Is America a Christian Nation?

Is there any difference between a militant Christian Fundamentalist wanting a theocratic government and a militant Islamic Fundamentalist wanting the same thing—that is, a nation governed according to either Islamic or Christian precepts/principles/law?

Yet the bigger question might be: Does God want America be a Christian nation—a nation governed or ruled by theocratic law. 

This seems to be the goal of militant Christian Fundamentalists today and alarmingly they are making inroads into government positions in hopes of achieving such a Christian theocracy (see Chris Hedges, American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, 2006).

So do such aspirations of an American Christian theocracy please God?

Okay, I’m not at all qualified to speak on God’s behalf. But I do believe we can get a sense of what God may or may not want by going all the way back to the call of Abraham (Genesis 12 & 15). 

God made a covenant with Abraham (formerly Abram) promising that Abraham would be blessed (as well as his descendants) and they well as be a blessing to the whole world. 

The Lord established this covenant for the purpose of revealing himself to the world through Abraham’s descendants (known as the Abrahamic Covenant). 

Many years later these descendants, having been rescued from Egyptian slavery (Exodus), occupied a land to begin fulfilling this covenant God made with their ancestor Abraham.

But once these former slaves settled into the land of Canaan (The Promise Land) the people called upon God to give them a king, like the other nations surrounding them. 

They wanted to be a nation ruled by God’s law through a human king.

This defines a theocracy. 

This theocracy ultimately became Biblical Israel. It should also be noted that the modern State of Israel today is not the same as Biblical Israel. Modern Israel is not a theocracy (as many Christians assume it is).

Now the Israelites demand for a king seriously displeased God. Actually God took great offense that his people wanted another authority to rule over them. He knew the dangers of such a religious-political arrangement. 

He knew once a king was in place the road towards idolatry would be both slippery and wide (read 1 Samuel 8). It would also lead to their destruction.

The point to be taken from all this is that God doesn’t want to govern his people through human rulers or governments; rather he wants a faithful covenant people to love and serve him in the world.

Does God want America to be a so-called “Christian Nation” as militant Christian Fundamentalists believe he does? 

The short answer is “No!” 

God wants Christians living in America. or any other nation for that matter, to be faithful covenant partners with him as they bless the world on his behalf. We cannot be beholding to earthy allegiances while at the same time faithfully honoring the covenant God has made with us in Jesus Christ.

Yes it sounds good when Christians talk about America being a Christian nation. But that’s all it is: Talk with no substance, let alone Biblical support.

This doesn’t make America a bad nation nor should it prevent any American Christian from loving the country in which he or she was born. But America is not and should never be a Christian theocracy (as militant Fundamentalists so desire). 

Perhaps Peter said it best in his first epistle: “ . . . for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:8).

Just how clear can it be?

We Christians in America make up what Peter calls a “holy nation.” We are God’s covenant people, bound only in allegiance to Christ. Jesus is our Lord not Cesar. 

Finally, the only way we Christians can truly be a blessing to the world (as God’s faithful covenant people) is to be unfettered from any form of nationalism—a nationalism that will never fully comply with God’s will on earth. 

Biblical Israel learned this lesson the hard way. I suspect modern Israel will not make that same mistake again.