This episode chronicles the advance of Christianity in the U.S. after disestablishment, contrasting it with its declining influence where the Church is linked to the State. The Constitution forbade an established national church, and within 40 years, states with established churches disestablished. Lyman Beecher, a prominent preacher in the Second Great Awakening, remarked that disestablishment in Connecticut (1818) was "the best thing that ever happened to the State of Connecticut. It cut the churches loose from dependence on state support." Lay ministry and evangelism exploded after disestablishment, ushering in a prolonged revival that many believed would usher in the millennium. (post-millennialism was definitely in vogue) The French historian Alexis de Tocqueville noted how Christianity prospered in America under a Church cut loose from the State, while Christianity in France died a slow death after the French Revolution, because of its association with the State. Voltaire remarked that "liberty will not triumph until the last king is strangled by the entrails of the last priest." Most French have since drowned the Christian baby in the revolutionary bathwater. Unfortunately the same dynamic is now operative in the United States, the Church suffering a credibility crisis. Many reject Christianity because of Christian nationalist's support of the Republican Party and Donald Trump, a would-be autocrat who traffics in demagoguery and demonization. Liberals understandably reject the gospel if it is bathed with the raw sewage of politics and partiality. They cover their noses and throw both out, while the Church wonders why any would reject the sweet aroma of the gospel. Christian nationalism is a stumbling block and, "It is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to him through whom they come!" (Luke 17:1)
Christian Nationalism: a Debate over Means
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."