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Saturday, May 28, 2011

Is America a Christian nation?

It’s popular in some religious circles to deny that America is, or ever was, a Christian nation. Various statistics and cultural phenomena are cited to bolster this denial.


The denial is frequently accompanied by a contrast between the decadent secularized United States and the theocratic nation-state of ancient Israel.


However, one can imagine a pious Israelite saying the same thing about ancient Israel. He could argue that Israel was never a religious state, or Jewish state. He could point out that most of his contemporaries are nominal Jews. Many of them dabble in the occult. Ape the idolatries of their pagan neighbors. Are morally corrupt.


For that matter, you could just as well deny that the church either is or ever was a Christian body. The church has always been a mixed multitude. The faithful few have always been…few.  


Then you have Nietzsche’s quip that “The last Christian died on the cross.”


I’m not claiming that America is a Christian nation. Rather, I’m pointing out that the criteria used to deny the Christian identity of the US are so utopian that nothing short of the new Jerusalem would pass the test. If perfectionism is the standard, isn’t that pretty vacuous? 

4 comments:

  1. The denial is frequently accompanied by a contrast between the decadent secularized United States and the theocratic nation-state of ancient Israel.

    Exactly where can I find an example of this argument, and put forth by who?

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  2. I think we first need to define what is meant by a "Christian nation"? Is it a nation the majority of citizens are Christian? Is it a theocracy based upon Christianity? Is it a nation whose internal policies and foreign affairs are biblically based? And when would we know whether a nation is no longer a Christian nation? Seems until we have a definition, we're putting the cart before the horse.

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  3. James,

    Depends on what you're asking. For instance, Baptists who accentuate church/state separation and/or oppose political activism typically contrast the US with ancient Israel, which (so they say) had a unique cultic and typological status, as a nation set apart by God, which terminated with the new covenant.

    Grifman,

    True. That's one of the ambiguities of the debate.

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  4. Maybe the discussion has to move somewhere else.

    At the founding of the Republic the most reliable estimates tell us maybe 1 in 10 Americans went to church.

    A Christian nation?

    By the aftermath of the 2nd Great Awakening, about 8 in 10 Americans were in church.

    A Christian nation .....

    In the 1940`s -- to 50`s we witnessed the heyday of man centred preaching according to a reliable source like J.I. Packer from his introduction to the Death of Death in the Death of Christ. A very worthwhile read.


    Now there are more unchurched Americans then there are Americans in church. According to pollsters like Barna.

    A Christian nation .....

    There are indeed certain ambiguities to the debate. Labels and assumptions can be misleading.

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