I grew up in the days of the cold war between U.S. led western democracies and the Soviet Union. Easy, perhaps, to equate democracy with Christianity. The Soviet Union encouraged atheism, actively curtailing many expressions of religion, including Christianity. The encouragement of democracy by the United States, by default, included freedom of religion.

At this time, Christians were a growing and active part of American society. Religious crusades often included local officials and leaders. Not surprisingly, some of our inheritance includes a legacy of nationalistic Christianity.

Unfortunately, Christians—American or other—are not exempt from temptations. Sometimes Christian leaders took advantage of their favored status and used it to hide financial, sexual, and other personal sins. As these personal failings came to light, American Christianity was tarnished.

National affiliation and Christian calling are not in themselves enemies. The missionary preacher Paul sometimes used his Roman citizenship to his advantage, allowing his continued preaching of the gospel.

Jesus, when religious leaders attempted to trap him by asking if taxes should be paid to Caesar, replied “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s.”

The problem comes when we set up our country as a kind of god. We sometimes unthinkingly equate America with Christianity. Some of the early leaders of the United States were practicing Christians. Others, like Thomas Jefferson, appeared to regard Christianity as merely a philosophy. Many of them owned slaves and saw no problem with this practice of human ownership and abuse.

We are inheritors of this double speak. Christians should be loyal but not unthinking American citizens. It is not a Christian nation. No nation is or can be.