A God-Shaped Nation: A Guest Post by Brook Wilensky-Lanford

A kaleidoscopic American history of extraordinary religious transformations, told through the ordinary people who made them happen. Read on for an exclusive essay from author Brook Wilensky-Lanford on writing A God-Shaped Nation.

In 2026, anyone looking at our religious past must tell two big, competing stories. One, the rise of Christian nationalism, such that our leaders declare holy wars and compare themselves to Jesus Christ. This most troubling turn in American religious history is the result of decades of cynical power grabs by the religious right. But it is just as important not to cede the territory of religion in America to this story. 

Religion is not an abstraction; religion is lived in real time, and it changes constantly, often due just as much to ordinary individuals as big institutions. This history of American religion spans from the Spanish colonial era to the 2024 Presidential election, exploring themes of power, diversity, and freedom. For example, we often say that the Puritans came to the Americas for religious freedom—but if they did, they did not mean what we think they mean by that term; Massachusetts Bay Colony were perfectly willing to silence, ban, and even kill people who did not share their beliefs. It is the people who rebelled against them—Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, Mary Dyer—who help develop our pluralist idea of religious freedom.

If I could correct one misconception about American religious history, it would be that because more Americans describe themselves as Christian than any other religion, “we are a Christian nation.” American Christians are internally diverse: African Methodist Episcopalians, Baptists, Catholics, Congregationalists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and Quakers have historically been just as distinct from one another as from non-Christians. Besides, in a democracy, the majority rules, but minorities nonetheless matter. Before European colonization, hundreds of distinct indigenous religious flourished; untold thousands of the Africans kidnapped into American slavery continued to practice Islam. Small groups of European Jews pressed George Washington to articulate the separation of church and state. Asian religions have often tested the limitations of religious freedom. Daoist temples were destroyed during Chinese Exclusion; Japanese Buddhist and Shinto leaders were first to be arrested after Pearl Harbor. Sikh immigrants from India were vilified even as Hinduism became fashionable.

It wasn’t until 1954 that the words “under God” were added to the Pledge of Allegiance, as an ideological statement against the “godless communism” of the Cold War. Before, during, and after that moment, we are and will continue to be, one nation under many gods.