Last January at Liberty University, Donald Trump told the audience that as president he would “protect Christianity.” Since then he has reiterated that promise. And last week, at the Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit, he declared his intention this way: In “a Trump administration our Christian heritage will be cherished, protected, defended, like you’ve never seen before. Believe me. I believe it. And you believe it.
Since when did we have a president who spoke in those terms—as the protector or defender of Christianity, or of “our Christian heritage”? The latter would seem to extend beyond Christianity and churches to just about anything related to Christianity. “You’re going to see ‘Merry Christmas’ in department stores,” Trump said at Liberty University.
The answer, of course, is that we have never had such a president. Gary Scott Smith, the Grove City College historian, is a keen student of presidents and religion. In an email, Smith told me that he couldn’t recall a single president who vowed to protect Christianity. Other scholars of religion and American history I reached had similar (empty) recollections.
Previous presidents lived in times friendlier to Christianity and its moral teachings. Smith says some of them “might be labeled a promoter of the faith in terms of their rhetoric, actions, and policies.” Smith points to Truman and Eisenhower “as the most blatant examples,” followed by “McKinley, Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, and Reagan, among others.”
Trump’s vow to protect Christianity is his response to an America in which it has less cultural influence. For Trump, a mere promoter of the faith is insufficient. Only a protector will do.
And yet what will this declared protector do, if he is elected? Deal with the so-called Johnson amendment, which prohibits churches and other tax-exempt organizations from endorsing or opposing candidates for office. Trump wants it repealed. No other presidential candidate for office this year—or in the past, for that matter—has promised to repeal a law (enacted in 1954) that has been seldom enforced but which some evangelical pastors insist has had a “chilling effect” upon their constitutional rights to free speech and the free exercise of religion. Trump sees the amendment as making Christianity in America “weaker, weaker, weaker,” as he put it in June in a speech to evangelical leaders. Trump the defender of the faith thus would strengthen the voice of Christianity, amplifying its influence in our politics (on the assumption, by the way, that that is how God works in this world).
Trump has spoken extensively about the Johnson amendment but said little about other matters concerning religion and politics. But he may not need to, at least not now. His defender-of-the-faith message is for voters, and less so policymakers, and it is simply that whatever issues regarding church and state arise during his presidency, they can count on him to be on the right side, fighting.
