This episode acknowledges agreement on some core beliefs among evangelicals who nevertheless disagree on Christian nationalism. Evangelicals typically agree that Christ is the only way of salvation, and they earnestly desire that all come into relationship with Him. Evangelicals in the United States are nevertheless divided over the Church’s relationship to the State: Christian nationalists want to “Christianize” the State ostensibly to bring people to Christ and/or make society more “Christlike,” while “separatists” see a Church-state mixture as an obstacle to Christ’s Kingdom because it corrupts the Church. Importantly, well-meaning believers want the same thing, but disagree over means. The program cites passages in Memorial and Remonstrance in which Madison (a quasi-Christian deist?) articulates the same core evangelical beliefs, that Christ is the only way to God and those “in darkness” need to come to Christ. Importantly, Madison maintains that 15 centuries of Christian establishments prove that state churches are averse to the goals of Christianity, leading to “pride and indolence in the clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both superstition, bigotry and persecution.” The episode finally details the disestablishment position of the Baptist preacher John Leland, who observed that established churches “have done more harms than persecutions ever did.”
