On the Christian Nation Question

Professor Blanchard at South Dakota Politics responded to Sibby's and my post about Senator Barak Obama's recent statement about whether America is or was a Christian nation.

Though I disagree with Blanchard, I have to give him hearty praise for providing the first reasoned and based-in-reality thesis I've ever seen that contends America is not and never has been a Christian nation. Every other argument I've ever seen that says America was not founded a Christian nation (the arguments that were coherent and had any radio contact with reality, that is) consisted of this fallacious argument: "The founders were deists, and the Constitution doesn't specifically state a Christian foundation, therefore America was not founded a Christian nation."

However, he makes the same mistaken assumption that all the incoherent God-haters do: in simple terms, that America must look like and operate like a church in order to be "Christian."

When we say that America is a Christian nation or was founded a Christian nation, we mean that it was founded predominately by Christians based on the values and principles these Christians gleaned from the Judeo-Christian faith (i.e. the Bible).

The evidence for the genuine Christian faith of the vast majority of the founders, and their belief that those Christian values should influence public policy, is overwhelming and readily available for those who have eyes to see.

The Christian faith of those who founded the first colonies and settled the country is a matter of record from the Mayflower Compact onward through a number of charters and founding documents. The spiritual "Great Awakenings" that came even before the birth of this nation are also a matter of record.

Our founding document, the Declaration of Independence, recognizes that the truths realized by the founders came from their Creator, and stated a "firm reliance" on God in order to bring about our independence.

Even our Constitution, while it is a secular document and does not specifically pay homage to God, nevertheless shows the Christian influence upon the values that went into it.

Alexis de Tocqueville, a Frenchman who toured America in her youth, noted the Christian flavor and influence in his work "Democracy in America." Even a foreigner coming from a nation that had recently gone through a bloody and secular revolution recognized that the Christian personality of America ran broad and deep.

The affirmations of the Christian heritage and flavor of our nation continue on into the 20th Centry in numerous court decisions and in the quotations of a multitude of American leaders. It is only in the last 50-60 years that secularists have begun attempting to rewrite history and lead people to believe that America's Christian heritage is a myth.

None of this is to say that America cracks open the Bible anytime law is administered; if that were so, then we'd have the "theocracy" secularists already fear has overtaken us.

Being a Christian nation also has nothing to do with the church dictating public policy. Despite the fact that the founders never intended that public policy not be "contaminated" by our Christian values, if the church was calling the shots, then we'd have theocracy.

Finally, being a Christian nation also doesn't mean that everyone in the country is a Christian or must be a Christian. It only means that most are, or at least give assent to Christian values of conduct and morality as the way we want to live.

In short, America doesn't need to "be church" in order to be a Christian nation; we already have The Church, and we don't need another one. America's Christian heritage is not an institutional thing, but a character thing, a flavor thing, a personality thing, a values thing.

Whether America REMAINS a Christian nation is definitely up for debate. Our widespread rejection of God's truth over the past 50-60 years and our embrace of pagan philosophies (Marxism, socialism, humanism, secularism, existentialism, Eastern mysticism, moral relativism, and a host of other isms), provides plenty of foundation from which to make this argument. And the rejection by many who call themselves "Christian" of the Christian truths plainly spelled out in the Bible, in favor of the trendy, politically correct "flavor-of-the-day-'truth'" adds fuel to this argument's fire.

But the absolute reality that, as a matter of record, America was founded by Christians on Christian values is indisputable...if you stick to the historical facts, that is.