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On the night of the 9th, KBS1 aired ‘Docu Insight: 250th Anniversary of U.S. Independence Project, Part 1 - Make America Holy Again’.

The program followed 250 years in which faith built the United States and grew into a political force, from the Mayflower departing Britain to a potential second Trump administration, and cast new light on them. It traced where the yearning for a ‘holy America again’ is leading the country.

“Make America Great Again (MAGA)” is the slogan that symbolizes President Trump’s return to the White House. In 2026, the 250th anniversary of independence, one of the strongest pillars supporting him is the conservative Christian community. According to surveys, 56% of Republicans and 67% of white evangelical Protestants are classified as supporters or sympathizers of Christian nationalism.

Some among them argue that, to restore American greatness, Christian values must be recovered, and they recast MAGA as “Make America Godly Again.” President Trump also emphasizes, “I will bring religion back to America,” giving momentum to this movement.

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However, the United States is a nation that prohibited the establishment of a federal ‘state religion’ and engraved freedom of religion in the Constitution, drawing a line between government and church. From the prayers of those who broke into the Capitol to religious organizations in the White House, as politics and faith draw close again, that boundary is shaking 250 years after independence.

On May 17, 2026, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the White House-backed ‘Reconsecration 250’ was held. About 15,000 people gathered and continued prayer and praise for nine hours, giving thanks for America’s past 250 years and seeking ‘the guidance of God’ for the next 250.

The participants wore patches reading ‘Jesus is the way’, ‘One nation united under God’, and ‘Trump’ side by side. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson led a prayer to reconsecrate America as ‘one nation under God’, and key figures from the Trump administration joined by video. In response, on the opposite side of the venue, signs appeared declaring, “America is not a Christian nation.”

In 1620, the English Separatist Protestants aboard the Mayflower sought to establish a community and self-governing society according to their faith. The Protestant tradition of anyone reading and interpreting the Bible directly continued in America as diverse denominations and ways of faith. In a church in West Virginia, even today they take literally the verse ‘pick up serpents’ and hold venomous rattlesnakes during worship.

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In a society where different interpretations of Scripture and ways of faith coexist, it was important that the state not present the belief of any one denomination as the right answer. The founders banned religious tests for federal office and specified in the First Amendment both the federal ban on establishing a state church and the freedom of religion. Although the United States began with faith, to protect the diversity of that faith it drew a line between government and church.

After World War II, as the Cold War began, Christianity fused with the American identity opposing ‘god-denying communism’. In 1954, the words ‘under God’ were added to the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance, and in the 1950s and 60s more than seven in ten Americans belonged to a religious institution.

However, in 1962 and 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled school-led prayer and Bible reading in public schools unconstitutional in succession, and, along with the women's movement and changes in sexual values, a sense of crisis grew among conservative Christians that American society was drifting away from faith-based values. That sense of crisis became politicized around abortion and education, and the Christian Right emerged as a major Republican force by supporting Ronald Reagan in 1980.

The cultural conflict that began then continues today in education. A conservative Christian family in Virginia chose homeschooling out of concern about public schools' sex education and instruction related to sexual minorities. Prioritizing their household's faith-based values over public-school instruction, their choice shows how the sense of crisis that drew the Christian Right into politics has extended to everyday educational practice.

In the 2024 presidential election, eight out of ten white evangelical voters cast ballots for Trump. Returned to the White House, Trump established the White House Faith Office and a Religious Freedom Committee, incorporating into governance the agenda long backed by conservative Christians.

The fusion of politics and faith appeared in even more dramatic scenes. On January 6, 2021, some Trump supporters, after storming the Capitol, prayed together on the Senate floor. After the Iran war began, Secretary of War (Defense) Pete Hegseth quoted a Psalm in a war briefing: “He trains my hands for war.”

Ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, Christian Right organizations are again going door to door to encourage voting. Although the share of American Christians is declining in the long term, the power of organized faith still influences elections and policy, and even the language used to explain war.

Faith was the force that built the nation called the United States. Yet another grand principle America built alongside it was to draw a firm line between government and church so that faith would not turn into state power.

Now, on the 250th anniversary of independence, faith is appearing beyond churches and homes, at polling places and the Capitol, in the White House and even in war briefings.