Is the United States a Christian nation?

Question: "Is the United States a Christian nation?"

Answer: The best way to determine whether or not the United States is a Christian nation is to compare the philosophy of the United States with Christianity and see if they match. While there are many angles, both historical and social, from which this question can be answered, it is our core beliefs and how those beliefs affect our lifestyle, that ultimately tells others who we are. The “American Ideal” as set out in the Constitution is the idea that every person has certain God-given, unalienable rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This philosophical ideal drives the United States in everything from its economic and foreign policy to the private lives of its people.

But the question is: does this American ideal gel with the Christian worldview? Did the American ideal come out of Christianity? What does Christianity have in common with the American ideal? Can we really call the United States a Christian nation? To find answers, let’s look at the three elements of the American Ideal and compare them to the standard of Christian thought—the Bible. First, we’ll tackle the concept of life, and what that means, not necessarily to the founding fathers, but to the average American citizen today.

Life according to the American ideal: When Americans say we have a right to life, they mean simply that nobody should be able to take life from another person. We each have a right to be alive, they would say, just by virtue of having been born. It also implies that we have the right to do with our lives as we choose, because our lives belong to us. These two concepts form the basis of the right to life per the American ideal. But when taken together, they have been the source of much controversy, especially in the abortion debate. The child’s right to life is in conflict with the mother’s right to choose what happens to her own life should she bear a child. Conversely, there are those who willingly give up their right to life in order to protect the lives of others. The police, firefighters, and the military give up their right to life to secure it for others. It’s all a matter of choice based on personal conviction about the value of life, not upon any external standard which is universally applicable to everyone.

Life according to Biblical Christianity: Christianity agrees that we have the “right to life” and recognizes that life comes from the Creator, just as the Constitution says. However, the Christian (biblical) view is that the right to live does not exist by virtue of being born, but by virtue of being created first in the mind of God (Jeremiah 1:5). This truth leads to an understanding that the day-old embryo in the womb is just as much a human being—and is just as deserving of life—as any adult. Acts 17:25 says that God “gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.” Clearly, the Bible is saying here that the life of man is given to and sustained by God, and it is for those reasons that we have the right to life.

The second concept of life according to the American ideal is that we are free to do with our lives just as we please because our lives belong to us. But the Bible shows a completely different perspective. First, for Christians, our lives are not our own. First Corinthians 6:19-20 tells us “You are not your own; you were bought at a price” and that price was the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross, where He exchanged His perfect life for our sin and made us new creations in Him (2 Corinthians 5:17). Colossians 3:3 says, “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.” Our lives now belong to God and to the body of Christ. Second, we are not to cling to our lives, but be willing to give them up for a life lived for God and for others, leading to eternal joy. Jesus also shows that man decides what he will do with his life when He says, “The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life”(John 12:25). Men do have a choice as to how they will live. But the one who loves life here in this world, the Bible says, will lose his or her life in the end, as opposed to the one who “hates” life here. That person will receive eternal life, and he knows that when he dies Jesus will receive him into heaven. His real life is there anyway.

Liberty according to the American Ideal philosophy: Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion and the freedom to bear arms are some of the rights outlined in the Bill of Rights. All of these freedoms are good things valued greatly by Americans. But it must be remembered that our founding documents were written at a time when the Judeo-Christian ethic was accepted—even by those who were not Jews or Christians—as the underlying principle upon which our freedoms rested. For example, the freedoms of speech and the press were granted to a people who understood that lying and deceiving for personal or political gain was wrong, and the basis of that judgment about right and wrong came from the Bible. Today, however, Americans have, for the most part, rejected the Bible as the standard of right and wrong, and now liberty has an additional meaning: it means that we are ultimately free to do whatever we want. It means that we control our own destiny—or that we should—and nobody can tell another person what is right or what they should value. Everything is subjective. In fact, “choice” has become the only thing we truly value. We are tolerant above all, but only because to put down another person’s freedom is to endanger our own liberty and nobody wants that. The dilemma that arises here is when the question of good and evil comes up. What if what feels wrong to me feels right to somebody else? Who is right and who is wrong? And of course, the popular answer is that we are both right. You have your way, and I have mine.

Liberty according to Biblical Christian philosophy: The Bible agrees that freedom and liberty are good and right. The Apostle Paul encourages us to be free and to not be tied down to legalistic behavior that will make our lives difficult. He tells us we have freedom as Christ’s followers, because we trust in His righteousness, instead of our own. He says “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself. If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other” (Gal. 5:13-15). So God wants His children to be free, but not to be free of Him or of His principles. He does not want us to use our freedom to pursue selfishness, but to love Him and to love our neighbors. The American way is to do what the Bible says not to do, to “use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature” which means to use it to justify sin. The Christian is not to blur the lines between good and evil in the name of freedom. The Bible makes many clear distinctions as to what is good and what is evil, and the Christian lives by the biblical view on these things. But someone who follows the philosophy of the modern idea of the American Ideal says that whatever feels good IS good, and they give no thought to God’s standards.

The Pursuit of Happiness according to the American Ideal philosophy: The pursuit of happiness is the most interesting of the three parts of the American Ideal and the one that puts the most distance between the American Ideal philosophy and Christian thought. Pursue happiness, the American is told, at the cost of all else. If it makes you happy to leave your wife and children, do it. If it makes you happy to devote your life to stardom at the expense of friends and family members, you should follow your dream. If you are a man but you think being a woman will make you happy, have a sex change. Play video games 10 hours a day? Drink yourself to death? Get married to your dog? Sure, if it makes you happy! The original intent of the framers of the Constitution was to affirm the right to pursue happiness—not that every man has the right to be happy—and that he should have the right to pursue happiness but not at the cost of someone else’s freedom to pursue happiness. Here again the Judeo-Christian ethic of “love thy neighbor” was understood as a foundational principle upon which to base our right to pursue happiness. But it has changed over the years to mean a right to pursue individual pleasure, no matter how strange the means, without being judged by your fellow man and without regard to how that pursuit affects the other person’s rights or freedoms.

The Pursuit of Happiness according to Biblical Christian philosophy: Happiness is, biblically speaking, an emotion that is welcomed, but not sought after. Joy, on the other hand, is sought after, but joy is quite different from happiness. Joy is a spiritual contentment and pleasure that comes from the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul said that he had “learned to be content whatever the circumstances” (Philippians 4:11), and Paul’s circumstances were hardly the sort to produce happiness: beatings, stoning, shipwreck, hunger, thirst and danger. But his joy and peace were from God, not from his circumstances. The American Ideal says to pursue at all cost happiness in our lives here in this world. But consider the following verse from Mark 8:36: “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” Nothing is gained from pursuing comfort and happiness here on earth. The Christian person is to pursue other things: “…pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” (2 Timothy 2:22) “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification” (Romans 14:19). “But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness” (1 Timothy 6:11). And the most beautiful part is that God rewards richly those who seek Him rather than seeking their own happiness. He gives them all they need and real joy that lasts forever.

So is the United States a Christian nation? Not in its philosophy, or in what it loves, or in what it does. Despite its Christian roots and heritage, the United States today is a nation that follows the god of self, and that is not the heart of Christianity.

Recommended Resource: What if America Were a Christian Nation Again? by D. James Kennedy.