BLOG 7/1/15. IS A CHRISTIAN NATION A MYTH?
In the light of recent SCOTUS decisions, and many other events in the news, there have been all kinds of embarrassing rhetorical outbursts from well-meaning advocates about this being a ‘Christian nation’ one that is abandoning its responsibility, or its heritage, or its integrity. That raises the question about whether any nation can ever truly be called a Christian nation?
The answer is that no nation is inherently Christian. Nations, especially those democratic nations, reflect what sociologist call: the dominant social order. But even that is not always true. There is within some segments of our own nation the misguided belief that our founding documents, such as the constitution, were intended to be Christian foundations for the new nation founded in the 18th century. Even that is ill informed. Most of those influential in writing the Declaration of Independence, and especially the constitution, were deists, . . . and deists with a large influence by European philosopher John Locke mixed in. Such a statement as: “. . . and endowed by their with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” is not based on Christian theology, but on deistic beliefs with a large influence of John Locke giving it that flavor. When you state that every citizen has the right to pursue happiness, you are opening a wide door to all kinds of ethical, moral, and libertarian pursuits.
It is absolutely true that some of the founding fathers came to this country seeking some new ‘promised land’ where they would not be persecuted for their Christian beliefs. You get towns named New Canaan in New England because of that. Some of the colonies did try to set up something of a theocratic government. There were very strict, and sometimes embarrassing, episodes in trying to enforce an interpretation of Christian morality on one hand, or the attempt to discern witches on the other. Most of the waves of immigrants brought their traditional religions and church expressions with them, i.e., the Reformed Church in New Jersey, the Quakers in Pennsylvania, the Anglicans in Virginia, Catholics in Maryland, etc.
The loud deistic voices were those of James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. They all tipped their hats to the Christian principles but were not that much formed by them. John Adams may have been one of those giants who was consistent in his Christian profession, but he was also a master politician. The genius of our three-branched government is that it prevents any hasty change of the order. But it always turns out in the end to demonstrate what (I think it was) Winston Churchill stated, namely, that democracy is the worst possible form of government if it weren’t for all the rest.
The truly transformational influence in such a nation as ours would be for the Christian community (the church) to be dynamically formed by its own radical ‘Kingdom principles’ and so to become the sons and daughters of light in what is so often a context of economic idolatry, greed, injustice, inhumanity, ethnic hostility, etc. The idols are multiple. But those who are of Christ’s New Creation are to be like light and leaven, and to be so in the marketplace, in the back streets, and in the corridors of power, courageously exercising the true weapons of our warfare, which are formed by the teachings of Jesus. We are never promised temporal success. We are only called to be faithful where we are, and to burn brightly in our particular context of darkness. We are always aliens and exiles, pilgrims and strangers, . . . but we (the church) are God’s nation of priests. We are promised suffering,
Our Biblical model is more like Israel in exile in Babylon, where we are exhorted to seek the welfare of the cities in which we dwell, knowing that our stewardship of our calling is what God ultimately uses to accomplish his eschatological purpose—but nearly always realizing that a Christian nation is something of a myth.
Happy Fourth of July!
