Schumer Pushes Debunked Lie about God and America
The Democratic Senate leader falsely claimed America's founders called the country “God’s noble experiment”
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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) marked the July 4th holiday by sharing a falsehood about America’s founding fathers that’s in lockstep with the Republican Party’s theocratic claims.
On one of the social-media platforms where it appeared, Schumer’s post was edited to correct another error, but the one about God and the founders was allowed to stand.
In a post on Bluesky time-stamped 8:58am, Schumer’s official account published the fictional claim that America’s founders called the country “God’s noble experiment,” without attributing any ostensible source:
Schumer also cited “one nation under God,” without noting that this phrase was only injected into the Pledge of Allegiance, and other previously secular places, in the 1950s, to weaponize Christianity in the effort to stir up anti-Communist sentiment.
Republicans have been trying to stoke anti-Communist fervor since Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) candidates endorsed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani began racking up primary victories. Mamdani was not endorsed by Schumer, who has fielded candidates against DSA rivals.
Multiple people, including some who study the history of Christian revisionism, pounced on Schumer’s post. (Schumer, it’s worth noting, is Jewish and, in fact, the highest ranking Jewish public official in American history.)
Almost 48 hours later, the post hadn’t been revised. Even though a similar post was altered earlier the morning of July 4 to correct a different error.
American Atheists President Nick Fish responded to Schumer on Bluesky, writing:
“…literally the only references I can find to the Founders calling America "god's noble experiment" are from... Chuck Schumer speeches.
“Why is the Senate Democratic Leader carrying water for a right wing Christian lie? And apparently fabricating quotes to do it?”
Fish called on Schumer to revise it. He wrote that his search had been “cursory,” but I couldn’t find any historical basis for Schumer’s claim, either.
I emailed Military Religious Freedom Foundation Senior Research Director Chris Rodda, an author on this topic, asking about Schumer’s claim. She had heard it before, from him:
“[Schumer] has been using this God's noble experiment for years – possibly decades – claiming the founders said it as they were leaving the Constitutional Convention. It's not a founding fathers quote; it's a Chuck Shumer [sic] quote. We need people fighting the Trump 250 historical revisionism, not adding to it.”
Rodda was right: It’s been decades.
In 2003, Schumer used the phrase “God’s noble experiment” in a somewhat jumbled statement that leaves the context ambiguous:
“…[the founders] wanted checks. And in fact, the first thing they did after the Government, this great Government, it was called by the founding fathers, ‘God’s noble experiment.’ I truly believe that still exists today. We are God’s noble experiment.”
Fish posted that he found an example from 2009. That time, Schumer didn’t pin it on the founders. Nor did he say it was “the first thing they did.” Schumer simply asserted that the American people broadly shared this sentiment.
“…people felt at the founding of America that we were ‘God’s noble experiment.’ Judge [Sonia] Sotomayor’s personal story shows that today, more than 200 years later, we are still God’s noble experiment.”
He didn’t explain how her story shows that.
Yale Professor of History and American Studies Joanne Freeman, who specializes in and writes about the revolutionary era, responded to Schumer’s latest reiteration of this story on Sunday:
“In the well-over 100,000 documents written by founders included in the Founders Online database from the National Archives, no one uses the phrase ‘God's noble experiment.’
“No one.”
Nevertheless, Schumer has embellished it over the years. Details come and go, none with any sourcing.
In 2016, a local New York newspaper reported after the election that Schumer said it was time for the nation to come together. It was in the context of healing “bitter wounds,” that Schumer offered this version of the fabricated anecdote:
“When the Founding Fathers finished writing the Constitution over in Philadelphia at Constitution [sic] Hall, they said they had created God’s Noble Experiment. I believe those three words are every bit as relevant today as they were then. We are under God, a nation of faith.”
It’s a specious story on its face. How would “the Founding Fathers” say something collectively other than in writing? Their collective works, after all, are few in number and pretty well known.
And yet on Saturday, Schumer at first offered a version of this falsehood that doubled down with specifics — although still without addressing how multiple founders might have all said the same thing verbally, or how Schumer would ostensibly know about that today.
It’s possible to see how this version was changed on Saturday because, although most social-media platforms don’t let readers see a post’s edit history, Facebook does.
The same language Schumer used at 8:58am on Bluesky had been posted on Facebook at 8:55am. But the Facebook post had been edited from an earlier version, which added the new, also fictitious detail that the founders made their verbal pronouncement as they left Independence Hall:
“Happy 250th, America!
“When the founding fathers left Constitution [sic] Hall, they called America God’s noble experiment. I believe in all three words to this day: we are one nation under God, we have clung to noble ideas for longer than any other nation…”
The Two Versions of Schumer’s Facebook Post:
In other words, someone edited the post not merely to remove the non-existent “Constitution Hall,” but to remove the reference to the founders speaking as they left the hall. But the lie about the founders calling America “God’s noble experiment” was retained.
So was Schumer’s argument for divine American exceptionalism. This is the signature belief of today’s theocratic right wing: That America is different, special, because God decided it is, a concept found nowhere in scripture, written before the authors knew that the Americas existed.
Schumer’s posts came just two days after fellow Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee released a report on Pres. Donald Trump’s politicization of 250th anniversary initiatives and resources.
The Democrats cited reporting (including my own on the Freedom Trucks) about Christian revisionist history and outright falsehoods. As well as the lie that Muhammad Ali renounced Islam.
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Schumer and Trump weren’t alone thumping the Bible on Independence Day. It was a core theme for many Republican leaders and commentators. But at least one other Democrat joined in.
Citing The Bible, Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) wrote on July 4 that “Faith is the foundation of patriotism,” which would surely have come as a surprise to some of the signers 250 years beforehand.
“Let’s choose faith,” Moore concluded.
Approximately one third of Maryland is described as “religiously unaffiliated” by the Pew Research Center. Agnostics and atheists make up 13% of the state’s people, equivalent to the population of Mainline Protestants or Catholics.
Nationally, 29% of the country identifies as religiously unaffiliated.
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I remember when they added "under God" to the pledge of Allegence. Even though I was attending a Catholic school at the time, I didn't like it. It didn't set well with me and it seemed out of sync. Like they were trying to make something fit that really didn't. And even a would-be, brainwashed Catholic child, such as myself, recognized that there were people in the worl that didn't appreciate the State pushing their religious beliefs on them. I think we should go back to the original. There is no religious freedom unless we are free not to be religious. People who can't even recognize the humanity in people of other colors, should not be trying to preach to the masses. They just come off looking like false prophets at best, and evilmongers at worst.
We have come full circle again. I remember when Jim McDermott left out "under god" while he said the Pledge of Allegiance on the House floor and the news blasted him for several news cycles. He had learned it before it was changed in the 50s. His fellow Democrats were as upset with him as anyone else. You can never satisfy Christians. The proverbial snowflakes.