A Christian America? Be Careful What You Wish For (Part 1)

A supposed “Christian America” would shift power, but would that shift be holy?

You’re probably familiar with the phrase “be careful what you wish for.” A couple of anecdotes from the Bible illustrate this phenomenon: 

In 1 Samuel 8, Samuel was persuaded to appoint a human king like all the other nations had. In the aftermath, Israel learned that a human king would use them, not serve and provide for them as Yahweh did. Relief from this colossal miscalculation did not come for hundreds of years.

In Matthew 20:20-28, James and John, not getting their wish to sit on Jesus’ right hand in glory, went and told their mom, “He won’t listen to us; you go ask him.” Mom did so. None of the three could see the spiritual and relational harm that would have come if their wishes had been granted.

I see something like this insistent attitude in the push for a “Christian America.” The desire is often rooted in frustration with modern nation states and the various political processes at work in them. This frustration leads to wishing for a perfectly God-oriented nation, governed and led by “pure” Christians, using “pure” interpretations of the Bible to shape American culture, public policy and foreign affairs.

A Misguided Goal 

There is a very good chance that by pursuing the agenda above, America will end up with religious sects, each of whom think they have the correct vision for a “Christian” America, and as history shows, are likely to be willing to use violence against each other to ensure their version triumphs over all others. At one time or another, most every continent has been the soil for brutality in the name of religion.

Religious violence is part of what gave rise to rejection of religion as a source of governance in favor of politically administered nation-states. Now, with hundreds of years of experience, humanity can see the limits and imperfections of secular, pluralistic, liberal democracies. One current loud reaction is to return to a Christian-dominated manner of governance.   

But on exactly which Christian’s terms? Charismatics and Pentecostals who have a word from the Lord? Presbyterians who have thought carefully about it? Methodists who know something about methods for ordering people’s lives? Should we enforce Catholic Social Teaching? In terms of human sexuality, who gets to say whether the longstanding and stable conservative social instincts of the Orthodox Church should prevail over contemporary Protestant liberalism? Should we let the Amish have control over the power grid and determine how we use technology? Why not? They are among the most devout people in America. What happens when Lutherans try to pack the Supreme Court under the notion that they are the supreme expression of the Reformation? 

You can see where I am going with these playful spoofs. 

Without a revolution of human hearts, a “Christian America” will only change the topics we fight about and the battlefields on which we wage war. A supposed “Christian America” would shift power, but can we be sure that shift will be holy? Given human history, we can reliably predict that such a shift in power would only help the newly empowered to know whom to silence, exile and imprison. It would give fresh rationale for knowing whom to kill. 

Can a Nation Love?

Instead of forcing our particular view of a Christian nation on our neighbors, what if we pursued a new national character in which we were known for extravagant love? This is important because social theory, politics and public policy must be personal before they can be social. They must be spiritual before they can be political. They must include the beloved community before they can be good governance.

And the greatest of these is love.

Love dominates the realm of God, the sphere of God, what we commonly call heaven. When Jesus announced that the realm of God was being enacted through him, he simultaneously centered Trinitarian love. A group of fervent religious leaders inspired by the intersection of religion and politics once asked Jesus, “Hey, teacher, what are you all about, anyway?” Jesus responded, “The ethical core of my person, message and deeds of power is this”: 

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. The second most important is similar: Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself. All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets stem from these two laws and are fulfilled if you obey them. Keep only these and you will find that you are obeying all the others. 

—Matthew 22:37-40, TLB

All the commandments? All the prophets? The whole biblical story from creation to new creation is all rooted in and expressed by love? Yes. And such love is what is missing from the desire to do whatever it takes, including violence against our neighbor, to create a Christian nation. 

Coming soon: Part 2 of “A Christian America? Be Careful What You Wish For.”