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Randall Balmer joins me for remarks about why he believes America is not a Christian nation and why separation of church and state is the American way. This is the topic of chapter 6 in my new book The Christian Past That Wasn't. In the book, I cover the topics in this segment as well as the Articles of Confederation, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists, The Church of the Holy Trinity v. the United States, and the views of James Madison. Christian nationalists have significantly distorted the history in this area to reframe and redefine separation of church and state. I go to the primary sources to show readers what the framers said about this important principle.

To purchase or learn more about The Christian Past That Wasn't, go to www.christianpast.com.

Written, produced, and hosted by Warren Throckmorton

Music provided by Roman Candle, Jonathan Swaim, and Netop.

For a playlist of music used on the podcast, see this link: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6jP94UmS5sCwoB4Ex3ini9?si=0C7Woza2QRaKrIsvvJ_l7g

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During the America 250 celebration, the Trump administration has partnered with Hillsdale College to produce various educational resources to promote a view of America's founding which is slanted toward Christian nationalism. In this segment, I take on Mark David Hall's video on the faith of the founders. You can watch it on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5J4S5LPeWM.

This segment thematically corresponds to chapter 5 in my book The Christian Past That Wasn't (christianpast.com). There is material in the podcast not in the book and much more material in the book than in the podcast.

In today's segment I have help from Gregg Frazer, Dean of humanities at The Master's University, Greg Forster, professor of theology at Trinity Divinity School and Michael Coulter, professor of political science and humanities at Grove City College.

In the video, it is important to point out that Hall speaks about the time of the founding as if African slaves and Indigenous people were not in the United States. I don't mention it either in the podcast episode, but I plan to do so when I get to the relavant chapter in the book.

The music today is provided by Netop. You can stream these tracks in full by going to https://artists.landr.com/991043708780.

Written, produced, and hosted by Warren Throckmorton

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Chapter 4 of The Christian Past That Wasn't takes up the question of this episode. This episode cites the book and expands on it as well. In sum, I take the position that the experience of colonial and state governments are historically interesting but not directly relevant to our secular system of Constitutional government. What the framers did in the Constitutional Convention is what is relevant. In the book, I fact check claims about what the states required for office holders and I examine the ways different states handled church and state relationships.

There was the Williams Way (Rhode Island and to some degree the mid-Atlantic states) and the Winthrop Way (Massachusetts and everybody else).

This is not to say that America is a secular nation culturally speaking. If anything, the nation became more culturally Christian after the founders passed from the scene. One of the reasons the founding era was reframed as a Christian founding was due to the heavy influence of Christianity in the expanding nation.

Produced, written, and hosted by Warren Throckmorton

Slippery Rock University history professor Aaron Cowan and Dartmouth College religion professor Randall Balmer make appearances in this episode.

Music by Jonas Fair, Jeremiah Lawson, and Netop.

Netop is the name for my instrumental music project. Learn more about it at https://salemgrovepress.com/netop.

Book ordering options at www.christianpast.com.

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Today is the official publication date of The Christian Past That Wasn't: Debunking the Christian Nationalist Myths That Hijack History. Although it has been available for a couple of weeks at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, today it goes on sale everywhere. This segment continues to be guided by the contents of the book. Today, I focus on the first myth: America is a covenant homeland for European Protestants. The claims are persistent on this one and it undergirds most of the rest of the myths.

In this segment, I discuss clips of VP JD Vance, Eric Metaxas, and Sen. Josh Hawley making various covenant oriented claims.

Produced and written by Warren Throckmorton

Book website: www.christianpast.com

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America as we celebrate it today was founded in stages. Independence came via the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War. Our current system of government came later via the Constitutional Convention in 1787. In this short episode, I focus on the system created by the Constitution as amended by the Bill of Rights.

For more information see www.Christianpast.com.

Written and produced by Warren Throckmorton

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In my book The Christian Past That Wasn't (Broadleaf Books), I spend two chapters on the factors that make Christian nationalism attractive. In this segment, I interview Dean of Oklahoma Christian University's College of Bible, Jeremie Beller on the subject of terror management. This theory provides a powerful, research-based account of what makes nationalism attractive to people. Jeremie's theological expertise provides a novel perspective on the application of terror management to Christian nationalism.

I go into this topic in depth in chapter one of the new book. Chapter two discusses the role of deception by Christian organizations and how ingroup bias keeps people loyal to the overall group goals despite the deception.

To order the book go to www.christianpast.com.

Written, produced, and hosted by Warren Throckmorton

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Why did I write The Christian Past That Wasn't? Answering that question requires me to revisit season one of the podcast and reflect on the rise of Christian nationalism in the African nation of Uganda in 2009. More recently, my work in fact-checking started with a pundit named Bryan Fischer who once broadcast on the American Family Association radio network. As I contended with Fischer, I found out that most of his material came from David Barton. Ultimately, my views changed from an inconsistent combination of Baptist distinctives and American civil religion to where I am today -- a strong supporter of separation of church and state. I wrote the new book to shed light on the heritage of religious tolerance and pluralism in the United States.

You can now order the book at Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Other options can be found at http://www.christianpast.com.

Music by Roman Candle and Earl's Taco Shack

Written, produced, and hosted by Warren Throckmorton

Journalist Jonathan Larson makes an appearance via the replay of season 1, episode 11.

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Today I interview Todd Allen, Founder of the Common Ground Project and administrator at Messiah University (PA). Todd and I talk about his work in civil rights education and history. We also discuss my forthcoming book, The Christian Past That Wasn't. Todd is an enthusiastic endorser of the book and makes a good case for why it is needed as the administration is manipulating history of the founding era.

Written, produced, and hosted by Warren Throckmorton

For more information about The Christian Past That Wasn't, go to www.christianpast.com.

To contact Todd about the Common Ground Project, go to the christianpast.com and use the contact function to send me an email. I will make sure he gets it.