The idea that the United States has a divinely ordained purpose in history is waning in the general American population. According to PRRI surveys completed in 2022, 43% of Americans agree that “God granted America a special role in human history,” compared with 51% who agreed in 2011.
White evangelicals, however, have not moved on this question, with about two-thirds agreeing with this statement in both 2011 and 2022. By contrast, white mainline Protestants were less likely to agree in 2022 (46%) than they were in 2011 (51%).
A number of social, economic, geographic, political, and cultural factors drive white evangelical conceptions of the nation. Understanding how two of the largest, most influential forms of evangelical Protestantism in the country — white Baptists and white Pentecostals and charismatics — view God’s plan for the United States may help explain the belief that God has granted the nation a key role in human history.
White Baptists of the early 20th century believed that the United States had a special role in history because of its status as a democracy. Many white Baptists argued that democracy was God’s form of governance and had been given to Americans for the good of the world. They believed God’s plan for a Baptist congregation was best discerned through democracy, they argued, because the Holy Spirit would speak to individuals who could then vote their conscience.
The Baptists described their form of congregational governance as “pure spiritual democracy,” and they considered it an example to be shared with the nation and the world. The American Baptist preacher Walter Rauschenbusch, for example, worked to “inculcate [democratic principles] here and abroad,” based on the idea that the Kingdom of God was a democracy. In practice, however, the democratic enfranchisement Baptists advocated applied almost exclusively to white men of European descent.
As the 20th century progressed, white Baptists increasingly saw themselves as “beacons of democracy” for the world. Through organized efforts such as the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, established in 1946, Baptists sought to shape public policy. They lobbied for religious liberty, monitored the actions of Congress, and testified at hearings as advocates for the Baptist vision of American democracy.
For decades, Baptist beliefs about the need to promote and protect democracy helped fuel patriotism and anti-communist sentiment among white Protestants. During the Cold War, Rev. Billy Graham and other white Baptists preached about the United States as the guardian and defender of both Christianity and democracy against the so-called godless communists abroad.
Like their Baptist counterparts, white Pentecostal and charismatic Christians often believe that God has given America a special role to play in human history, but they differ from the Baptists when it comes to promoting democratic principles. Many (predominantly, but not exclusively white) Pentecostals and charismatics believe that the United States is important but its role in history is secondary to that of Israel.
