America's Sacred Argument: Christianity, Secularism, and the Republic at 250 In-Person
As the United States marks its 250th anniversary, old questions about religion and national identity have returned with renewed force. Debates over public schools, religious liberty, Christian nationalism, patriotic ritual, and the meaning of the founding have made clear that the country is still arguing over what kind of republic it has been, and what kind of republic it wants to become. The legal separation of church and state remains central to American constitutional life. But legal separation has never meant cultural separation. The United States has always been a secular republic with a deeply Christian memory.
This talk by Dr. Sam Martin will examine the United States' enduring entanglement of religion and national identity, questioning the assumption that the separation of church and state ever produced a purely secular public sphere. Her talk will invite the audience to reconsider what it has meant (and continues to mean) to call the United States both a secular republic and a culturally Christian nation.
Rather than arguing for or against the Christian tradition, Martin looks to interrogate how its persistence reveals something fundamental about American political culture. When nationalism takes the form of legal or partisan conflict, it misreads the deeper story. The real tension, then, is not between belief and unbelief, but between two competing inheritances. Traditional faith, written into the nation's historical imagination, and secular humanism, written into its constitutional design.
Presented in partnership with Idaho Solutions, St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Mormon Women for Ethical Government - Idaho, Idaho Leaders United, and Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Wood River Valley.
Registration requested to join us in person. To watch live online (no registration needed) visit:https://vimeo.com/event/5985790. A recording will be available to watch on The Community Library's Event Archive.
Registration closes 1 hour before the program. For most programs, we will have room for walk-ins to join us.
- Date:
- Thursday, August 27, 2026
- Time:
- 5:30pm - 6:30pm
- Time Zone:
- Mountain Time - US & Canada (change)
- Location:
- John A. and Carole O. Moran Lecture Hall
- Campus:
- The Community Library
- Audience:
- Adults
- Categories:
- Lectures & Conversations
Stephanie A. (Sam) Martin is the Frank and Bethine Church Endowed Chair of Public Affairs in the School of Public Service at Boise State University. She is a scholar of public address and political communication, with a particular interest in the public discourses of conservative social movements, especially evangelical voters. She has written or edited three books, most prominently Decoding the Digital Church: Evangelical Storytelling and the Election of Donald J. Trump (University of Alabama Press, 2021). Her research has also been published in top journals including the Quarterly Journal of Speech, Rhetoric and Public Affairs and Visual Communication Quarterly. Martin frequently appears as an expert commentator and consultant for news stories, and has appeared in USA Today, NPR, NBC, the Boston Globe, the Texas Tribune, and The Dallas Morning News, among others.