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Is
the United States a Christian nation?
Melvyn D. Magree Originally published in the Reader Weekly July 3, 2008 Many people have been saying that the United States is a Christian nation. At this time when many people are expressing their patriotism to the United States, it would be appropriate to examine this question and its ramifications. This question leads to the question of what is a Christian. If a Christian is one who follows the teachings of Jesus, then we should look at what Jesus taught. I will use the King James Version, the one I grew up with. When asked what the great commandment was, Jesus replied, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” (Matthew 22:37) He continued, “And the second is like unto it , thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:39-40) When Jesus was captured, one of his followers struck a captor with a sword. Jesus admonished, “for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.” (Matthew 26:56) Jesus also said “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” (Matthew 5:9) This last is part of the “Sermon on the Mount” (Matthew 5-7), which is a long list of advice on doing good in the world. I doubt many Americans follow all this advice; we certainly have enough divorces, and the list includes some contradictions. For example, Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works...” (Matthew 5:16) But later he said, “And when thou prayest , thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. …But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret…” (Matthew 6:5-6) Given this small sample of Jesus’ teachings, how well does the United States measure up to being Christian? It depends on whom you ask and about what. Certainly many of us do not love our neighbor as ourselves in traffic. However, in the main we do treat others with some respect; otherwise we could not have a civil society, that is, one that is generally fair and predictable. Is our government Christian? Again it depends. I’ve certainly have had a lot of bureaucrats treat me with respect and fairness. Are our political leaders Christians? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Many leaders consider themselves as religious because they attend certain functions – prayer breakfasts. That is praying in public “that they be seen of men” (that is, voters). Does it mean our leaders are hypocritical? They are at least acting unconstitutionally by holding a religious test. If a leader doesn’t show up, other leaders and voters will consider the non-attendee as non-religious. The second great commandment is popularly recast as “do to others as you would have them do to you.” (Luke 6:31, New International Version) Would we want foreign military bases in our country? That was one of the issues of the American Revolution. Yet we have more military bases in more countries than any other nation. We don’t want other nations to have nuclear weapons, yet we have the largest nuclear arsenal in the world. And we dropped a couple of these weapons. On civilians. We certainly don’t want anyone else to do the same to us. We continue to kill civilians as we search for terrorists. Women and children are called “collateral damage”. “In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” (Matthew 25:40) If we have taken the sword so often, will we perish by the sword? Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers” but we as a people and as a government curse many peacemakers, calling them unpatriotic. I don’t hold any great respect for peace demonstrators, especially those who disrupt other people’s activities. I do hold in respect those who write and speak about peace, those who give practical advice about settling disputes. And I hold in high respect the Representatives and Senators who vote their consciences when the stampede is on to go to war. When the stampede begins, the peacemakers are cursed as “communists” or “soft on terror” or worse. When the stampede begins, the flag pins appear and accusations about not pledging allegiance to the flag multiply. As the flag becomes central to our patriotism, do we love the flag with all of our hearts, all of our souls, and all of our minds? Does the flag then become an object of worship, a god? ©2008 Melvyn D. Magree |