Christian Blog on The Search For Christian America
Jonathan Rowe on Apr 13th 2008
This post by a Christian blogger well summarizes the thesis of The Search For Christian America, a remarkable book by Mark Noll, Nathan Hatch, and George Marsden, three of the world’s most important scholars of religion, who also happen to be traditional Christians. The post reproduces this excerpt from the book:
1) We feel that a careful study of the facts of history shows that early America does not deserve to be considered uniquely, distinctly or even predominately Christian, if we mean by the word “Christian” a state of society reflecting the ideals presented in Scripture. There is no lost golden age to which American Christians may return. In addition, a careful study of history will also show that evangelicals themselves were often partly to blame for the spread of secularism in contemporary American life. . . . (Mark A. Noll, Nathan O. Hatch, George M. Marsden, “The Search For Christian America,” 17)
The post also notes what I’ve long noted (after of course, those three distinguished authors) about non-authentically Christian ideas riding along side Christian theology:
[T]hey will continue to argue that America does indeed have rich “Christian heritage;” but unfortunately what passed as uniquely Christian, was in fact, Christianity baptized in “Natural Theology,” and rationalist Enlightenment principles. Here is an example of what I am talking about, found in the Declaration of Independence….
The theology of the Declaration of Independence is no more authentically “Christian” than the theological tenets found in for instance, The Book of Mormons. This is something I want evangelicals and Catholics to appreciate. And also as I’ve noted (again after Noll et al.), John Witherspoon was one of those evangelicals who contributed to the spread of secularism in American life. His Lectures on Moral Philosophy, what he primarily taught his Princeton students like James Madison, did not teach Christian or Calvinist principles, but rather Scottish Enlightenment principles.
Finally you may want to check out this post, another Christian source that thoughtfully explores the Christian Nation idea, where they note something very interesting from one John Eidsmoe, one of the key promoters of the “Christian America” idea:
As John Eidsmoe, one of the more responsible conservative Christian writers on this issue observes: The term ‘Christian’ can be used in two contexts. First, it can describe someone who is “born again,” or “saved,” or “regenerate,” a dedicated follower of Jesus Christ and His teachings… The term ‘Christian’ is also loosely used to denote a person whose beliefs about God, the world, and man are generally in accord with those of the Christian religion but who may not be a dedicated follower of Christ. In this second context, a person’s beliefs, actions, and/or demeanor may be “Christian” (decent, generous, moral) but he or she might not be regenerate. (Eidsmoe, Christianity and the Constitution, 78-79) Eidsmoe recognizes that it is only in a looser sense of the word that the majority of the founders and the origins of the constitution may be considered ‘Christian.’
It seems to me that Eidsmoe lets the cat out of the bag in that passage. Yes America is a “Christian Nation,”…in a nominal, heretical, theologically liberal sense of the term. This is not what the traditional Christians who want to believe in the Christian America myth want to hear.
Filed in The Belfry, The Bureau
This nation, was settled mostly by German and Irish immigrants, mostly of the Puritan, Quaker, United Brethren and Baptist faiths, who wanted to live according to the dictates of their own consciences, instead of being forced to adhere to the tenets of a State Church in Europe, and the British Isles. At the time of our independence, the 13 colonies were over 90% Protestant in belief, and 1% Roman Catholic, so the basic freedoms we have enjoyed for the past 235 years were based upon Protestant principles of governance: of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, with freedom of speech and conscience and press and assembly and relgion-along with the right to own and bear arms, as it is explained by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence. Those of any or no religion could be free to practice whatever they wanted, as long as what they practiced did not violate laws of relationships, love to our neighbor, and the golden rule-which laws are also in the Bible. The founders of the USA knew what the Bible said, patterning the laws of this new nation (after 1776) after God`s precepts, in many cases. That is why so many new nations have consulted with our US Constitutional scholars when it is time for them to draft a new constition for themselves, because America has prospered above most nations since its ascending star began to shine brightly in 1776. But now its liberties are growing fewer and its star of hope and freedom is beginning to wane in the sunset of declining nations. Freedom of conscience is little respected, and freedom of speech in the workplace of America is against the law by Federal edict. Now, good is seen as bad and hateful, while bad is excused and appeased as good: Christianity has no more bearing with our laws than any other belief in the world of religions, and America is afloat on the sea of confusion without chart or rudder or compass, and heading for the MSM PC rocks of destruction. The same end Jerusalem suffered in AD 70, America will also suffer in the end. Glitteringspear
…if we mean by the word “Christian” a state of society reflecting the ideals presented in Scripture…
Check me here—is this not a non-starter?
Even Lutheranism is useless without consulting Luther, part of Luther’s internal contradiction. At some point, exegesis, scholarship, and context are required. Unfortunately, no two scholars ever seem to agree.
Even popes…
Paul M. writes:
Freedom of conscience is little respected, and freedom of speech in the workplace of America is against the law by Federal edict…
Freedom of conscience is definitely taking a beating of late, and needs a few unlikely defenders.
As for “freedom of speech in the workplace,” the appending of the latter clause gives the careful reader pause. Exactly why did they fire you, Paul?
Freedom of conscience is little respected, freedom of speech in the workplace of America is against the law by Federal edict.
Yeah, consider me curious about this one too. How many religious prisoners are there in the United States? How many churches raided? (I can only think of two — Waco and the Warren Jeffs incident. One was unjustified, but the other was on credible allegations of rape.) It’s very hard to say that we are by either policy or action a religiously intolerant society.
Sure, we fight over a few border cases, but to say that freedom of conscience is “little” respected is a slap in the face to people elsewhere in the world. Just try asking a Tibetan Buddhist, or a North Korean or Sudanese Christian what they think about the persecuting society that is America.
Tom, did I say I was fired? For over 33 years I was self-employed as a licensed roofer. When I entered the roofing profession in 1970, we still enjoyed freedoms of speech and expression, so when I quit roofing and applied for a Federally funded job as a bus driver, and the training supervisor informed us we have no freedom of speech on that property, I was astonished, that just because some job was federally funded, you have no more rights when you enter that property-until you leave that property. Plain and simple, it is an infringement on the basic rights we are guaranteed in our Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, and everything we love (d) about freedoms in America. Not even under the UCMJ in the Navy, was anyone prohibited from talking about their beliefs in the Bible! God will not bless America if she turns against the very freedoms which many thousands have lost their lives in defending, in several wars. God will only bless America as she defends the religious rights she guarantees in our US Constittution. That is why America is being punished with natural disasters and a failing economy, and soaring crime rates, because it is attempting to silence evangelical Christians, through oppressive laws in the workplace, and in the public schools. Glitteringspear.