America’s founders created the first secular republic.

Evidence

The error in the detail was there to provide cover for the great lie at the center of Christian nationalism. What David Barton and the leaders of the Hobby Lobby corporation don’t want you to know is that America’s founders explicitly and proudly created the world’s first secular republic. It seemed the point of the Hobby Lobby ad was not to celebrate America’s history but to counterfeit it. — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 509

Categorization

• XREF: The secular-republic point recurs across the book’s theme; contradicts the movement’s central founding myth. — connects to: America was religiously plural from its beginning. — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 519; America’s founders wrote church-state separation into the Constitution — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 1069; The United States also has a religiously sanctioned cleansing in its founding — Michael A. Sells, The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and…, 249 (+3 more)
• DEFINE: Defines the great lie of Christian nationalism as covering over the secular founding.
• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source

Broader Connections

• America’s founders wrote church-state separation into the Constitution #corroborates (0.92) — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 1069
• Christian nationalism originated in proslavery theology of the American slave republic. #complicates (0.72) — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 450
• The United States also has a religiously sanctioned cleansing in its founding #complicates (0.70) — Michael A. Sells, The Bridge Betrayed, 249