Our True American Heritage

Who are the rightful heirs and custodians of a national inheritance?

You have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.

Psalm 61:5

I’ve never had a cup of coffee in my life. I’m a tea guy. I joke that it must be my English, Irish, and Scottish heritage alive and well in my taste buds. I also like a variety of sauces—is that the fraction of me that is French? I enjoy schnitzel and spätzle too—maybe that comes from my German roots.

“Heritage” is a combination of tradition, customs, values, and culture preserved and passed down through generations. In a world of constant migration (both forced and voluntary), commitment to a common heritage is thought to help nations maintain cultural coherence and aid in cultural assimilation. A commitment to our heritage can indeed be helpful. But it can also lead to a fear of and aversion to others with different heritages. It can provide the rationale for exclusion and violence, as we sadly see exemplified in nations around the world.

Lately, under the banner of Heritage Americans, I have been hearing a lot of angst about what the true American heritage is, to whom it belongs, who has access to it, and to whom it should be denied. This project tries to describe and protect what it sees as the virtuous attributes of Anglo-Saxon, Protestant America. In addition to the reality of America’s cultural makeup, this version of America cannot itself be virtuous because of the vision described in Revelation 7:9. Revelation describes an uncountable multitude gathered from every nation, every tribe, and every language standing before the throne of God, worshiping the Lamb together. So, the idea of an Anglo-Saxon, Protestant America is xenophobic at its core. Over the centuries, similar thinking has led to the rejection of those who were not seen as purebreds: Catholics, Eastern Europeans, Irish, Italians, Asians, Jews, Hispanics, and Africans.

Our True Heritage

We each have a biological and cultural inheritance that can be fun to discover. But it can never be our ultimate identity or social focus. Our truest, most fundamental and foundational heritage originates from knowing our heritage as believers in Christ. This heritage comes not from national history, but from Divine essences, such as God’s intention in creating humankind, the calling of Abraham, the formation of Israel (Genesis 12:1-3), the resurrection of Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:5-9), and the coming of His Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4).

Our sense of heritage, of being heirs and custodians of an inheritance, is grounded in the truth that Jesus is the True Heir of all things (Hebrews 1:2). This is a crucial starting point that makes sense of all other geographic, nationalistic, and demographic qualities. As believers in Christ, we fit into that story as God’s children who are co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17, Galatians 4:7). We don’t fit firstly into a nationalistic story, but rather a biblical one: we are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise given to him (Galatians 3:29). This means as Christians, our primary heritage is one of being the people of God, not the people of a nation.  

The sending and reception of the Holy Spirit was the first and most important E Pluribus Unum: out of many, one.  The Spirit’s transformative work in the lives of his people brought unity in Christ. That is, Christ’s life became the life of his people. Many cultures, languages, traditions, and heritages were represented in Galileans, Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs (Acts 2:7-11). Together, they were caught up into a radical new reality and took on a fresh definition of what it means to live as the kingdom-people of God.

Love for Others

Because we are first citizens of God’s kingdom, that relationship defines our various engagements with historic culture and national heritage. God cannot be contained in or defined by national or cultural heritages. Our social constructs, though offering aspects of beauty, are sinful, broken, and unable to fully carry out God’s will. 

But when we treasure Christ’s work in his people and throughout the world as our primary heritage, we are then positioned to love anyone from around the globe who becomes our neighbor. While we may have the luxury of stability at this place and moment in time as Americans, we also remember our God is the God of the diaspora–the movement of people. Abraham’s family moved to Canaan, Jacob’s family moved to Egypt, the Hebrew people moved to the Promised Land, the Jews moved in exile, Jesus and his parents fled to Egypt, the early Jewish Christians moved from Jerusalem, and even now, nearly half the world’s migrants are Christians.

I know public policy regarding immigration is fraught with complexities and perspectives. Here, as is typical for me, I want to give a vision for how to engage both policy and persons. The way to do that is to be devoted to a heritage that is God-born, spiritual, and eternal. This grounding, enabling capacity for love-of-the-other is what the Psalmist testified to, saying:

Your statutes are my heritage forever;
they are the joy of my heart.

Psalm 119:111