The Christian Past That Wasn't: Debunking the Christian Nationalist Myths That Hijack History

Summary

In this lively book, Warren Throckmorton, coauthor of Getting Jefferson Right, investigates the gloss that Christian nationalist storytellers put on history and equips listeners to debunk seven myths that they propagate.

Working in the tradition of muckraking journalists, Throckmorton picks a fight with fables told about the past by those who are trying to erase the separation of church and state. Did the Puritans actually establish a covenant with God, and were all the founders evangelical Christians? Are the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution based on the Bible, and did delegates at the constitutional convention in Philadelphia actually kneel for daily prayers? With keen attention to primary sources, Throckmorton dismantles the myths, piece by historical piece. And he asks: How are the genocide of Indigenous people and enslavement of millions of Africans not definitive repudiations of some righteous Christian past?

White Christian nationalism thrives on origin stories, and Throckmorton equips listeners to debunk the false ones. The real heritage of America is neither as a Christian state nor pure secularism; it is a more nuanced story, he says, one of religious tolerance and pluralism. To understand Christian nationalism, we must know the power of myth. To counter it, we must know the facts.