As Right Wing Watch has noted multiple times in the past, one of the defining characteristics of Christian nationalist activists is a willingness to misrepresent history, as time after time they spread debunked myths and blatant falsehoods in defense of their right-wing ideology.
This tendency was on full display during a recent episode of far-right Christian nationalist activist Nate Schatzline's "For Liberty And Justice" podcast when he sought to prove that America is a Christian nation.
"America is a Christian nation," Schatzline asserted. "We have to start moving the Overton Window. And you say, 'Well, I'm not really comfortable saying that. I think there's some nuance.' No, America is a Christian nation! 'Well, Nate, back that up with something. You got to give me the facts on this.' Hey, no worries."
"Did you know," he continued, "that the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, this is early on, [it was the] first US law to set aside land for public schools. Do you know that the language within the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 was that if you were gonna have land for public schools—these are government schools—then you have to first teach religion—and that religion was not Islam, that religion was Christianity—you have to teach Christianity, then you have to teach morality, and only then can you teach knowledge, such as reading, writing, and arithmetic. Why is that important? Because even at our foundation as a nation, we were teaching biblical truths. How far have we fallen? How far have we fallen? We are a Christian nation. So we have to start moving the Overton Window."
Predictably, Schatzline's claim is entirely false, as Right Wing Watch explained last year:
The Northwest Ordinance required nothing of the sort.
Adopted by the Confederation Congress in July of 1787, before the U.S. Constitution had even been completed, the Northwest Ordinance laid out a framework for admitting new states to the union out of territory that had been ceded to the United States as part of the treaty with England ending the American Revolution.
The territory included lands that eventually became "the current states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and parts of Minnesota," and the Northwest Ordinance stipulated the process for governing the territory and for admitting states formed in that territory to the union, as well as protecting the rights of those living in the territory.
The document made various mentions about protecting religious liberty, and included Article 3, which stated that "religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged."
Notice that nowhere in Article 3 is there any mention that states must teach the Bible in schools. In fact, the Northwest Ordinance doesn't even say that states must teach religion in schools; it simply says that the establishment of schools is encouraged.
As Right Wing Watch has pointed out countless times, Schatzline and other Christian nationalists routinely lie about the founding of this nation, misrepresent history, and promote baseless myths because they know that such fictions are crucial to creating the false impression that their modern right-wing political agenda is deeply rooted in our national history.