2 Chronicles 7:14
"If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."
I’ve been thinking a lot about the Church and the United States lately. I am a child of the generation that spans two cultures, the "Christian" culture and the post-Christian culture in America. I have lived in the 50's and early 60's and know what it’s like to live in a society that generally reflects Judeo-Christian values. I have been part of the evangelical political movement that believes not only that you can, but that as a Christian, you should legislate morality. And now I’m living in an era that is beginning soundly to reject those previous values and to embrace the idea that individuals should determine their own morality, not have it imposed upon them by others. I know solidly why the "Moral Majority" lost their hold on the social consciousness of this country and I lay the fault absolutely at the feet of the American Church that wanted to have their cake and to be able to eat it, too.
The fact is, however, that it doesn’t matter because the United States was never a Christian nation. It doesn’t matter how much we try to convince ourselves (or others) that there is something meaningful to "go back to" or that we should somehow restore the USA to a previous condition. The US was never a Christian nation. If it actually had been, the atrocities that have occurred in the name of our country would never have occurred.
What the US has always been is a society that embraced the idea of freedom for those in control. Rather than have a single ruler (a monarchy) or a inherited ruling class (royals) be in control, the US was a nation established upon the premise that white educated males could move "out of their class" into positions of influence and power if they so chose. The US was established as a nation to promote the welfare and betterment of white males. Period. End of story. And that in itself proves that it was never a "Christian" nation.
What the establishment of the US did allow to develop was a strong Christian church. Rather than being forced to affiliate with a specific religious institution (as had occurred for many years in Europe), Christians who dissented with the mainline European churches (predominantly the Anglican, Lutheran, and Catholic churches) were now allowed to worship in a church that they could choose. And while many communities were still hindered from total free choice by the lack of an appropriate church leader (pastors, bishops, or priests), in larger urban areas, one might find a variety of denominations and organizations with which to affiliate. Further, the creation of new denominations wasn’t hindered by governmental rules and regulations. Christians were free to establish their own denominations and organizations and to break from historical denominations if they so chose. Congregations could even establish local churches without denominational affiliation or oversight.
However, socially (and governmentally), until the early 1900's, the US was still a nation solidly controlled by white males and for their benefit. Up until 1860, only white men owning property could vote. In 1870, non-white men were given the right to vote (but often weren’t allowed to exercise that right). Only in 1920 were women given the right to vote. First Nations peoples couldn’t vote until 1924. And states continued to discriminate against minorities and the poor in voting rights until 1965. The US was not a Christian nation or it would have embraced all people with love and compassion as did our Lord and Savior when He walked the earth.
The US has also traditionally not embraced those who were different than the ruling majority. First Nations peoples were slaughtered without reprisal. A good example is the Salt Creek Massacre where a Methodist pastor and Army colonel led the slaughter of hundreds of natives because they refused to sell their lands to settlers (http://www.lastoftheindependents.com/sandcreek.htm). In the 1600's, more Irish were sold as slaves than Africans, with many coming to the US. As a result, much Irish culture, including their unique language, has been all but lost. And in the 1900's and 2000's, illegal aliens have been embraced by farm owners (many of them corporations and wealthy) as "legalized" slaves. If the US was a Christian nation, how could this have happened?
It happened . . . because . . . there is no such thing as a Christian nation. There is only and always the Church. Even in the Old Testament, in the law given to the nation of Israel, the Lord refused to allow those who would disobey His law to continue as members of Israel:
"If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city. And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear" (Deuteronomy 21:18-22 NKJ). (See also Deuteronomy 22 for many other examples).
In other words, it wasn’t enough to be a citizen of Israel (regardless of how you acquired that citizenship); one had to obey God’s laws. There are no differences today. There is no Christian nation; there is only the Church which encompasses not only the believers in America, but all believers around the world. For this reason alone, there can be no Christian nation. There are no believers above or better than any other believers.
It is meaningless for Americans to wish that the US could be "restored" back to the good ol’ days. There were no "good ol’ days" for many who lived in and embraced the US. In fact, for the Christian, there can be no "good ol’ days." There can only be a future, moving toward God, toward His will, toward being perfected into the likeness of Christ: "forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13b-14 NKJ).
Does this mean there is no hope for the US? Of course not. God has promised to restore "the land" when His people—the ones called by His name (Christians)—humble themselves, pray, and turn from their wicked ways. There is hope yet for the US, but that hope comes only through the restoration and revival of the American Church. But when we turn from "our wicked ways," we need to also realize that we cannot turn back to how things were (or how we remembered they were), but rather we must press forward to the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. We must forget what was behind; it was never like we remember it anyway. And we must move toward God, move toward His calling, move toward His will in our lives. That will likely mean giving up any hope of having things "restored" so that we are once again comfortable in this society. But it also means that perhaps the piece of the Universal Church that exists in the US could actually become that which God so desires—a Church that loves the world more than itself, a Church that is willing to be the hands and heart of Christ here on earth, a Church that truly understands what the "upward call of God" really is.
© 2015 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.
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