Christian Nation or State Religion?

While writing my book I decided to research modern fundamentalism. What I found surprised me. My early experience with fundamentalism which disdained involvement with politics had changed dramatically. In fact it seemed that a new fundamentalism had emerged. My fundamentalism was loosely based on the beliefs of Anabaptists. This new incarnation of fundamentalism was decidedly Reformed in its theology and in many cases hyper-Calvinistic. I found this change fascinating.I began collecting research that at first I thought would go in my book, I Respectfully Disagree, but there was just too much.


I have decided to post my findings on my blog. Perhaps it will become a book someday but that is not my goal. I just think that this is something that should be discussed.Gregory Boyd's book is still a good read on this topic.I encourage you to read his book.

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There is a movement in America to “return” to our Christian heritage, to “restore” our basic Christian beliefs as a nation, and to take “dominion” over the government. Such a movement terrifies liberals and some conservatives. They want the Bible to be the sole foundation of our society including the laws and regulations of the Old Testament. Some are progressive, others more “fundamentalist”, but all agree on one thing: America’s past is being re-written to remove our Christian Heritage, and it must be stopped.

It begs the question should we be a Christian Nation, and even more importantly, can a Nation be Christian? Various books and websites are available that stress that the religion of our founding Fathers was Christian. Each of us will have to decide this issue themselves. It is inescapable that our Nation was heavily influenced by the Christian religion, and it is also true that most or even all of the colonies were founded as little “Church States” where citizens were required to profess a particular form of Christianity, and leaders had to take an oath that they too were members of a particular denomination. Such exclusivity generated persecution (read terrorism) against those who did not agree or profess. Baptists were driven out of many colonies as were Jews and Catholics.

This form of “Christianity” is not the kingdom preached by Jesus and we need to understand the differences. It is some form of state or civic religion, but not the true gospel Church.

Over the years our National Religion has undergone decay, and it seems obvious that the current “Restore America” movement is striving to rebuild this religion. But I maintain that any state religion is just that, religion, and does not represent the true kingdom of Jesus. Soren Kierkegaard warned that the worst form of apostasy the Christian faith can undergo is for it to become simply an aspect of our culture.[1] I am convinced that this has happened and is the true cause of Christian apathy and weakness, not our refusal to seek power and dominion.

Before we can decide if America is, or was, a Christian Nation, we need to do our homework and understand the term and how it is being used.

Defining a Christian Nation

One of the new fundamentalist organizations, The Foundation Forum (www.thefoundationforum.com), says that a Christian Nation is not a theocracy, meaning it is not a nation in which the clergy who belong to the Christian denomination(s) essentially govern the nation through the government, such as the Roman government was after making Christianity the official religion of the empire. It also asserts that a Christian Nation is not a nation in which a Christian denomination(s) is the established religion of that nation. A good example of such a government would be the Massachusetts Bay Colony as it was under the strict rule of the Puritans, the Anglican Church, created by Henry VIII or the Church of Sweden, created by Gustav Vasa.

Instead, according to the Forum, a true Christian Nation is a nation where the basic principles of Christianity, found clearly written and promulgated in the Scriptures, are the foundation of government as well as contributing to the quality of society and culture. In this kind of Christian Nation no one is required to go to church or forbidden from smoking tobacco or drinking alcohol. Nor are they forbidden to fill their car with gas on Sunday. God does not desire that these be the unbreakable laws of the nation. He desires that men in governments and leaders in society should “do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly” (Micah 6:8) with Him. They assert that America is a “Christian nation” in this sense because our basic principles of government (rule of law as opposed to a rule of man, checks and balances, separation of powers, etc.) are grounded in the basic principles of Christianity. They did not expect that America would require any citizen to believe a particular form of Christianity, but that our nation embraced the “GENERAL PRINCIPLES”[2] of Christianity.

This is a strange assertion since Christianity asserts that the Law of Moses, the Old Covenant, has be superseded by a New Covenant, one that is superior in all ways, and the Old Covenant is obsolete.[3] It is little more than a resurrection of the type of church run government Calvin set up in Geneva. That government easily put to death Michael Servetus because he disagreed with Calvin’s doctrines, particularly pre-destination. Where did Jesus say that his kingdom would wield the sword?

The evidence for our country being anything more than a shadow of the way things were done in Europe since Rome made Christianity the office state religion begins with our own Constitution.

The Constitution does not even mention God let alone demand that our country “have no other Gods” instead of him. Neither does it forbid the making of graven images, or the worship of such graven images. It does not prohibit taking the name of the Lord in vain, or any other cursing. It doesn’t require us to keep the Sabbath Day Holy (nor does it try to clear up denominational disagreements over what is the true Sabbath Day). Furthermore, our Constitution does not have any penalties for lack of honor to our parents, or punishments for adultery, murder, stealing, lying, or coveting. Trying to say that our Constitution was based on Christian Principles is simply ludicrous. (For details, see Kramnick and Moore, The Godless Constitution: The Case Against Religious Correctness.) The Constitution is in fact the first significant governing charter in the history of mankind that does not invoke any deities, even impersonal ones, for support and this is why I believe our nation has been great; not because we were a supposedly Christian Nation.

Our laws perhaps look more like the Ten Commandments but only related to a few of the Ten: murder, stealing, and adultery. That’s only three out of ten. Other societies not familiar with the Judeo-Christian tradition have similar laws. They are not uniquely Christian.

Leaving out any reference to God or a deity is hardly a casual omission, and the opponents of the Constitution during the ratification process made much of this fact calling it “godless”. We all need to remember that the framers of our Constitution had many documents to model their work on, including many state constitutions and all of those state charters, plus many from other cultures explicitly invoked God and are well quoted by those fighting for a Christian America. Most were specifically Christian, some were explicitly Protestant, and some, like Massachusetts, established a specific church (the Congregationalists, descendants more or less of the Pilgrims) as the state church.[4]

Our Founding Fathers seemed intent on creating a government that embodied freedom for religion, and freedom from religion. Thomas Jefferson said it well, “I may grow rich by an art I am compelled to follow; I may recover health by medicines I am compelled to take against my own judgment; but I cannot be saved by a worship I disbelieve and abhor.”[5] Thomas Jefferson knew what many today fail to consider: love of God and obedience to him cannot be compelled by law. Worship cannot be legislated. If it does not come freely from the heart then it is invalid.

Of course, most of these arguments are rendered invalid when we understand the true nature of the Kingdom of Jesus (God).


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Next time...Defining the Kingdom of Jesus (God)

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[1] Soren Kierkegaard, Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, ed. C. E. Moore (Farmington, Penn.: Plough, 1992), pp. 232.

[2] John Adams, The Work of John Adams, Boston, Little, Brown and Company, pp 45, 46, posted on the internet as a book: http://www.archive.org/stream/worksjohnadams10adamrich#page/n44/mode/2up

[3] Hebrews 18:13

[4] Ed Buckner, PhD, It’s a Free Country, Not a Christian Nation, http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/buckner_ncn.html

[5] Thomas Jefferson, notes for a speech, c. 1776. From Gorton Carruth and Eugene Ehrlich, eds., The Harper Book of American Quotations, New York: Harper & Row, 1988, p. 498.