Virtue Magazine

“Restore our nation to its godly roots!” has become the rallying call for an entire generation of Christian conservatives dismayed at the direction of our country. But while their motives are undoubtedly pure, their methods are often misguided.

Many Christian conservatives seem to have no concept of the proper boundaries of church and state, and are more than willing to do their best to completely break down those boundaries. As a result, we see them support things like prayer in state-run schools, altar calls at state-run school graduation ceremonies, “faith-based initiatives,” church involvement in politics, and any number of other questionable activities.

If a person objects to one or more of these things as inappropriate or unconstitutional, he will sooner or later hear someone make The Claim.

“Ah,” someone will invariably say. “But our nation was founded as a Christian nation!”

The archives of our own Virtue Magazine attest to this: they are full of articles and comments that make The Claim or indirectly support, deal with, or assume the truth of The Claim.

Numerous variations of the The Claim also exist. Variations include: “America was founded upon biblical principles.” “America was established upon principles of Christianity.” “America was/is a Christian nation.” “The Founding Fathers intended America to be a Christian nation.” Then there’s the Constitution Party, which states in its platform that “This great nation was founded . . . on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” (1)

What do all these statements have in common? They tend to be vague and the terms used are never defined. When someone says our nation was founded as a Christian nation, what is meant by “founded”? Is the statement referring to the people who first came to America on the Mayflower? Is it referring to the general population of America around the year 1776? Is it referring to the Founding Fathers who helped establish the United States of America? Is it referring to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution itself, or perhaps all of the above?

We have not even gotten to the question of what makes a nation “Christian,” and already we can see that many of the above statements are essentially meaningless until the specific terms are carefully defined. Unfortunately, people who make The Claim rarely define the terms, and people faced with The Claim rarely force the person making The Claim to define the terms.

The purpose of this series will be to examine The Claim in more detail, and the beliefs that often go hand in hand with it. While the ACLU and any number of other people go too far when it comes to removing religious elements from school or public property, we submit that Christian conservatives go too far in the other direction. We also submit that their main justification or defense (“America was founded as a Christian nation”) is not necessarily accurate, and that many Christian conservatives’ desire to seemingly mix the roles of church and state is not biblical, since God himself has established strict boundaries for each:

—The Church has been given God’s Word and the Sacraments to announce and distribute salvation in Christ. (Mt. 28:16-20, Mark 16:15-16, Luke 24:44-49, Mt. 18:15-20, Rom. 1:16, I Cor. 2:1-5, II Cor. 3, Gal. 3:1-5, II Tim. 4:2, James 1:18, I Peter 1:23-25, numerous more)

—The Church is not to use the sword. (Mt. 26:52, II Cor. 5:20, II Cor. 10:4)

—The government has been given the sword to punish evildoers. (Rom. 13:1-7, I Peter 2:13-14, Gen. 9:6, Ps. 82)

—Thus the government’s instrument is precisely what the Church renounces in its work.

—Neither the Church nor the government has been given the other’s function. (Mt. 22:21, Ps. 50:16)

This is not to say Christians should not be involved in politics, but rather that the Church should not abandon its mission for the sake of the politics of the day. Likewise, government should not be involved in the mission God has given only to the Church.

——————————————-

One of the first things Christian conservatives present in defense of The Claim is the argument that many (if not all but two or three) of the Founding Fathers were Christians. David Barton himself argues as much in his book Original Intent.

Therefore, in our next issue we will examine the following questions: What is a Christian? How many of the Founding Fathers were Christians? Does it matter?

Sources:

1. http://www.constitutionparty.com/party_platform.php#Preamble