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Debating Michael Knowles: Is America a Christian Nation?

Alex O'Connor | May 9, 2026



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– VIDEO NOTES

Michael Knowles is an American conservative Catholic political commentator and media host. He has worked for the Daily Wire since 2016.

– TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Introduction
02:37 In What Way is America a Christian Nation?
08:46 Intentions of the Declaration of Independence
17:43 The Legal Separations Between Church & State
21:44 Michael’s Response to the Treaty of Tripoli
30:40 The American Motto of ‘In God We Trust’
33:00 Why Would a Secular Nation Have Blasphemy Laws?
38:29 America Wasn’t Founded to Separate Church & State
48:54 The Influence of Gouverneur Morris
55:29 Constant Fluctuations of Religiosity
1:05:52 The Hand of Providence in Early America
1:07:56 Do Americans Overstate George Washington’s Faith?
1:11:17 Was the Abolitionist Movement Really a Christian One?
1:23:48 Conclusion

– CONNECT

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– CONTACT

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Written by Alex O'Connor

Comments

This post currently has 46 comments.

  4. @Meechy37

    May 9, 2026 at 10:46 am

    I love when Christians like to tout the delusion that America is becoming more Christian. As if all data doesn't clearly show that religion is continuing its decline.

  6. @itzDionneJ

    May 9, 2026 at 10:46 am

    Why must we insist on resorting back to s conversation of what colonizers meant for this country to be. These settlers had just committed genocide of the indigenous here. Native americans weren't christian. They didnt ask to be Christian. The few children that survived the genocide were raped by the settlers and forced to covert to Christianity. Why must you all speak of the past as if it was some beautiful wholesome place lol? Why must you start these conversations about that white men intended our country to look like. Those opinions that should be taken most into consideration are the actual indigenous. EVERYONE ELSE ARE IMMIGRANTS! America has no righteousness, wholesome beginning. Right after slaughtering millions of native Americans, raping the women and children left behind, this country used slave labor for hundreds of years, and then went to war with itself because they did not want to end slavery lol. After slavery ended there was jim crow laws, public lynchings and segregation.
    Stop speaking of this country as if its a white mans PURE country that is at risk of losing its wholesome values due to foreigners coming in., with their foreign religions. White men were the foreigners that came in, with the foreign religions!

  7. @itzDionneJ

    May 9, 2026 at 10:46 am

    The constitution was clearly made to be secular.

    But what we all must get around this is this idea that white men founding america. The original founding fathers were native American and your ancestors were not wholesome and holy, they were genocidal maniacs who killed the original people off, raped their women and children and then some white men came along to rewrite history!!
    Your ancestors stole this land and then stole human beings to use them as free labor and sex toys, for hundreds of years in order to futher develop a nation. America has no right to consider itself morally superior to any other nation.

    Christianity was not the religion of the natives.
    And the great replacement theory that white nationalists fear isnt based off reality either, no one is trying to steal YOUR country, you were the group that stole this country from its original owners! And now you fear that others will come to do what you all have done. Its never been the case. White colonizers tend to be the only group to visit a country and find a strong desire to steal and take over everything. Everyone else here just wants take up a small bit of space and raise their children outside of poverty and war.

  11. @eduardosampaio3547

    May 9, 2026 at 10:46 am

    Michel Kowles can say whatever he wants. The fact remains that the First Amendment (1791) clearly states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” That alone makes the constitutional principle clear.

    It is also misleading to describe the United States as a “Christian nation.” Around 29% of Americans are religiously unaffiliated (atheist, agnostic, or “nothing in particular”). Even among those who identify as Christian, only a portion would be considered genuinely practicing by meaningful measures such as regular church attendance or consistent religious practice. Many others identify as Christian primarily in a cultural or nominal sense rather than through active participation.

  14. @benjaminBEARDless

    May 9, 2026 at 10:46 am

    How did blasphemy laws persist? Same as no spitting on the sidewalks laws or no parking your horse right outside the library door. No one removed them but no one enforces them.

  15. @benjaminBEARDless

    May 9, 2026 at 10:46 am

    The best Knowles has is that the US was founded by mostly Christians that didn't want the government to be Christian. If it were founded as a Christian nation, it would say so in the founding documents. It doesn't. It says the opposite, in fact.

  16. @M4ttNet

    May 9, 2026 at 10:46 am

    The arrogance of Michael is hilarious. I think he genuinely didn't realize he was being outclassed and Alex was just too nice to rub his nose in it. That moment where Michael says he misunderstood Alex's point and that he's going to make Alex's point better than he made it and agreed more with it, unironically lol. The lack of self awareness of Michael is insane.

    As to his point, he himself proves his point wrong. The point he keeps going back to to counteract the first amendment is to point to it only being about Congress, hence the federal government and then points to proof of States for quite a long time having State sponsored religious activities.

    In some fantasy land this proves the US was founded on Christianity in his mind. Instead it proves his own point wrong. He himself proves that at the National level the US could NOT be about any specific religion, including Christianity, but in fact some States chose to make their State government and founding about Christianity.

    This allows you to potentially argue certain States as being founded as Christian States, but by his own definition and admission that the Nation was not, hence the need for the States to differ from the National congress and it's legislation.

    Also the ability to dismiss Thomas Jefferson is ridiculous. His intellectual DNA is unmistakable in the forming of the US and was clearly not about Christianity and in fact about keeping government and religion separately. Beyond that you can include James Madison the most influential author of the Constitution itself. He backed the separation of Church and Faith consistently, even to the point of arguing against the government paid chaplains for Congress and the military. Again Michaels argument that some States embraced religion officially only strengthens that the Nation did not so it had to be a State choice, not a National choice.

    Try to walk Jefferson out of the US all you want Michael but I'd like to see you walk James Madison out.

  17. @olemanshavadoo7893

    May 9, 2026 at 10:46 am

    6:51 it says “endowed by their creator” not “our”. Important distinction. So it doesn’t collectivize a god but simply to say whatever god you believe in is the one you get your rights from. Cute how he smuggled that little thing in there

  19. @SmilewithDrGadzama

    May 9, 2026 at 10:46 am

    I like your independent thought lines, Alex, but you're not going to WIN this against Micheal, I just knew this even before I clicked this video. But you did have good arguments, though, just not a very strong ones

  20. @herecomesdatchin1327

    May 9, 2026 at 10:46 am

    11:37 Choosing a Brit as one's favorite founding father is not logically inconsistent. The guy you're arguing against even mentions before this that the Americans were of the same "stock" as the British. So who cares whether a colonist was born in the Thirteen Colonies or elsewhere? 8 of the 56 signers of the declaration were born outside of the colonies.

    Furthermore, this guy uses this fact to dismiss this one English-born American's views while ignoring the fact that the Pilgrims were also all English-born. He mentions how putting an exact date on America's birth is rather foolish, yet he subscribed to some imaginary date which if you are born after, you don't count as an American.

  26. @Mamru05

    May 9, 2026 at 10:46 am

    Why does Michael Knowles have this tone that’s like almost condescending towards Americans who haven’t read common sense or who don’t know these more niche political figures, dude this is your job of course you’ve read it you get paid to do this

  27. @jrmitchell12

    May 9, 2026 at 10:46 am

    It is comical to see all of the people responding to this not responding to his arguments but basically "he is associated with orange man, so he is bad".

  30. @erudite1982

    May 9, 2026 at 10:46 am

    For an atheist to say that slavery or anything else is wrong is merely based on personal opinion because atheism denies that there is an absolute transcendent moral law giver and thus it denies that there is absolute truth and absolute transcendent standards of what is right and what is wrong so to appeal to morality as an atheist is completely contradictory to the basic belief of atheism because in an atheistic worldview morality is based merely on relative human opinions that often differ and contradict each other

  32. @Csweet09

    May 9, 2026 at 10:46 am

    It is better to have a nation ignore the special requests of one religion than enact rules against other religions at the behest of one. All religions espouse tolerance during life and only seem to argue about what happens after death, so if we all cant agree about what happens after death, lets agree to disagree and wait until that time comes…

  33. @dainybernstein4751

    May 9, 2026 at 10:46 am

    Haven't seen this in the comments I scrolled through, so putting this here just in case:

    The point about God being on our money and in the pledge – they were added in the 1950s. They are a symbol of the growing Christian nationalism of the second half of the twentieth century on into the 21st. They are not historical evidence of what was happening in 1776.

  36. @sigmundfried3838

    May 9, 2026 at 10:46 am

    Is Alex O'Connor implying in this discussion, amongst other insinuation, that American heads of state in past centuries , used God and religion opportunistically to increase their support, either through fear or encouragement, or bothe? Did they only invoke prayer and biblical scripture in times of need , as opposed to being true men of God whose devotion to Chritianity was constant and unwavering? And if they did cite biblical texts selectively …..what of it? Does it make those heads of state less honest, less moral, or is it proof of sagacity and leadership in difficult circumstances? O'Conners insistence on moral consistency fails to recognize complexity and the nuanced responses it demands. Times were different then …and so was morality. It is wise to see this simple fact. Yehuda.

  38. @megaslice23

    May 9, 2026 at 10:46 am

    "America has always been more religious than most of the West." Not true at all. Even in the Americas, there are far more religious countries. Most of Latin America (who are devoutly Catholic) and the Caribbean (who are a reasonable mix of Catholic and Protestant) are profoundly more religious than America, and had mentions of being "Nation(s) Under God" (or something similar, but with an explicit mention of God) written into their original constitutions.

  40. @a.m.hofmeister725

    May 9, 2026 at 10:46 am

    Dude, I'm trying to give credence and grace to him, but like..
    First of all he's such a condescending, douchebag. Let's set that aside.
    More importantly he frames his arguments against liberals and their arguments. He's asserting that he knows the counterarguments to his own claims and then presenting those arguments against him as flimsily and often derisively as possible.
    He presents his own best argument outright and then completely avoids talking about it.

    "America is a nation whose people are Christian. Therefore it is a Christian nation."

    Now, I believe that a nation is its people, if a nation is anything at all. If there is value in the idea of a nation, then it rests only on the merit of being representative of the people living there.

    Thing is we have more people living here than just Christians. And some of us Christians deeply disagree and view other Christians as heretics.

    I want to respect Christians, but I cannot give them and their culture authority over me based on the fact that the country was always occupied by people who think like them.

    "Then leave."

    Fuck you. I'm American, I'm sticking with this fucking country so help me God. The fascists will not win.

Comments are closed.

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