Few practices weaken the message of Jesus more than allowing his followers the power to force their beliefs on others.

During the Middle Ages, as the political power of the church increased, its moral power and the respect for its teachings decreased. The established church too often became a power broker in various political rivalries leading to war and suffering.

The founders of the United States, no doubt learning from the religious wars endured by many of their immediate ancestors, included freedom of religion as an unmistakable principle in their founding document, boldly enshrined in the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

As political scientist Francis Fukuyama writes: “But respect for autonomy was meant to manage and moderate the competition of deeply held beliefs, not to displace those beliefs in their entirety.” (“A Country of Their Own; Liberalism Needs the Nation,” Foreign Affairs, May/June 2022)

Though the early U.S. included dedicated Christians, many Americans calling themselves Christians probably meant it in a cultural sense only.

As education and cities increased, American Christianity deepened. Christian movements thrived in an atmosphere where no adult was forced into an established religion and where Christians competed for the hearts and minds of citizens. Movements included anti-slavery groups, temperance organizations, missionary societies, and those working among the poor. Christians grew in number in the United States and in the world.

Then two world wars, a cold war, and the growth of terrorism led to a worldwide displacement of suffering people. Many Christian-raised Americans examined the depth of a “Christian” country whose good works had nevertheless allowed slavery, racism, and domination by the pursuit of money.

The idea of returning to a mythical American past is a chasing after phantoms. Writes Fukuyama: “Some American conservatives hope to return to an imagined time when virtually everyone in the United States was Christian.”

The word “imagined” is important. America has never been “Christian.” The best times for Christians in the United States have always been when a few people, dedicated to the practices exemplified by Jesus, have attempted to live out his example.