To Be or Not to Be a Christian Nation
by Karla Perry
People have been arguing for years about whether America is a Christian nation. The opponents argue that the Founders were not Christians, but Deists. Some argue that all Americans are not Christian. Others argue that America doesn’t behave like a good Christian nation, thus it is disqualified to be distinguished as a Christian nation.
While these arguments have a modicum of truth, they all fail to understand that the worldview that birthed America is the biblical worldview. Without it we would not have equality or liberty. We would not have freedom of the press, or freedom of speech, or freedom of religion. We would not have the right to property or the right to life. We would not have a government of the people, by the people, for the people (a quote that did not originate with Lincoln, but with Wycliffe in the intro of his translation of the Bible).
Our identity is not removed because of our weaknesses, failures, fractures, etc. None of that changes that the worldview that births freedom is the worldview of truth which is the worldview of the Bible.
Christianity is not just the state of being a born-again follower of Jesus. It is a system of truth found no where else in the world, but the Bible. A nation can be Christian without all its citizens being Christians. The Founding Fathers can be Christian contributors to our founding documents and culture with or without knowing Jesus as their personal Savior.
There is no neutral worldview. Secularism is merely watered-down Christianity. If we are not a Christian nation, one has to ask if we are Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, or a Hindu nation? While we are home to people from many religions we are so because we are a Christian nation. We have freedom of religion because we are Christian. That concept does not arise from any other worldview or religion.
The Bible influences a way of thinking beyond what we read in chapter and verse. Its truth creates a worldview of applied theology where we live out practical theology that informs the thinking of cities and nations. That applied theology largely created American political philosophy. Thomas Jefferson penned that, “we hold these truths to be sacred that all men are created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights, among these to right to life, liberty, and happiness.” It was Benjamin Franklin who edited his wording to we hold these truths to be “self-evident.”
Many who think our nation is not a Christian nation, think our way of life is self-evident. We only have to look around at all the other nations of the world and see that we were not selected by random chance to create a successful experiment of freedom. We lived out biblical truth. Truth that sets people free. Truth that creates a free nation. We are not geniuses at common sense. We are disciples of truth. We received revelation from God through His Scriptures thereby creating a Christian nation.
To deny our worldview is to deny the very thing that makes our nation great. It is where we have lost our biblical way that we fall into ill repute. We do not want to claim the identity of our weakness, but of our true nature. We have a great heritage in this land. If we cannot see that we do not see clearly. I’m not saying we ignore our weaknesses either past or present, but they do not define our present nor our future, nor do they negate the reality that we are indeed a Christian nation.