No Josh Hawley, the United States was not “founded on revival”

I included this in today’s roundup, but I wanted to call attention to it again. Yesterday Missouri senator Josh Hawley spoke at MAGA worship leader Sean Feucht’s Washington D.C. rally. Here is part of what he said:

It’s a privilege to go to work in that building behind me and see the statues of the men and women who have made our country great, but you and I both know what makes this country truly great, it’s the spiritual foundations of this nation, it’s the truth of the bible of which this nation was founded, do you agree with that tonight?

Don’t we live in a time where those in power are saying to us, give us the inheritance of ours fathers, their telling us not to speak the name of Jesus in public, their telling us not to speak the name of Jesus in politics, their telling us not to speak the name of Jesus in our schools, but we will say to them, forbid it from us to give you the inheritance of our fathers. We will rebuild the spiritual foundations of America. What this nation needs above all is Revival and don’t you know that this nation was founded on revival, that’s what made us a nation when those first pilgrims came to these shores, what did they bring here? The truth of the bible! What’s our liberty founded in? The scripture! What are our rights founded on? What Jesus has given us!…

Hawley is not alone in his claim that the United States was founded on a spiritual revival. We hear this stuff from California megachurch pastor Greg Laurie, author Eric Metaxas, jailed Trump adviser Steve Bannon, and many others. If you want to know more about the claim, and the weak historical claims that undergird it, read my recent piece at Commonweal: “Revival and Revolution: The disputed thesis that underpins MAGA evangelicalism.”

Here is a taste:

[Greg] Laurie is not the only Evangelical these days making connections between the First Great Awakening and the Revolution. Texas senator Ted Cruz says that a Great Awakening is coming, and it will propel Christians into “cultural prominence.” Missouri senator Josh Hawley told activist Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition that “in every hour of this country’s danger…Christians have risen to help lead this country…. We did it in the First Great Awakening, that helped move this country toward revolution and independence.” Veteran Christian Right activist James Robison summed it up with this 2021 tweet: “In light of our current national economic crisis, political chaos and military inferiority, I can safely say our only hope of survival is revival, leading to the next Great Awakening.” And when a revival broke out earlier this year at tiny Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky, MAGA evangelists, prophets, and politicians told their followers that the “outpouring” was the beginning of the long-awaited awakening that God was sending to save America. 

Read the entire piece here.