For Religious Liberty and Against Christian Nationalism
ELCA News | March 2025
By The Wisconsin Council of Churches
Prepared By Newsletter Editor, Gordon Fuglie
An executive order signed by President Trump on February 6th established a new “Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias”. This Task Force has the duty to “identify any unlawful anti-Christian policies, practices, or conduct by an agency.” This executive order is a threat to the religious pluralism enshrined in the constitution and does not protect Christians; rather it aligns the federal government with Christian Nationalism.
With the executive order for “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias”, the federal government has given itself the authority and mandate to define what might be considered “anti-Christian,” and therefore also the authority to define what is Christian - a power which belongs to the Church alone, not the federal government. This executive order violates religious freedom, corrupts the separation of Church and State, and creates a more hostile environment for Christians and all citizens who believe differently than the current administration and its religious advisors.
As Christians, we follow Jesus’ command to love God and love others. Christian Nationalism, which does not speak for all Christians, distorts the Gospel and turns Jesus and Christianity into a weapon for power and division instead of a movement towards love and justice. As U.S. Citizens, we uphold a system of government that tries to keep the common good central, defends religious freedom, and protects the rights of all. The dangerous ideology of Christian Nationalism demands that a particular brand of Christianity be privileged by the state and impose that singular belief system in order to be a “good American”.
In order to protect religious freedom, the federal government must not align with one religious ideology but rather honor the constitutional mandate to defend space for religious pluralism and ensure that each member of society is free to practice their religion, or no religion, while keeping the peace and working together for the common good.
We call on the President of the United States and all elected officials to protect religious freedom in our country and uphold the constitution of the United States of America.
* (Editor’s note: What this letter describes as “Christian nationalism” is a not an authentic expression of our historic faith, that is, a committed relationship to Jesus Christ whose followers demonstrate God’s sacrificial love and justice in the church and in their lives. Faithful Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and mainstream Protestant theologians who have studied Christian nationalism deem it a heresy because it is authoritarian, power-fixated, and idolizes the American state as its primary expression. Therefore, it is a political ideology and not a faith, and the accurate term for it is nationalist christianism.)