Theocracy: Is the US a Christian Nation?

Is the US, or was it ever, a Christian nation? And what does or would that mean?

Many challenge America's Christian heritage by pointing out that our founding fathers were deists. Many were, but it's been inflated. Many suspected deists, such as Jefferson, were likely more of a mixed bag, as many purported Christians are today. At best, we might be better saying that many of the deists were heterodox Christians, and those who were true deists were Christian-deists, meaning that they may dispute God's involvement in the world actively, but their principles were nonetheless Christian-rooted. 

Yet, none of that makes the US a Christian nation, even though many of the founders believed the Bible to be instrumental in education and social responsibility. And we cannot deny that the country, in its colonial infancy, was settled by waves of Christian migrants like the Puritans in New England, Quakers in Pennsylvania, Catholics in Maryland, Baptists in Rhode Island, and Anglicans dispersed throughout the colonies. Christianity was also used as an evangelistic rationale for our nation's sense of Manifest Destiny to expand territory, and for right or wrong, convert the Native Americans. 

There were many missteps and many things done in the name of Christ that were foul and anti-Christian, such as our relation to Catholics, Native Americans, and slaves from Africa. There were moral voices against these ills, such as founder Benjamin Rush, whose Christianity led him to decry slavery against those who twisted Scripture to account for their slave-holdings. Still, it was a mixed bag. The Christianity that undergirded our nation was not always historical or traditional Christianity. Our Christian population was fractured amongst itself and propagated denominationalism. We were not and have never been a united Christian nation, even if we were largely informed by Christianity.

We weren't just informed by Christianity, but also the Classics (Greek and Roman mythology and political structure), Enlightenment philosophy, and English common law. Our founders, especially Madison, saw the need for a multiplicity of views as necessary to quell majoritarian tyrannies, which presupposed that we cannot ever be a purely "Christian nation" because it would favor one group of people over another (see Federalist Paper # 10). In short, we may have been influenced by Christianity, but we couch that in generic language that allows for a broad range of views and voices as a counter-balance to majority rule, which limits liberty and freedom. 

In the minds of many contemporary Americans, especially on the Right and those belonging to any one of a number of evangelical faith bodies, slogans like Trump's "Make America Great Again" are callbacks to a presupposed nostalgia for when we were a "Christian nation." But we have never been a strict Christian nation, but an admixture of many philosophies, sometimes forced together with faith elements to create a national faith. Just look at the domes on our national and state capital buildings... These are arches of heaven, reminiscent of Eastern Orthodox and Catholic cathedrals, which are normally adorned with images of Christ peering down as if heaven and earth are bridged by the Church. In our nation's Capital dome, instead of Christ there is a fresco of George Washington ("The Apotheosis [divinization] of Washington"), flanked by two angelic beings identified as goddesses -- Victoria (Victory) and Liberty. 

We have borrowed from Christianity and made a civic religion with Washington deified. This is essentially idolatry. I even recall voices from Congress during Trump's second impeachment say that the January 6th, 2021 insurrection was a violation of the Capital's sacredness. And for many on the Right, the American flag has become the our civic religion's sacrosanct emblem, like the cross is to Christianity. For some, the Confederate flag has been similarly elevated, despite it being a symbol of rebellion to our mainline of civic mythology/theology. In short, we are a pluralistic and syncretisic nation. We are not and have never been a pure theocracy, unless you theologize our founders and political structure. And the Right has. The Bill of Rights has come to serve as our national religion's Ten Commandments, the 2nd Amendment has been made as sacrosanct as "Have no other gods before me," and, the Constitution is as our Bible, which like the Bible is seldom read and is not always taken in context. The Bible and the Constitution are both often used as prooftexts for outlandish takes on issues, and often used as tools to marginalize people. 

I love our political system, but it is not my faith. It is dangerous to conflate it with Christianity. In my opinion, the libertarian nature of our polity, which allows for many voices to coalesce in unity despite distinction, means I can be a Christian and simultaneously not fret about a culture war with other Americans who I completely disagree with on political, philosophical, social, or theological grounds, so long as one group does not rise above another. There is room for liberty and a range of beliefs. If I domineer with my Christianity, I am doing unto those who disagree with me what I would hate if they prospered above me. I think I remember something about some "Golden Rule" somewhere. 

It's time Christians humble themselves and let the world be the world, even as we are in it and not necessarily of it. We ought never want a theocracy, because that binds us materially/primarily to the nation and to the strict standards we know we cannot always follow, even as we'd place that standard on people unlike us. It didn't always work out for Israel and Judea. I think I recall in the Bible that there was this issue of captivity because of their disobedience. 

So, let's stop saying this is or ever was a "Christian nation," and instead recognize what it was and truly is -- a nation of many gathered into one (e pluribus unum). Our civic religion is not Christianity, but a conglomerate of many competing views trying to find civility and balance. It is fear of this uneasy unity that leads to sicknesses like nationalism and laws that marginalize and obstruct. This fear is because of the loss of singularity, as if we really were ever of one cloth. We are a patchwork and we ought to embrace dissent and disputed views, not as relativistically valid, but as permissible checks to tyrannies of majorities. If I want my Christianity to have a voice in the marketplace of ideas, I cannot force it above other peoples' views, even if I disagree with those views. This is NOT a theocracy, but a plurality. 

For me, Christ comes first. Yet for many, they have mistaken the civic faith for Christianity. They are not synonymous. History has a dangerous problem of showing context and we sometimes lose that for our own biases. Food for thought. 

I close with this quote and brief comment: "A republic, if you can keep it."

This was the purported response of Benjamin Franklin, who was asked what we had [arrived at] when he was leaving the Constitutional Convention. A republic is a represented form of democracy. It attempts to represent everyone at the table, not just Christians or nationalists or any one political group. A theocracy, which a Christian nation would be, is not a fair distribution of representation, nor is gerrymandering or the white washing of nationalism by folks such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, who recently defended Christian nationalism. It is no accident that nationalism, which falls into the same sphere as what's called ethnophyeltism has been cited as a heresy by many Christian groups. It is a heresy. So Christians, stop being heretics!  

Addendum: It is unchristian to claim any nation as a Christian nation. Christ is supranational. A Christian nation would contradict Pentecost in the book of Acts (ch. 2) where Christ brought together people from the nations (plural)... Not into material nationhood, but unto the cosmos... The fullness of life with God.