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Who Was the First Christian President? |
Andrew Sullivan picked up on this post I did reacting to the recent forced display of Presidential piety.
The bottom line is that evangelicals and traditional Catholics define "Christianity" fairly narrowly according to its orthodox doctrines. How many times have we heard evangelicals (and some Catholics) say "Mormons are not Christians" even though Mormons claim to be Christian.
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According to the way evangelicals define Christianity it's not at all clear that we had a "real Christian" President until Andrew Jackson.
Christian Nationalists are largely comprised of conservative evangelicals. Understandably, they have a hard time accepting the first half dozen Presidents weren't Christians (it doesn't bode well for a "Christian America" reading of history).
Yet, not all conservative evangelicals are Christian Nationalists. Indeed, Christianity Today relies on the work of Gary Scott Smith, a notable evangelical scholar, in constructing a chart that suggests the first real Christian President was Andrew Jackson.
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