Several top Trump administration officials and allies of the president attended a conference for Christian nationalists and other far-right evangelicals last week, raising serious doubts about how long the wall separating church and state can hold.
Evidence abounds that Christian nationalism — specifically, the idea, advocated by some right-wing evangelicals, that the United States government ought to be structured around and advance their particular strain of Christianity — is an existential crisis for American democracy. But President Donald Trump has openly instructed his White House Faith Office to “forget about” the separation of church and state. And prominent supporters of the president seem increasingly comfortable echoing that language.
That was the case at last week’s Road to Majority conference hosted by the Faith and Freedom Coalition. The organization is a nonprofit founded by former Republican politician and evangelical activist Ralph Reed, who has downplayed the dangers of Christian nationalism in the U.S. and written a book (the original title of which was “Render to God and Trump”) telling Christians they have a moral obligation to support Trump’s presidency.
In a speech at the event, Jennifer Korn, the director of Trump’s White House Faith Office, praised Reed and downplayed the separation of church and state. “When they say ‘separation of church and state,’ separation of church and state just means that the government can’t tell you what religion to be. It does not mean that you don’t have a voice in this government,” she said.
Korn also said the office is not the “theological office” of the White House, although, as I wrote in May, the so-called Religious Liberty Commission is filled with far-right ideologues who have pushed policies that would erode the separation of church and state.
As host, Reed introduced House Speaker Mike Johnson, who gave what amounted to a sermon about the need for a government ruled by Christian theology. Speaking about plans to keep control of the House of Representatives in 2026, Johnson remarked that “providentially,” Republicans have favorable congressional maps next year. (Although, I’d note that it was conservative politicians, not God, who drew the gerrymandered maps that seem to be buoying the party’s electoral hopes.)
Johnson framed Republicans’ potential electoral victory as if it were a means to implement God’s will (or at least Johnson’s perception of it):
“I don’t know if this is an appropriate citation of the book of Matthew, but it says ‘from the time of John the Baptist until today, the kingdom of God has been advancing at the hand of forceful men, and forceful men take hold of it. Can we apply that to politics? I guess. I’m going to. That’s what we’re gonna do.” Imagine the conniption that would play out across conservative media if a Muslim Democrat — say, Rep. Ilhan Omar — talked about forcefully imposing the will of Allah. This dubious merger of Scripture and secular politics was common at the conference, where some Trump administration officials wrapped controversial policies in chapter and verse, while others portrayed the president as ordained to fulfill God’s earthly mission. Suggesting that his job at the Department of Veterans Affairs was akin to a spiritual calling, Secretary Doug Collins defended controversial staffing cuts at his agency and dismissed gender-affirming care for transgender people as a “social experiment” in the almost same breath that he said “taking care of our veterans” was his only concern. And Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner defended cuts to his agency and new work requirements for benefits — which at least one study has shown to be ineffective — during a sermon in which he says he wants his “team” to promote “faith in God and hard work.” The event also featured figures popular among the Christian nationalist crowd, such as activist Robert Jeffress, who has a history of claiming various government officials have been anointed by God, and Joe Kennedy, the former public high school football coach who won a Supreme Court case over his decision to lead his players in prayer before games. From start to finish, the message here seemed quite clear. Prominent Christian nationalists openly cheered what they believed to be the fall of church-state separations after Trump’s victory last year. And now they, alongside the Trump administration, are hardly hiding their intention to bring about that outcome.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.
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