Is America Truly A Christian Nation?
Constitutionally, the answer is “NO.”
Americans are not ruled by religious law. Christianity, however, is the religious choice for seven out of 10 Americans.
Overwhelmingly, our local and state leaders claim to be Christians. Nationally, most of our U.S. senators and representatives present themselves as Christians.
Sadly, we don’t “see Jesus” among many of them.
Our 2024 President Elect presents himself as a Christian. However, not a smidgen of Jesus can be seen in him. For Jesus was not a bully, a liar, not a prideful showman, full of braggadocio.
And sadly, we don’t find many examples of Jesus among the people we meet on our streets, see on our TV screens, or read about in the media. We are more apt to hear lies than truth! Jesus, I believe, would call them hypocrites!
Jesus taught by example that we should love our neighbors as we love ourselves; ergo, Christians love their neighbors. A Christian does not believe he or she is better than others, deserving of more respect than others, is entitled to be “greater” than others. Christians help those in need. They do not turn them away, look upon them as “filthy scum.”
Let us thank God for the faithful followers of Christ that we do meet. They bring goodness into our lives. So do the faithful of other religions, and the non-religious, who follow The Golden Rule.
Allbeit, I am writing about Christians. And it should be easy to tell the real ones from the phony ones.
Real Christians live their faith. New Testament writer James asks: “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (James 2:14-17)
James called upon Christians to be “doers of the word.”
“For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer,” James wrote, “he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” (James 1:23-25)
Many who call themselves Christian fall short of living the life that Jesus taught his followers to walk. There is so much hate, so much anger, so much wealth worship, so much self-exalting, that the teachings of Jesus get lost, or trivialized, or ignored.
Power-hungry politicians and religious zealots champion causes like:
- Life! Yet while they fight for the unborn, they fail to nurture the born. They blame the poor for their poverty, and drive them deeper into it.
- Guns! While they claim “constitutional gun rights,” children are gunned down in schools and innocents are shot in shopping malls with military-style weapons that can kill or wound scores in seconds. Guns are valued more than children, more than neighbors.
- Border security! What they really mean is: “Close the Southern Border.” They want to keepout those of darker skin color who are seeking jobs and freedom. This is not to say our country should have open borders. We do need to know who enters our country and for what purpose. Safe, fair and humane border laws should have been enacted long ago, not used for political gain.
It’s no wonder people tune out religion and those who have taken over as religious leaders. It seems many of the “religious” are more adapt at showmanship, raising money and advancing political agendas than they are in working to make life better for all.
Lost in the politics of religion is Christ’s message of love: love of God and love of one another. In his Sermon on the Mount Jesus said:
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. …
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Complete Sermon is found in Matthew, Chapters 5-7.)
Our Beautiful World
Notre Dame Cathedral / Unsplash
Definition of a Christian
The need of many Christians to be “the greatest or most righteous, or most close to God” Christians is troubling. We have evangelical Christians, fundamentalist Christians, Bible-believer Christians, and on and on. We have more than 200 Christian denominations with various interpretations of what their version of the Bible says and means.
Being a Christian means more than checking a box denoting Religious Preference. It means more than religiously attending church services. It means more than belonging to a certain denomination.
I believe a Christian, a true follower of Christ:
- Loves others.
- Forgives others.
- Tries to understand others.
- Doesn’t judge others.
I believe a true follower of Christ:
- Feeds the hungry.
- Tends the sick.
- Shelters the homeless.
- Seeks justice for those unjustly treated.
- Helps the helpless.
- Lifts up the fallen.
- Speaks truth, stands up, speaks out against evil.
- Respects all that God has made.
- Tries to live by The Golden Rule – love thy neighbor as thyself.
I believe a true follower of Christ:
- Does not hate others; hates only evil acts.
- Does not gossip, spread falsehoods.
- Does not make fun of, put down others.
- Does not take advantage of others.
- Does not wear religion as a badge of superiority.
I am troubled by those who claim they and they alone are on God’s side; that they have been chosen to fight God’s battles. How prideful! God doesn’t need man. He can summon untold armies of angels. It is man who needs God. God will not be driven or rushed by man.
God — in His own time — will lift up whom He will lift up, and will destroy whom and what He will destroy.
Thanks to a loving aunt, I learned about Jesus when I was a child. On Sunday mornings, my aunt and uncle would take me to the little Baptist church in rural Marion County, Florida.
My parents did not attend church. My Mother was a believer. I wasn’t sure about my Dad, who took his “day of rest” his way. Yet, when he suffered a stroke at age 55, his last words to my Mother were, “I’ll see you on the other side.”
I loved children’s Sunday school. We sang about Jesus loving all the children of the world: “Red and yellow, black and white, They are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world.”
“We learned about Jesus, the baby, who was born in a stable, and sent by God to save all the people of the world. We learned about Jesus the lad, Jesus, the man, and about Jesus, the Christ who was crucified and resurrected and returned to God. We learned about Heaven and the hope we have of going there if we love God, love others, and show that love through kindness, faith, and following the path of goodness that Jesus walked.
As I grew older I began to wonder why:
- Some people treat others badly.
- Some people lie to each other.
- Some people look down upon others.
- I wondered why there were churches for white people and churches for black people; cemeteries for white people and cemeteries for black people; schools for white people and schools for black people; even water fountains for whites, for blacks.
In my high school years, the preacher (a new hell-fire and damnation type; the old preacher had been driven away) began telling band students it was wrong for them to play any kind of music except Christian music. I thought the preacher was wrong because there is so much beautiful music of all kinds in the world.
When the preacher told me I was going to hell because I was taking notes about his sermon, I stopped going to church.
It would be years before I returned. When I had children I wanted them to experience the joy I had when I was a child and learning about Jesus, the Christ who loved me, loved all. I may have lost my reverence for the church; I never lost faith in Jesus, whose mission on earth was to reunite mankind with God.
This is what stands out most about Jesus:
He healed the sick; fed the hungry. He asked nothing in return. He didn’t strong-arm people into seeing things His way. However, when questioned about his teachings, people got the truth from him.
Although humble, he still spoke his mind. He didn’t suffer hypocrites.
He did not like The House of the Lord being used for money-making, and with whip in hand, he drove out the money-lovers. He seemed to have more respect for the poor who sacrificed to give what little they had, than for the rich who craved attention in exchange for their public almsgiving.
While Jews looked down upon Samaritans, Jesus talked to them, treated them with respect. I don’t believe He would agree with people who treat non-Christians with disrespect and as a threat to their “Christian” beliefs; who treat disrespectfully those of different races, different religions, or different political views. Nor do I believe he would keep silent when the religious leaders railed against homosexuality, but were mostly silent about adultery, quickly forgiving those among themselves who violated God’s Seventh Commandment. He called such religious leaders “blind guides,” who strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. (Matthew 24:23)
God gave us two basic commandments: Love Him, and love one another. He also told us to leave the judging up to Him. He knows the hearts of all. And it will be what is in the heart that we will be judged by.
I believe when we follow those two commandments, when we show we love God and love others, we are being true followers of Christ. When we do that God dwells within us.
We often fail in being the Christian we would like to be, and yet each new day we awake in this life we have the opportunity to begin anew. God is forgiving.
So, whatever comes in this life, if we love God and love one another, we have nothing to fear. As the loving mother and father tell their children, “Every thing will be OK; maybe not today, maybe not even tomorrow, but in time, everything will be OK. God will make it so.”
Is It God Or Money We Trust?
Our dollars proclaim: “In God We Trust.” When we read those words, we need to ask ourselves, do we mean the God who created heaven and earth and all therein? Or do we mean the god of money — the god called Mammon? For alas, it is not God, but money that many trust, crave, worship, and adore.
Society far too often measures people, labels people by the wealth they have or have not. Those who accumulate the most often think highly of themselves, and little of those who have little; those who have the least often think of themselves as lowly and unfortunate because others treat them as lowly and unworthy.
God does not value his creations in terms of money, or silver, or gold.
Do we not know that all the world’s wealth – its gold, silver, jewels, possessions, etc. — belongs to God who created it? If we truly believed the words “In God We Trust “ we would know.”
“…For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required …” —Luke 12:48
We live in a world that too often worships not the power of God‘s love, but the power of money, the power to glorify self, the power to destroy others.
Those who claim America is a Christian nation — or are determined to make it one — need reminding that while our founders provided the right of all Americans to choose their religion or no religion, they provided protection against the establishment of a national religion. They gave us the First Amendment as part of our Constitution:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
In other words, our Constitution doesn’t force religion upon us. Our Constitution gives us choice. The God worshipped by both Jews and Christians gives all people CHOICE! Believe or not. True belief requires that we love God, our Creator, and Creator of all that is, with “heart, soul, mind and might,” and we “love others as ourselves.”
While the majority of Americans name Christianity as their religion, their numbers are in decline. Pew Research found 65 percent of Americans now claim Christianity. That’s down 12 percent over the past decade. Pew’s surveys were conducted in 2018 and 2019.
The CIA World Fact Book shows the United States with a Christian population of 67.3 percent (2019), down from its previous 78.5 percent.
Christians of the organized and special identity groups may pause to ask themselves why the decline in their numbers.
Could it be that the more organized and political they become, and the richer they become, the less Godly they become?
To the true Christians, thank you for sharing the love of Christ, the love of God. Thank you for your neighborly love.
Love is patient, love is kind {and} is not jealous; love does not brag {and} is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong {suffered,} does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 CORINTHIANS 13:4-7 / NASB
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