When Washington Crossed the Delaware on Christmas 1776, It Wasn't in the Name of Christian NationalismAmerica was not founded to be a theocracy and it should not strive to become one.
Steven Greenhut | 12.25.2025
I grew up a few miles from where George Washington and his Continental Army crossed the Delaware River to launch a surprise attack on Hessian mercenary soldiers stationed in Trenton, N.J. Down on his luck, Washington launched this audacious military strike on Christmas, sending three groups (only one made it) across the ice-choked waters on small cargo boats during a ferocious storm.
In my teen years, a friend and I re-enacted the crossing in his canoe. The river is only 300-feet wide at the crossing point and we attempted it on a summer day, but we mangled the metal boat on some rocks. Anyway, Washington's maneuvers—memorialized by a German-American artist in 1851—was a turning point in the history of our country.
As America prepares for its Semiquincentennial—a tongue-twisting term referring to its 250th birthday—we'll be hearing much about the revolution, our history and the nation's future. The think tank I work for, the R Street Institute, is hosting myriad related events as an opportunity "to reinvigorate the American creed of self-government and principled pluralism in an era of political division and institutional distrust."
American democracy is going through some trials, as we deal with a ruling party that's committed to disruption, savors the obliteration of long-standing democratic norms and is committed to a leader who often acts like a wannabe despot. We've also seen the rise of discourse on the right and left that is openly dismissive of democracy and plays footsie with authoritarianism.
This isn't entirely new, but it is a new twist in the modern era. One of the most noxious ideas, which is gaining traction among some MAGA devotees, is the concept of Christian nationalism. It's the idea America was founded as a Christian nation and should operate if not as theocracy, at least as a close cousin to one. Its defenders claim the term is just a "dog whistle" pushed by liberals to discredit Christianity in the public realm, but that's mostly nonsense.
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Source:
https://reason.com/2025/12/25/christian-nationalism-is-a-threat-to-americas-founding-principles/
