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In a speech during Independence Day celebrations in Washington, D.C. on Saturday night, President Donald Trump misquoted the U.S. Declaration of Independence, falsely claiming it contained deep religious overtones.
“As our Declaration of Independence tells us, we are all made in the image of one almighty god,” Trump said during the speech, referring to a concept that appears in the Book of Genesis.
The Declaration of Independence makes no reference to Americans (or anyone) being created “in the image” of a god. The document includes only one mention of the word “god,” stating that all people are subject to “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.”
The phrase “nature’s God” has long been understood by historians to be a term deists used in the late 18th century to refer to whatever universal force created the universe — not necessarily a Christian god.
“Nature’s God is…a ‘deity’ that operates entirely through laws — natural laws — that are explicable,” explained historian Matthew Stewart, author of the book “Nature’s God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic,” in an NPR interview from 2014. “And we have to approach this ‘god’ through the study of nature and also evidence and experience. So it’s a dramatically different kind of deity from that you find in most revealed religions.”
Notably, the U.S. Constitution, the country’s foundational governing document, doesn’t refer to any god at all, and explicitly forbids religious tests for those seeking political office. The First Amendment to the Constitution also bars the federal government (and state governments, through the 14th Amendment) from establishing an official religion.
Trump’s remark could be viewed as a gaffe — but it could also be interpreted as a signal to his Christian nationalist base that he aims to push the country into a more theological direction (so long as that theology is aligned with his goals). Indeed, the president used the word “god” multiple times in his Fourth of July speech.
Trump wasn’t the only political leader to make erroneous references to religion and the nation’s founding on Independence Day. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) posted on social media that “The founding fathers called America ‘God’s noble experiment.'”
There is no historical evidence that any founder ever called the U.S. “God’s noble experiment.”
“It’s disturbing to see any American politician fabricate — apparently from whole cloth — a quotation that is indistinguishable from the junk history being pushed by…the White Christian Nationalist movement,” Nick Fish, president of American Atheists, said in a statement responding to Schumer’s post. “It’s particularly galling in the wake of Christian Nationalist hijacking of our nation’s 250th anniversary and their attempts to redefine America in stark, exclusionary terms.”
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