Tag Archives: first amendment

We Have Never Been a Christian Nation

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . .” (First Amendment to the United States Constitution)

We Americans tend to forget how revolutionary was the founding of our nation without a state religion. So long as a religion does no obvious harm, it has usually been acceptable for a group of Americans, large or small, to practice it. Certainly groups have been persecuted, but the U.S. government is forbidden by the Constitution to favor any religion.

Nevertheless, the majority of Americans until the beginning of the post World War II years probably thought of America as “Christian.” Other groups existed, of course. Some followed Judaism or were even (usually quietly) agnostics or atheists. However, the culture, most supposed, was “Christian.”

Leave aside the fact of our failing to act as Christians in practices like slavery and our relations with the area’s original inhabitants. The point is that we were, the majority would have said, a Christian nation. That was the fallback position.

However, the United States was a young nation with plentiful land and opportunities and freedoms unavailable in many parts of the world. Immigrants flocked here. Countries suffering hardships from war and dictators sent wave after wave of immigrants to this country.

Roman Catholic numbers grew steadily. Jewish immigrants increased. Russians came and also Asian immigrants. More Hispanics arrived from south of the border, joined by smaller groups of Haitians.

The latest immigrants have included Muslims escaping wars in the Middle East and most recently the collapse of Afghanistan.

As each group is joined by others, diluting and diluting again the former immigrant mix, some of those already established in the United States tend to resent the newcomers. These new people are different, not like our ancestors, not truly American. Of course, unless you count the original inhabitants, we’re all interlopers or descendants of such.

Each established group is tempted to believe that they are true Americans, not the newcomers with different religions and styles of clothing.

We have made many mistakes in our attempts to make the world in our image. That is not what this essay addresses. Nor does it address the need for a sane immigration policy with proper safeguards for both would be immigrants and the country they flock towards.

What should be understood, however, is that American Christians must give up the idea that America has ever been a “Christian” nation. A nation can be influenced by certain faiths, but it can never be “Christian.”

Christians, it is supposed, worship Jesus Christ. To try to make America in some way an example of a “Christian” nation is to defeat the religion of the Jewish teacher who chose to enter Jerusalem on a donkey, not striding in on the prancing steed of a conqueror. He did not worship power politics nor should we.

How To Kill Your Religion

Speaking of the political maelstrom that elected Donald Trump to the presidency, Russell D. Moore, a leader in the Southern Baptist Convention, wrote: “. . . the crisis comes from the fact that the old-guard religious right political establishment normalized an awful candidate . . .” (Russell D. Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, “Can the Religious Right Be Saved?” First Things, January 2017.)

Moore called attention to views of the founder of First Things, Richard John Newhaus, when he mentions the temptation “to impose biblical standards on a society outside of covenant with God.”

The first amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits Congress from making laws respecting a religious establishment. Europeans, with their established churches, thought this amendment would surely lead to a lessening of religious influence in America.

The surprising result was the growth of Christian influence in the country, far more than it influenced those European countries. In a nation of many religious persuasions, Christianity grew in part because of the challenges. It couldn’t depend on government aid or favor. It was required to make the case for its existence in a pluralistic society.

Amazingly, because Christianity so influenced the country (whether you like the outcome or not), people began to speak of America as a “Christian” nation.

If the enemies of Christianity want to defeat it, perhaps they should favor it. Perhaps they should seek, by law or merely by suggestions, to give Christianity special privileges. If those measures don’t kill Christianity, they will surely weaken it.