A Christian Nation
By Christopher Taylor**
Recently, while in Turkey, President Obama had this to say about America (courtesy Atlas Shrugs):
"We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation, a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. uh uh We consider ourselves uh uh a nation of US citizens"All together now: ARRRRRRRRRRRGGHH!!
This is where I diverge not just from most conservatives, but many Christians as well. While awkward and silly, he's right in two senses.
First, he's speaking to an Islamic nation, albeit a fairly moderate one. Many, perhaps most Muslims around the world have been raised and taught that religion and government are one, that there is no "secular" portion of society, and that there's absolutely no separation, not even a distinction between church and state. The religious leaders in Muslim nations are government, they command and control everything in your life from what food you eat to where you travel to what taxes are levied. For these Muslims, the concept of a nation not ruled by a religion is alien and perhaps even inconceivable. President Obama wants these people to know - just like President Bush did before him - that America is not run by Christians the way Islamic nations are run by Muslims. That much is a fact. In the sense that Muslims understand church and state, America has not ever been a Christian nation.
Second, it is indisputable that the founding fathers and the bulk of this nation's history was heavily influenced by and seen through a Christian worldview. That much is simple history. However, we're beyond that point now and are post-Christian: the general worldview of the nation is decidedly not Christian. In many ways it is anti-Christ, as in "in the place of" Christ, rejecting the Gospel and the Bible and God not just as neutral but even for some pernicious and destructive.
So he's not entirely wrong here. Where he's wrong is that many, perhaps most people in America do think of the country as a Christian nation not only because of its heritage, but because the majority religion in the country is Christianity. He's wrong to say that we simply think of ourselves as "US citzens." But the gnashing of teeth over his statement about a Christian nation is simply foolish. The United States is not Christian. To whatever extent it ever seemed to be, we're not any longer.
We should remove "In God We Trust" from the money, we should remove "under God" from the pledge of allegiance, we should remove the Bible from oaths. To keep them in is a lie and hypocrisy. The US is under God, as are all nations, but the country doesn't recognize that, doesn't act like it, and rebels continually against it.
God have mercy on us.
**Christopher Taylor is a conservative blogger and will be contributing a conservative perspective at The Huck Upchuck on occasion.
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3 comments:
Huck, after much thought, I agree with what you are saying. That is why I had to delete my previous comment. However, I am not sure if you or I am correct.You see, here's my take.
When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
Furthermore Hucky, I believe that we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, then women, then monkeys, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, the pursuit of Happiness and HD TV.
Turkey, was aggressively secular until fairly recently. The founder of Modern Turkey said;
The religion of Islam will be elevated if it will cease to be a political instrument, as had been the case in the past."[25]
—Mustafa Kemal
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His vision was much like the United States, where a democratic secular state existed along side of religion, but not supplanting it.
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