital e-book immediate us to mirror on how we’d reply to those urgent points. Studying it prayerfully is earnestly advisable.
