Peter Montgomery began by explaining the importance of addressing the issue.

"So we're here today, one year before the 2012 elections to talk about a phenomenon that is not new this year and is not unique to this election cycle, but one that has been much in evidence  as we talk about the ways that religion and polices are being mixed this year.

And that is the assertion that America is, or was meant by its founders to be a Christian nation,  a country created of, by and for Christians.  And this Christian nation rhetoric takes several forms.  We have the revisionist history of David Barton, a Republican Party and religious right activist who misrepresents American history to buttress his claims that the founding fathers set out to create a Christian nation.

It takes the form of exclusionary rhetoric by political leaders like Texas governor and presidential candidate Rick Perry, who teamed up with some of the nation's most divisive figures for the prayer rally that he used to essentially launch his presidential campaign.  And it takes the form of overt religious bigotry by people like Brian Fisher, a radio host and spokesperson for the American Family Association who claims that the First Amendment does not even apply to non-Christian faiths, and to others that claim that Islam that is not a religion and that American communities should not allow Muslims to build mosques to worship in.

Religious right leaders are also claiming a religious grounding, a biblical mandate for far right economic policies.  David Barton, for example says, "All American policies should be based on the bible."  And the way he reads the Bible, Jesus is opposed to minimum wage laws, progressive taxation, capital gains taxes, estate taxes, and collective bargaining.  The government, we're told, has no right to try to alleviate poverty.  It's the Christian nation meets tea party nation."

Montgomery then explains why this matters.

"Christian nation rhetoric is not just about words.  Those words reflect ideas about the nature of our government and our society.  They are promoted on television, radio, and the internet, taught in universities and law schools like Regent and Liberty and endorsed by public officials, including some who want to be president of the United States.  Some of the policies promoted by Christian nation advocates undermine Constitutional principles of religious liberty, equality, and opportunity.  Policies that would erase progress towards legal equality for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Americans, that would eliminate access to abortion and reproductive health care for women, that would turn public schools into venues for proselytizing and religious coercion.  And from a broader perspective, we believe it's wrong, divisive and detrimental to our communities and to the common good to declare that some Americans have favored status based on their religious beliefs and that others should simply be grateful to be tolerated." 

Jamie Raskin, Director of the Law and Government Program of American University's Washington College of Law and a Maryland State Senator, comments on the impact of the 'Christian nation' claim.

"And we do have to observe that the actual purpose and effect of injecting this religious claim into politics is never to make people more virtuous or more charitable or more empathetic or more holy, but rather to advance specific political agendas.  Sometimes the agenda is to wrap the aura of religiosity and holiness around a particular political party or faction.  Sometimes it's to try to turn government into an instrument of religious proselytizing and sometimes it's just to try to show religious minorities who's the boss, and sometimes it's all of the above."

Raskin continues by describing a call he received from Rep. John Conyers, then chairman of the House Judicial Committee, about the resolution to endorse the Ten Commandments. Raskin continues,

"But the House proceeded to endorse the Ten Commandments on a vote of 295 to 125, I mean, even taking the vote, if you think about it is not only unconstitutional but blasphemous in some sense. But in truth, this bit of pandering really did nothing other than to create sectarian animosity in Congress.  Minority religionists were offended, while those in the majority got to reaffirm their own privilege religious status.  Not as a matter of faith or communion with God, but rather simply as a matter of raw political power."

Julie Ingersoll, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Florida and a Religion Dispatches contributor, commented on the recent claims from David Barton and others that the First Amendment only applies to Christianity and the widespread growth of this narrative.  She mentioned a controversy surrounding a letter from a Florida public school principal calling for students to participate in a prayer around the flagpole in which he cited the claim that the First Amendment only applies to Christians. Ingersoll continues,

"Just last month on an exam in one of my classes where we were talking about the First Amendment, I had three students make this argument.  I have never encountered that argument in the 14 years that I have been teaching these courses and I think that that material is permeating the culture out there."

This promises to be an ongoing issue in the 2012 elections.  The Christian nation narrative has played a significant role in the campaigns of numerous presidential candidates including Newt Gingrich, who is currently leading the polls in Iowa, South Carolina, and Florida.

Barton is on the board of Gingrich's Renewing American Leadership (REAL).  For several years Barton and Gingrich have traveled to states across the country to deliver 'Christian nation' speeches at Pastors' Policy Briefings, some titled "Rediscovering God in America" after Gingrich's book by the same name. (See example of invitation to a Virginia Pastors Policy Briefing in 2009 featuring Barton and Gingrich, and also including Lou Engle.) Barton and Gingrich are featured in the DVD being promoted for church and house viewing parties by  United in Purpose/Champion the Vote, titled One Nation Under God, which includes video from the Pastors' Policy Briefings.

Also see numerous articles on David Barton posted by Talk2action.org contributors including those by Chris Rodda debunking many of Barton's narratives. Talk2action's site search engine (upper left corner of website)   yields over 240 articles posted since 2005 that include David Barton.  Another search that will yield articles on claims that the bible promotes laissez-faire capitalism is the term Biblical Capitalism.

See From Schoolhouse to Statehouse: Curriculum From A Christian Nationalist Worldview in The Public Eye.