ORLANDO (BP) – The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) is hosting an event Monday night, June 8, during the 2026 SBC Annual Meeting entitled “One Nation Under God: Reflections on 250 Years of Faith and Democracy.”
The event will focus on the upcoming 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence this July, and discussion will revolve around what healthy Christian patriotism and political engagement in America look like as citizens of God’s Kingdom.
The event will enable attendees to “reflect together from a Baptist perspective on how our citizenship in the Kingdom of God shapes our lives as American citizens and how we can live faithfully in our nation for the good of our neighbors and the sake of the Gospel.”
Speakers at the event include Adam Groza, President of Gateway Seminary; RaShan Frost, ERLC director of research; Dustin Bruce, dean of Boyce College; and Dan Darling, ERLC research fellow. The discussion will be moderated by Nathan Finn, ERLC senior research fellow focused on issues of religious liberty.
Registration for the event, which includes dinner, is available here.
“Baptists have long contributed to the American experiment, and it is important for us to reflect on how we have shaped the last 250 years and consider what it will look like to continue contributing in the future,” Frost said.
“This event is an opportunity for us to celebrate what God has done in the life of the republic and discuss how we can continue to serve as a gospel presence and a moral influence for the glory of God and the good of our nation.”
The ERLC has developed resources to help Southern Baptist pastors equip their churches to live out their faith in the public square as Americans reflect on the country’s 250th anniversary.
The most recent episode of the ERLC podcast included a conversation among Frost, Darling and Finn about Christian political engagement in light of this anniversary.
Darling serves as director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement for Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and has authored several books, including his most recent work titled “In Defense of Christian Patriotism.”
In addition to his work as an ERLC senior fellow, Finn is also a professor of faith and culture at North Greenville University and serves as a bivocational teaching pastor.
Darling and Finn played a crucial role in putting together the ERLC’s recent guide titled “Dual Citizens: A Practical Guide to Christian Citizenship and Civic Engagement.”
Frost began the conversation by asking both guests about how being a citizen of God’s Kingdom should affect how Christians engage politics as American citizens.
“A lot of times American Christians feel or maybe are made to feel that it’s a binary choice,” Darling said.
“If you’re a citizen of the Kingdom of God, as we know we are from reading Scripture, you can’t really feel good about your citizenship in our earthly kingdoms or republics, and I really don’t think that’s the case. I think if our priority is the Kingdom of God as it should be, that actually shapes and gives a sense of purpose to our earthly citizenship, as citizens of this Kingdom.”
Finn echoed this sentiment and added that “the incarnation of Christ also is a reminder that time and place matters. Jesus wasn’t just a generic man who didn’t have any nationality, any ethnicity, any citizenship, any connection with any people anywhere. He was a particular man. And Scripture goes to great lengths to tell us in those genealogies exactly who He was and who His people were and who His land was.
“If Jesus could be an embodied person who was really a part of a place, I think that there ought to be some recognition that we are embodied men and women who really are a part of a place and that place matters. The Lord providentially could have put us anywhere else any other time, but for such a time as this, it’s 2026 and it’s the United States and we’re citizens of the United States.”
Finn continued to speak on why it is important for Christians to reflect on the history of the United States and to look forward to what God may do in the future of the country.
“For Christians in particular, it’s important that we understand the past and we understand that the past continues to have meaning,” Finn said. “When we come up on a milestone anniversary like the 250th anniversary of the United States, it gives us an opportunity to reflect on ways that we’ve seen God at work in the history of our nation.
“It gives us the opportunity to rejoice at his good gifts that he’s given to us as Americans, like our first amendment to the United States Constitution that includes that first freedom of religious liberty for all. Being Christians helps us to rightly order the way that we approach the past and to think about its ongoing relevance for us today.”
The full podcast conversation can be found here.
To learn more and register for the ERLC’s One Nation Under God event, click here. Seats are limited.
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