If we’re going to celebrate religious influence at our 250th birthday, let’s get the history right. And still a good non-partisan test of religious sincerity is: where and how often does a public figure attend regular worship in his parish—as many of the founders did 250 years ago.

Protestant Christian Nationalists and other evangelicals may have some angst over the White House’s recent commendation of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.

As I was working on a sermon on Mary’s growth in grace this week, the White House (WH) released a glowing commendation of a sinless Mary, endorsing a specific doctrine that is far beyond the general creeds of the church, such as the Nicene formula.

A prime cut from the statement is this paragraph below:

“For nearly 250 years, Mary has played a distinct role in our great American story. In 1792, less than a decade after the end of the Revolutionary War, Bishop John Carroll—the first Catholic bishop in the United States and cousin of signer of the Declaration of Independence Charles Carroll—consecrated our young Nation to the mother of Christ. Less than a quarter-century later, Catholics attributed General Andrew Jackson’s stunning victory over the British in the climactic Battle of New Orleans to Mary. Every year, Catholics celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving in New Orleans on January 8 in memory of Mary’s assistance in saving the city.”

Our Vice President, who retweeted this, is a loyal catholic, but I suspect the President had some help writing this. Not only is Mary extolled (and that’s fine when in conformity to biblical revelation), it is also another case of the WH upping the visibility of religion—even claiming that our young nation was “consecrated” to the mother of Christ. For attempting to insert religion into the public square, we give the WH points.

We also give them points for trying to demonstrate the persistent Catholic contribution to American history. Anytime an article refers to “1792” and events prior to 1900 earns points, too. Then, again, as most historians would note, few of the original colonies provided safe spaces for Catholics. Feel free to review those from an earlier post.

However, even with those two steps forward (pro-faith and pro-history), it will be interesting to watch all the evangelical supporters react. This could lead to three steps backwards. For example, will the assembly of pro-Trump/Vance Baptists and non-denominational evangelicals convert and echo the sinlessness of Mary because of a WH press release?

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