Growing up, I lived, perhaps, in a place fairly close to a Christian nation—at least, if you mean where the Christian Bible was read every day in my public school class before lessons began. And, if you mean Christianity was the default, and you wouldn’t dare run for public office before checking the boxes of Christianity.

Of course, the water fountains, when I was a preschooler, were double—one for “colored” and one for “white.”

Thankfully, the double water fountains disappeared. The lines between the races, however, did not disappear. I was in high school before segregated school systems were ruled unconstitutional. And we all know that, for practical purposes, housing segregation remained.

Please understand: I think a nation where people loved God with all their being and their neighbors as themselves would be a great place to live. That’s not usually what we mean by “Christian” nation though. It has to do with outer practices: Bibles verses being read, not necessarily followed, for example.

We so often go with outer practices, not ones of the heart. Freedom of religion means no one religion is forced on anyone.

Christianity, like any other religion, would compete. How Christians lived, not how they preached, would be the deciding factor as to its spread. Come to think of it, I think that’s what happened when it began.