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Exposing the Roots of Christian Nationalism
Format: eTextbook
Kevin M. Kruseโs One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America dismantles the enduring myth that the United States was founded as a โChristian nation.โ Instead, Kruse demonstrates how this identity was deliberately constructed in the midโ20th century as a political strategy. Beginning in the 1930s, business leaders alarmed by Franklin D. Rooseveltโs New Deal sought to counter what they perceived as government โslavery.โ To resist these reforms, they partnered with clergy and promoted the idea of โfreedom under God,โ blending economic resistance with religious appeal.
This alliance reached its zenith during Dwight Eisenhowerโs presidency. Eisenhower expanded religionโs role in public life, inaugurating the National Prayer Breakfast, adding โunder Godโ to the Pledge of Allegiance, and making โIn God We Trustโ the official national motto. These initiatives reshaped American identity, fueling a surge in church membership and embedding religious language into civic rituals. The phrase โone nation under Godโ became a widely accepted marker of patriotism, crossing political and denominational lines.
Kruseโs central argument is that Christian nationalism was not inherited from the Founders but deliberately cultivated by corporate and political interests in the 20th century. By exposing its origins, he reveals how this โinvented traditionโ continues to shape and divide American politics today.
C.S. Lewis, in The Screwtape Letters, anticipated this danger with remarkable clarity. He warned that the gravest temptation is not outright disbelief but the subtle corruption of faithโwhen Christianity is treated as a means to another end rather than as an end in itself. Lewisโs insight resonates with Kruseโs account: both show how faith can be coโopted when believers confuse Godโs kingdom with Caesarโs.
History is important, but it is equally important that we do not allow bad history to repeatโor even to rhymeโwhen each stanza leads us further from God. Kruse provides the historical scaffolding, Lewis the theological discernment. Together they invite us to vigilance: to name the temptations of Christian nationalism, to resist its allure, and to anchor our communities in the truth that Godโs kingdom cannot be coโopted by worldly power.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2025
