Is America a Christian Nation?

Recently our President, Barry Obama, made a statement to the international community that America is not a Christian nation. His statement has created much controversy. Here's my opinion:

Barry is correct - America is not a Christian nation. We used to be. Anyone who has read the writings of our Founding Fathers can see the influence that Christianity had on the development of our form of government. John Adams wrote: "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

I listened this morning to radio talk hosts debate whether America should be a Christian nation or whether there has only been a movement over the last 30-40 years where religion has tried to affect politics. The truth is that the religious right hasn't been trying to assume control over our government, we're just responding to the attempts by 'liberals' to remove God from our government. Christians are simply protecting the freedoms of religion that our founding fathers intended. When I was growing up, my parents lived out their faith in all aspects of their life. It's been my generation that has compromised and apologized and demonized Christianity until the very term no longer stands for morality and goodness and love.

If one can separate his faith from his politics, he has no faith - only a religion. Our character reflects our faith. Perhaps that is the problem. We are a generation of compromisers who are willing to push God aside so that we can live our lives on our own terms. Again, Obama was correct - America is not a Christian nation. If we were, he would not be in office. The faith of our Founding Fathers was evidenced in their character and their vision for America. Conversely, the lack of character and the vision of our leaders today reflect the absence of faith in the God upon whom our nation's principles were founded. And if our elected officials lack the moral and ethical standards of their predecessors, so too have those who sent them to office.

Eighty percent of Americans claim to be Christians, yet over half of American voters voted for a candidate and a party that believes it's OK to murder babies, steal property (imminent domain), impoverish the constituents through taxes and welfare programs (Democrats have succeeded in keeping an entire segment of Americans - through second and third generations - in poverty and indebted to them through various welfare social programs); who want to remove God from our schools, businesses and national monuments...the list goes on. Black ministers stand in their pulpits on Sunday mornings vigorously urging their congregations to vote for a political party to ensure their sustenance rather than relying upon God to provide it. This is not the actions of a people who believe in God. If we believe something, we act accordingly; otherwise it's an opinion subject to whatever circumstance we find ourselves in.

In America today, people who consider themselves Christians are just as likely to commit adultery, become addicted to pornography, abandon their spouses and children, have an abortion, and break the Commandments as much as a person who is not a Christian. I myself have been guilty of choosing my own way over God's way. I'm a product of my culture, and I know that it becomes very hard for others to distinguish my actions from those of a godless person. I have compromised my faith at the altar of 'self' and have been part of America's turn from God. If I have any claim to Christianity, it's that I know I've been wrong; and in knowing the difference between right and wrong I'm fearful for the direction away from God that America is taking. For certain, God has not turned His back on America; America has turned her back on Him.

There is much fault to be laid at the feet of fundamental Christians, of whom I consider myself one. We focus on a God of justice and pay lip service to the God of love. We desire justice more than we desire to serve one another. If we practiced what we preached, fewer Americans would feel compelled to rely upon our government. If we were more willing to care for our fellow man, we would attact people to Christ. If we had real faith when confronted with problems bigger than our ability to solve, we'd not surrender our freedoms to the government in return for their taking responsibility for us, but we'd turn to God who has the heart of the king in His hand.

George Washington wrote: "No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand, which conducts the Affairs of men more than the People of the United States. Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency."
(George Washington, First Inaugural Address, April 30, 1789) He went on to say, "The blessed Religion revealed in the word of God will remain an eternal and awful monument to prove that the best Institution may be abused by human depravity; and that they may even, in some instances be made subservient to the vilest purposes. Should, hereafter, those incited by the lust of power and prompted by the Supineness or venality of their Constituents, overleap the known barriers of this Constitution and violate the unalienable rights of humanity: it will only serve to shew, that no compact among men (however provident in its construction and sacred in its ratification) can be pronounced everlasting an inviolable, and if I may so express myself, that no Wall of words, that no mound of parchm[en]t can be so formed as to stand against the sweeping torrent of boundless ambition on the side, aided by the sapping current of corrupted morals on the other." (George Washington, fragments of the Draft First Inaugural Address, April 1789)

Our founders understood human nature far better than we do today. We have everything to lose if we ignore or deny the importance of faith in God in our private lives as well as in our government.