OPINION: The Erosion of America's Christian Roots: Diwali in the White House and the Dilution of our Founding Faith

In a move that signaled the rising prominence of non-Christian traditions in American public life, President Donald Trump hosted a Diwali celebration, lighting diyas in the Oval Office alongside senior officials and Hindu leaders. The event, extending wishes of “serenity, prosperity, hope, and peace,” celebrated the Hindu festival of light. Prominent Hindu American figures present at the moment included Kash Patel, the FBI director, who framed the festival as “good triumphs over evil.” At the same time, Vivek Ramaswamy, a former presidential hopeful and candidate for Ohio governor, posted on X, “Happy Diwali! May the light prevail over darkness.” While presented as inclusivity, the celebration sparked fierce backlash from Christian conservatives, who saw it as an affront to America’s faith-based heritage. On X, users called it an “insult to God,” decrying “pagan” rituals in the nation’s highest office. This unease underscores a broader fear: Elevating non-Christian holidays like Diwali erodes the Christian core that has defined America since even before its founding.

Ramaswamy has consistently downplayed this Christian identity, aligning with claims that America was never truly a Christian nation. At a Turning Point USA event shared on X, he defended his Hindu faith, stating, “I’m not running to be a pastor; I’m running to lead this country,” and cited Article 6 of the Constitution: “No religious test shall ever be required as qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” In other posts, he called belief in America a “civic religion,” untethered from Christian faith. He argued that a Christian-only presidency would exclude him—or even Thomas Jefferson—while touting shared “values” with the founders. Such rhetoric recasts America as a multicultural economic zone, prioritizing religious tolerance over the founders’ Christian vision. At the same time, Patel’s embrace of Hindu traditions draws similar criticism for advancing globalist ideas that uproot American ideals.

The White House Diwali reflects a larger assault on the Christian foundations laid by the founding fathers. Nine of the 13 original colonies established Christian state churches, reflecting a Christian ethos, not space for mosques or Hindu temples. The 1892 Supreme Court case Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States affirmed this, with Justice David Josiah Brewer declaring, after reviewing charters and constitutions, “These, and many other matters, which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation.” State constitutions required faith declarations—nine for Bible-believing Christians, 12 specifying Protestantism, and Maryland allowing Catholicism—while Pennsylvania’s professed, “I profess Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.”

America’s Christian roots run deep in its legal and cultural fabric. Of the Declaration of Independence’s 56 signers, 55 were Bible-believing Christians. U.S. common law, drawn from Christian jurist William Blackstone, was rooted in Scripture, with Leviticus 19 and New Testament equality—“neither slave nor Greek nor Jew, all one in Christ”—shaping American justice. George Washington’s early military order urged troops to act as "Christian soldiers," and the Declaration’s "Supreme Judge of the Universe" was considered a prayer to Christ. Deuteronomy, on laws and government, outpaced Locke or Montesquieu as the most quoted founding-era text. Furthermore, John Adams said that the Constitution was only for “a moral and religious people,” indicating that America was a Christian country.

Caption: Washington Praying at Valley Forge. The famous story goes that during the difficult winter encampment of 1777-1778, a Quaker named Isaac Potts reportedly discovered General Washington praying alone in the woods. Moved by the sight, Potts abandoned his pacifist beliefs and professed his support for the American cause.

The celebration of Diwali in the White House and the rebranding of America as a non-Christian nation by moderates like Vivek Ramaswamy mirror the left’s attacks on Christianity, as both erode the nation’s core Christian identity. Both are manifestations of the same phenomenon. While the left vilifies Christian symbols outright through speech policing—like insisting on “Happy Holidays” over “Merry Christmas”—and targets holidays such as Columbus Day (honoring a Catholic explorer), Thanksgiving (a day of Christian gratitude), and Christmas (celebrating Christ’s birth), the moderate right rebrands America as a cultureless state, diluting its exclusive Christian roots with globalist and anti-national sentiments. While the left assaults it by reframing figures like Columbus as oppressors rather than pioneers, deliberately erasing Catholic, Italian-American, and Iberian-American cultural heritage, moderates like Ramaswamy and Patel promote non-Christian traditions that uproot traditional American and Western values. Ultimately, these approaches strip away from the actual American core, destroying the Christian foundations that made the republic exceptional.

Caption: Source for image: Houston Public Media

Non-Christian symbols are rising in their place, from Diwali in the White House to the 90-foot Hanuman statue unveiled in August 2024 at the Sri Ashtalakshmi Temple in Sugar Land, Texas—the U.S.’s third-tallest—symbolizing Hindu devotion in a land once defined by churches. America must remain a Christian nation, as the founders intended. The Diwali festivities, towering Hindu statues, and non-Christian voices in government warn of multiculturalism’s erosion of our bedrock. To defend the culture that made America great, we must reclaim public life for the republic’s founding faith—and do so without apology.