First among our nation’s First Amendment protections is freedom of religion. It is aptly so, because this country was founded by those with a direct tie to the Pilgrims who were fleeing religious persecution when they landed on Plymouth 156 years before we declared our independence from England. First and foremost, our forebears sought to practice their Christian faith according to their convictions.

While it may seem a superfluous concern in an increasingly secular day and age, every American president has expressed some form of commitment to Christianity. For example, Joe Biden is just the second president to hold to the Roman Catholic faith. Not that his faith has informed much, if any, of his political views.

Donald Trump stated back in 2020 that he was “confirmed at a Presbyterian church as a child” and that he now considers himself to be “a non-denominational Christian.” While Trump may have long identified as a Presbyterian, the actual degree to which he personally believes in Christianity and the Gospel is debatable. But Trump is not unusual in this regard, as many of America’s presidents in the modern era fall into this camp.

Bill Clinton, for example, claims to be a Southern Baptist, and Barack Obama is a nondenominational protestant. But in every instance, American presidents have expressed a personal commitment to Christianity in one form or another.

Indeed, Kamala Harris identifies as a “Black Baptist” and is a member of Third Baptist Church of San Francisco. She is married to Douglas Emhoff, who is Jewish.

Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, also claims Christianity as his faith. He is a member of Pilgrim Lutheran Church in St. Paul. That church is part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) denomination, which is widely considered one of the most progressive denominations in the country.

The point is, proclaiming one’s Christianity while running for the highest office in the land is as American as apple pie. It used to matter, as it gave the American people an insight not just into the candidates’ faith but also affirmed that they recognized God’s supremacy and believed that everyone, including the government, is ultimately answerable to Him. Furthermore, it established a common core set of values and expectations for the moral behavior of our political leaders.

Sadly, such expectations have seemingly long been abandoned. Oh, lip service is still given, but it appears that it is only done out of deference to decorum rather than out of any true commitment to personal faith.

And while so much ink has been spilled over the moral failings of Trump, his opponents across the political divide aren’t somehow morally superior. Indeed, Harris’s means of entering and rising up the political ranks should be cause for everyone to blush.

In Walz’s case, his church perfectly aligns with the mindset of today’s Democrat Party. The ELCA has, for all intents and purposes, conflated the Gospel with the furtherance of woke ideology. Supporting everything from the Rainbow Mafia agenda to abortion rights to DEI to racial reparations, the ELCA effectively mirrors the Democrat Party platform.

Indeed, this radial leftist theology may explain Walz’s radical leftist political views. The ELCA is, after all, one of the largest denominations in the reliably blue state of Minnesota.

The truth for most of the Democrat Party is that its true faith isn’t in Christ. Rather, it’s in government. The power of government is the religion of many politicians, and this is especially so of the Democrat Party. This helps explain why Trump and his fellow Republicans are considered such an existential threat. It would be as if a Muslim were to become pope.

So, while the expressed religion of both Harris and Walz may be some form of Christianity, their true faith rests in secular government.