A Christian Nation

The scriptures referred to are 2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10.

As I go through the Old Testament in my daily Bible readings on Facebook, I am constantly reminded that I am dealing with a theocratic nation. Israel was both a spiritual community, led by God, and a political one, with borders and a judicial system and eventually a central government under a human king with a standing military. And the temptation has always been to identify our country with Old Testament Israel. After all, didn't the pilgrims come to this continent for religious reasons to set up a nation where they could worship God freely? Yes. And unfortunately they also saw the Native Americans as Canaanites that could be removed from the land so they could settle there.

But a lot happened in the more than a century and a half interval between their landing here and the creation of the United States of America. Contrary to what some people believe, our country was not conceived of as a specifically Christian nation. The Declaration of Independence mentions “Nature's God,” “the Creator,” “the Supreme Judge of the World,” and “divine Providence,” terms so general that it could equally apply to a Jewish or even a Muslim nation. There is no mention of Jesus Christ or of a Redeemer. The Constitution doesn't mention God by any name or title. Religion is only mentioned in the first amendment and then only to say that Congress can't force religion on anyone or prevent people from practicing their religions. The government is basically to be neutral on religions, neither for them nor against them, something some Christians and some atheists don't seem to understand.

Contrast that with ancient Israel whose “constitution”—the Ten Commandments—begins with “I am Yahweh, your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:2-3) There is no religious freedom there. The Israelites could only worship one God. And he gives his specific name so that there is no confusion about which God. And along with civil laws, like respecting boundary markers and collecting a special tithe for the poor, are laws about ritual matters. You could be stoned for working on the Sabbath or blasphemy or worshiping another god. We don't have any such laws because we are not a theocracy.

Now the pilgrims did have such rules. They outlawed blasphemy, smoking, drunkenness and fornication, of course. You also had to attend church, both Sunday morning and afternoon, both services with sermons that lasted an hour or more. And in Massachusetts if you interrupted a preacher, you were fined 5 pounds, made to stand on a 4 foot tall block, and had to wear a sign that labeled you in large capital letters a “WANTON GOSPELLER”. In Connecticut the sign might call you “AN OPEN AND OBSTINATE CONTEMNNER OF GOD'S HOLY ORDINANCES.”

But Puritan laws didn't just regulate religious behavior. They outlawed things like kissing your wife in public. One Captain Kimble, returning from a 3 year voyage, kissed his wife on his own doorstep and was put in the pillory for 2 hours for his “lewd and unseemly behavior.” By the way, women's clothes were regulated by law. It was illegal for a woman to wear lace. The length and width of her sleeves were dictated by law. And her skirts had to touch the floor. No ankles had better be seen.

Guys, you wouldn't get off easily either. You couldn't play any games that involved gambling. So no billiards, bowling, horse racing or cards. And they weren't crazy about team sports because “they encouraged idleness, produced injuries, and created bitter rivalries.” They were specifically talking about their form of football. Could you image what would happen today if they outlawed football for religious reasons? There's your second civil war, right there.

By the way, your taxes went to support the local church, which was Congregational. If you were a Baptist or a Quaker you might be arrested. If you were a Roman Catholic it would be better if you moved to Maryland, which was the only colony practicing religious toleration by law. Which brings up the question of “If the US is a Christian nation, which denomination's theology and rules should it follow?”

But it's true that many of the founding fathers were Christian. Well, sort of. John Adams was, although he became a Unitarian. Ben Franklin called himself both a Christian and a Deist, rejecting many Christian dogmas but declaring Jesus' “System of Morals and his Religion...the best the world ever saw or is likely to see....” Thomas Jefferson considered himself both a Deist and a Christian but compiled a book of Jesus' life and morals, omitting all miracles including the resurrection and all passages that portray Jesus as divine. He also supported the separation of church and state in the first amendment. As for Alexander Hamilton, he was a nominal Episcopalian and irregular churchgoer but, after repenting his part in the duel, he did receive communion on his deathbed from Bishop Benjamin Moore, who sat with him for several hours until his death. George Washington was an Anglican who frequently quoted the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer publicly but who never mentioned Jesus Christ in his personal correspondence. He was also a Freemason, leading historians to debate when he was a Christian, a theistic rationalist or both. None of them were orthodox enough to be admitted as members of churches run by today's Evangelicals.

To me, the debate over whether the US is a Christian nation or not misses the point. It was the first nation to allow people to be Christians of any type they chose to be. In the United States you can be a Christian who happens to be a Baptist or a Quaker or a Roman Catholic or a Lutheran or a Disciple of Christ or a Mennonite or a Pentecostal or an Eastern Orthodox or a Presbyterian or a Moravian or an Episcopalian or a Methodist or a Jew for Jesus. It also allows people to be Jewish or Buddhist or Muslim or Hindu or Sikh or Bahai or nothing at all. Nobody gets a monopoly on the nation's faith. We all have to compete in the marketplace of ideas. Which is a lot better than the first Christians had it in the Roman Empire. Nobody today is being crucified or burned in the ruler's gardens or fed to the lions in the local arena for professing a faith that is illegal in the government's eyes.

In ancient times, one's religion went hand in hand with one's ethnicity and one's nation. The Canaanites had their gods, the Philistines had theirs, the Babylonians theirs and so on. And they were stay-at-home gods for the most part. But not the God of the Hebrews. He went down to Egypt and accompanied them out of there, traveled through the wilderness and led them into the promised land. His presence was signified by the ark of the covenant, his portable footstool. The tabernacle, and later the temple, where the ark rested, was the place where heaven and earth were supposed to meet. And after the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and Solomon's temple, the ark was never seen again. It was not present in the second temple.

Jesus knew that what happened to the first temple could and would happen to the second one. He said that not one stone of the magnificent temple Herod had built would remain in place. (Mark 13:2) At his trial witnesses said, “We heard him say, 'I will destroy this temple made with hands and in three days build another not made with hands.” (Mark 14:58) Once again, John's gospel, which consciously supplements the others, tells us that Jesus was speaking of his body. (John 2:19-22) And that is significant. Because Jesus is God's presence on earth, and he is not tied to a building or a city or even a nation. (John 4:21-24) And with the coming of the Holy Spirit into believers, we are all God's temples, and therefore not limited to any place on earth. (1 Corinthians 3:16)

The difference is that the Israelites were both God's people and a nation; Christians are God's people but we are not a nation. God's kingdom is not from this world (John 18:36) but is made up of “persons from every tribe, language, people and nation.” (Revelation 5:9) The kingdom of God, unlike Israel or the US or the UK or any other earthly nation, has no borders, no boundaries. Because a better translation of the “kingdom of God” is “God's reign as King.” So it is anywhere people are letting God rule their lives. Jesus said it is within us and in the midst of us (Luke 17:21), just as he, our king, is in the midst of as few as 2 or 3 of us when we gather in his name. (Matthew 18:20)

So while all those reading this are citizens of the US or some other earthly nation, we are more importantly also citizens of the kingdom of God. We can think of ourselves, to use Paul's phrase, as ambassadors for Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:20) We represent our king in all we do while we are here. We must never dishonor him or God's kingdom. And we must put the way his kingdom operates above the standard operating procedures and principles of any earthly nation in which we find ourselves.

Jesus said, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions use their authority over them. But it is not this way among you. Instead whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life for many.” (Mark 10:42-45)

In the Roman world, only power was respected. In fact their gods were not worshiped because they were morally superior—they weren't. They were worshiped because they were powerful. A man tried to curry favor with the gods so that they in turn might help him prosper. This mirrored how in their society rich and powerful people gave favors to to their inferiors in return for being honored. Their emperors were actually worshiped as gods and acted like them—mercurial, given to fits of rage, lust, envy and overindulgence. Sadly this way of leadership did not crumple when the empire fell. You see it throughout history. You still see it in the news today. It turns out Bill Gates is no more ethical when it comes to exercising his power, especially towards women, than Zeus was. Lord Acton said it: power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

It is not to be that way where God reigns. We are called to serve one another, just as our king came not to be served but to serve. In his book Good to Great, Stanford business professor Jim Collins described how he found that the best leader of a company was not the flashy, superstar CEO who makes the news all the time but the humble leader who puts the mission and the good of the company first. He was surprised when he found that a lot of churches were asking him to come and speak. But that was because the concept of the “servant leader” goes back to Jesus. And let's face it, when churches go wrong it is often due to, at least in part, arrogant leadership that has forgotten to serve the people. In fact, you will find this to be true when any organization or nation goes wrong.

And one sign of this problem is when we are absolutely sure that we are righteous and totally in line with what God wants. It's when we don't acknowledge our sins and faults because we are God's people, after all. It's when we pretend that we don't secretly want and worship power and aren't tempted to do whatever it takes to get it or hold onto it. Remember Jesus said it's the gentle and humble who will inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5) and that the greatest person in the kingdom of God is not the one with the most self-confidence but the one who has a childlike humility. (Matthew 18:4)

Sadly, we have tried to remake God into our image. Medieval artists depicted Jesus on a throne, just like an earthly king or emperor. Armies conquered and killed in his name. We have made strength, not love, the chief Christian virtue. We have pretended our society is a meritocracy, where only the worthy rise to positions of power, rather than the arrogant and greedy and ruthless. And then we have held them up as examples to follow rather than the one who never went after or achieved earthly power but who was condemned to death by those who had power for challenging their values. But he went willingly to the cross in order to save sinners. As Christians, it is his example we are to follow. And a truly Christian nation would as well.

We were not really founded as a Christian nation. And, as evidenced by how we have treated Americans who happen to also be Native, African, Japanese, Chinese, Mexican, mentally ill, physically disabled, women, or different in other ways—in other words, our neighbors—we have a very spotty record of acting like one.

But we could be. A central belief of Christianity is that we are all sinners but that we can change. We can turn to the true God, the God who is love, and let in his Spirit and let him change us into people who are daily more and more like Jesus, who came not to be served but to serve and to give his life for others. When we want to be less like powers that rule this world and more like the carpenter of Nazareth, who healed the sick and fed the poor and showed his love for his neighbor in concrete and self-sacrificial ways, then maybe we will resemble more closely the kingdom of God, Jesus' vision of a society built on justice, mercy, peace and trust, where God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven by those in whose hearts God reigns.