One Nation Under God

          We like to say of our country that we are “one nation under God” and “in God we trust.”   But does our nation believe that? Are we really in a Christian nation?  When we look around ourselves, we have to answer ‘no.’   So how do we become a Christian nation once again?

          That is what many of us are asking.  Now I want to ask a different question; because I believe when we ask that, we are begging this question.  Before we can ask how to be a Christian nation again, should we not ask were we ever a “Christian nation?”  There can be no question that Biblical values and morals had a tremendous influence on early America and its founders; but why did they come to America in the first place and later shape its politics the way they did?

          For the earlier Pilgrims, they came to America because they felt oppressed and even persecuted by the religious regulation of the “Christian nation” of England.  Because England was monarchical in its government, it allowed the King to also serve as the head of the Church of England. Anglican Christianity was made the official state religion, and worshipping in any other way, at minimum, resulted in a small fine, if not worse.

         Years later, the Founding Fathers began to set down plans for their own independent government separate from English rule.  As they developed their politics, they could see the potential problems caused by making their new nation to be held to practising a specific religion.   Even if that religion would be Christianity, England's past showed how even that could stifle religious freedom.  Thus they decided to make it clear in the Constitution that the government would not restrict any religion…nor would it endorse any specific religion.

         Today we talk about how we feel our rights and freedoms are being threatened…and how we want to turn America back into a “Christian nation”.  But would that not be something of a contradiction?  We want freedom of religion…as long as it’s our religion.  We want America to be a melting pot…but God forbid we should let that new mosque be built downtown without a fight.  When campaign volunteers from the local Democrat headquarters knock on the door, we tell them we’re voting for the other guy ‘cause he’s a good Christian…and then slam the door in their face…that oughta show ‘em.

          Is there something wrong with this picture?  Perhaps we could see it more clearly if we changed our name from ‘Christian’ to ‘Christ-like’?  It’s easy enough to go around under the title of ‘Christian’, but would we be honest if we called ourselves ‘Christ-like’? Because that’s what Christian means.  So since ‘Christian’ and ‘Christ-like’ mean the same thing, we could say ‘Christ-like nation’.  What would that look like?  If actually going by Christ’s example, that would mean foreign policy becomes less trying to play world police as if we have our act together and other nations don’t, and instead humbly feeding the world’s hungry, healing its sick, and caring for its poor.  We would be more concerned about the well-being of the souls around us than about our gun rights.  But most importantly, we would have to be, nation-wide, a group comprised of individuals all living in Christ’s example.  Before we expect the government to reflect Christ, we should expect this of ourselves.  We complain about people wanting the government to take responsibility for things that should be personal responsibility, but don’t we do the same when we want the government to reflect the ideals we ourselves should be living?  Indeed the closest we can ever get in this world to being a ‘Christian nation’ would be to live in a monarchy like England hundreds of years ago, or a theocracy like the Israelites thousands of years ago; either way, we would have to sacrifice many of the ‘rights’ to which we feel entitled today.  The principles of Christianity are not meant to be legislated in national policy, but carried out in the lives of individual men and women.  We laugh at Christ’s disciples who thought He had come to overthrow Rome and restore political power to the Jewish nation, but are we not guilty of the same mistake today?