by ProfDave, ©2021
(Mar. 2, 2021) — In the summer of 2009 we heard two prominent national spokesmen announce that the USA is not – or no longer is – a Christian nation. To be specific, they were Presidents Obama and Clinton, addressing Moslem audiences. Hmmh. I wonder what those audiences made of that statement? Not Christian in the sense that Turkey and Egypt are not Islamic nations? Bearing in mind that both these statesmen were post-modernist liberals, extraordinarily slippery in their use of words (remember the definition of “is?”), what is a “Christian nation?”
Do we, as a nation, acknowledge Jesus Christ as sovereign King, Lord, and Master – that is God-over-all? No. Not under Clinton or Obama or the supreme court since 1958. That is when we decided that recognizing God in our public schools violated the establishment clause. Significantly, if you read historical documents you will see that our founders (the folks who wrote the establishment clause) and practically all the public figures of our 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries would have said “yes”- emphatically! The Continental Congress declared independence, not on a rational calculation of geopolitical forces and prospects, but in the calculation that God would judge their cause as just and rule in their favor. And so in every other European and Latin American nation!! Now whether it was true – whether Christ ruled on Capitol Hill, or merely reigned as a Constitutional, figurehead, monarch – was another matter. Obviously, something is wrong with a Christianity that ignores the ethical teachings of Jesus – the princes who warred incessantly against each other and the “gentlemen” who kept slaves and mistresses, for example. But in this sense, at least, we are no longer a Christian nation.
But are we no longer a nation of Christians? When I taught Sociology of Religion we spent weeks discussing how sociologists measure religiosity. When exam time came I threw in what I thought was an easy one over the plate: “discuss the measurement of religiosity.” One dear student, more pious than attentive, wrote: “God only knows!” “God gets an A, you get a D,” I wrote back in red. Boy, was I bad in those days! What is a Christian? One who acknowledges Jesus Christ as King, Lord, and Master in their own hearts, obeying him to the best of their ability in every area of their lives, and in frequent contact with Him through prayer, worship and the Scriptures. That is a heart Christian. Note that such people cannot lay aside that allegiance when they go to work or are sworn into public office. I doubt that more than 25% of Americans ever were heart Christians. We never were a Christian nation in that respect – though we have had Christian presidents.
Then there are nominal Christians. Well over 90% of us have always claimed to be affiliated with a Christian church. Some surveys show a decline, but we still overwhelmingly call ourselves Christian. A majority of us say we attend church at least once a month – far more than all other faiths put together. But then if not attending meant not being Christian, it would be close. Call our nation a plurality of nominal Christians.
Then there are social Christians. This is a big one among Roman Catholics. Many RC’s who never attend Mass went to parochial schools from K to college, conduct all their friendships among other Catholics and wouldn’t think of marrying someone who wasn’t. And there are Lutherans in the mid-west who only do business with other Lutherans – though they would never admit it. Often denominationalism overlaps with ethnicity, and there is an Evangelical “Christian” sub-culture as well as a Roman Catholic one, but neither is greater than 35%: too fragmented to make us a Christian nation in the social or sub-cultural sense.
How about creedal Christians? Those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that he died for their sins, that the Bible is divinely inspired? Surveys show that, while the understanding of Christian doctrine may be shallow, even those who claim no church affiliation and almost never attend profess a sort of default fundamentalism. You have to go to seminary to be a theological liberal. The majority of us still believe that Christianity is true – even though we no longer are sure there is such a thing as “truth,” or what it is Christians believe. Yes, we still believe we are a Christian nation.
Finally, are we part of a Christian civilization, cultural Christians? As a historian, I would contend that the soul of a civilization is its religion. Religion is whatever it is that provides the answers to our ultimate concerns: where we come from, what we are, where we are going, and the meaning and rules for the human experience. The soul of Western Civilization, then, is Christianity – a Christianity, by the way, resting solidly on the heritage and vocabulary of the Judaism of the Torah.
To the extent that America ceases to be Christian in its culture, it ceases to be Western. Perhaps it would be some sort of ersatz scientific internationalism, but not Western. The very notions of toleration, freedom of conscience, and the secular state are Christian – not found in Islam, for example. Western science, the notion that the physical world is rational and worth understanding (an expression of God’s creativity) is another Christian idea – not Hindu, Confucian, or even Islamic. The rule of law – judges and rulers not representing themselves, but responsible to a Higher Power: Christian again. The notions of intrinsic human rights and equality rest on the Judeo-Christian doctrine that all are created in the image of God. Our constitutional system of checks and balances comes from the doctrine of original sin – that unchecked power will corrupt the most well intentioned “philosopher king.” Clearly, the American heritage is Christian, though some forces are laboring mightily to de-Westernize our culture.
So we are, as a population, nominally Christian, both in participation and in belief – perhaps the most Christian major nation on the globe. We are also still solidly part of Christendom culturally, though the cultural elites are embarrassed by it. What has changed has been our allegiance to official, civil Christianity – not the real heart Christianity that was never dominant but, until recently, respected. In Christian deference to those who differ with us, our courts and lawyers have determined that we should no longer call ourselves a Christian Nation, nor celebrate it in public. Too many of us are in rebellion against Jesus Christ and Judeo-Christian morality. Is the banishment of Christ and the traditional moral consensus from public life a good and necessary thing? Or the root cause of the moral bankruptcy of our times? You decide.
See also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpQOCvthw-o
David W. Heughins (“ProfDave”) is Adjunct Professor of History at Nazarene Bible College. He holds a BA from Eastern Nazarene College and a PhD in history from the University of Minnesota. He is the author of Holiness in 12 Steps (2020). He is a Vietnam veteran and is retired, living with his daughter and three grandchildren in Connecticut.