In August 2024, Virginia's Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears spoke at a "Give Me Liberty" held at Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Virginia. The event was sponsored by America's Black Robe Regiment, an overtly Christian nationalist organization that was founded by radical pastor William Cook, who wants to see "the government of God [established] throughout every square inch of the Earth."
Predictably, Sears, who is now running for governor of Virginia, filled her remarks with Christian nationalist misinformation.
"We are apparently quite afraid to talk about the Lord and government and all of that," Sears said. "You know that little part about the government being on His shoulders? So he is our government."
"In fact, the reason why we have the three branches of government is because the Founders read Isaiah 33:22," she continued. "It says, 'The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king': Legislative branch, judicial branch, executive branch. There it is. The founders said to themselves, that's the form of government that we think will survive."
This claim is a favorite of Christian nationalists, despite the fact that there is absolutely no evidence to this claim, which originated with pseudo-historian David Barton of WallBuilders and which Right Wing Watch has debunked a multiple occasions:
WallBuilders' claim that the three branches of government came out of Isaiah 33:22 relies entirely upon the fact that French political philosopher Charles de Montesquieu advocated for the separation of powers in government and that the Founding Fathers had read Montesquieu's works. Since Montesquieu was a Christian, that is apparently enough for the Bartons and WallBuilders to assert that the idea of the three branches of government came straight out of the Bible.
Undaunted, Sears went on to repeat another favorite Christian nationalist myth when she recited the speech made by Benjamin Franklin during the Constitutional Convention urging those gathered to turn to God in prayer for help in drafting the Constitution.
After reciting Franklin's remarks, Sears declared, "and that's why, of course as you know, every time government is opened, it's opened in prayer."
Of course, as anyone who reads Right Wing Watch knows, Sears' claim is utterly false because the delegates to the Constitutional Convention rejected Franklin's call for prayer.
As historian Richard Beeman recounts in his book, "Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution":
At the conclusion of the day's session in which the delegates rejected his suggestion, [Franklin] scrawled a note on the bottom of the speech he had written expressing his incredulity: "The convention, except three or four persons, thought prayer unnecessary!"
Over and over again, Sears and other Christian nationalists lie about the founding of this nation and promote these sorts of myths because they know that such fictions are useful in creating the false impression that their modern right-wing political agenda is rooted in our national history.
