Let me begin on this Memorial Day weekend to say to the many veterans who listen to the podcast, “Thank you for putting your life at risk for us—thank you for our service.”
This past Sunday, May 17th, Freedom 250, a White House-backed public-private partnership launched Rededicate 250 with “A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving” on the National Mall. Naturally, this prayer meeting provoked the outcry, “This violates the separation of church and state” from the political left. In the coming months, secularists and progressives will be seeking to undermine the celebration of America’s spiritual and biblical roots. For us and our families to respond winsomely and persuasively, we must know the facts and not just react with Christian spin, that we are a Christian nation. This episode seeks to equip us to think truthfully, i.e. with historic accuracy and the perspective of God’s Word as we examine the complex issue: Is America a Christian nation?
From the portion of Rededicate 250 that I was able to see broadcast Sunday from the mall, I was most impressed with the prayer of dedication by the United States Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson. Here are excerpts from his prayer:
Our Heavenly Father,
Thank you so much for this great day that you've given us here, as we remember that your mighty hand has been upon our nation since the very beginning…. Since the settlers at Jamestown planted the cross at Cape Henry, and since the pilgrims at Plymouth made a covenant to give you the glory, in all that time, you guided us at every pivotal moment.
And when our forefathers took up the great cause of American independence, they turned to you in steadfast prayer. On this very day, two and a half centuries ago, the Second Continental Congress gathered in Philadelphia. Facing imminent battle and almost certain death, our Founders held a decisive day of what they called ‘humiliation, fasting and prayer.’ They did that to humble themselves and to seek your guidance at the dawn of their fight for freedom.
Just weeks later, Lord, on July 4th, 1776, you gave 56 patriots the courage and the conviction to sign their names to the Declaration of Independence, forming 13 distant and disparate colonies into a new nation, which would become, by your mercy and grace, the freest, most successful, most benevolent nation in the history of the world…. And you gave our fathers the wisdom and faith to establish this new nation premised on the biblical and foundational principle that all men are created equal and free before you. Through your divine providence, our Founders acknowledged and boldly proclaimed the self-evident truth that every single person is created in your image, and that we are endowed by you, our Creator, with our inalienable rights to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness…
Lord, today, our people gather once again in your name. We have humbled ourselves before you. We acknowledge that the miracle of our founding, and the countless miracles that have followed, are your doing. We remember that our nation owes – every victory, every hero, every good deed she has brought forth – to you, Almighty God. Amid a bloody civil war, you gave Abraham Lincoln the vision and the fortitude to ignite a ‘new birth of freedom….You filled the sojourners of the civil rights movement with your spirit as they challenged their generation to live up to the promises enshrined in the Declaration.
Now as we approach the 250th anniversary of American Independence…we've seen sinister ideologies sow confusion and discord among our people. We've witnessed attacks on our history, on our heroes, and on the cherished moral and spiritual identity of this great nation…Those voices have sought to distort the self-evident truth that we know so well, and that our founders boldly proclaim in the Declaration: that our rights do not derive from the government, they come from you, our Creator and Heavenly Father.
Lord, just as we humbly sought out your guidance in past trials, we are doing it here again today. We turn to you once again to save us from these afflictions, to deliver us from the forces of evil oppression and justice and tyranny – both within our borders and beyond our shores – and Lord, never let us be separated from your mercy and your love…
Father, we pray for mercy upon our land, mercy upon us for our mistakes. Forgive us of our sins individually and collectively and help us devote ourselves with renewed piety and patriotism to the eternal truths of your Word and to the enduring principles of the Declaration you blessed us with.
Here Lord, in this 250th year of American Independence, we hereby rededicate the United States of America as ‘One Nation, Under God.’ Look upon us with favor upon your country as we celebrate this momentous anniversary and let your Holy Spirit descend upon this land so that future generations will look back at this day, in this present age, and once again, see your providential hand at work. I ask this today, Lord, I pray it and I believe it, in your holy name, in Jesus’ name, Amen.”
As we travel through the upcoming months of celebrating our 250th anniversary we are going to encounter a fierce firestorm of opposing arguments about America’s spiritual identity and history. On the one side are secularists 1) who argue that events like Freedom 250 on the mall violate the separation of church and state, 2) who accuse Mike Johnson and those of us like him of Christian nationalism, and 3) who want to strip the public sphere of debate over government and corporate policy from any spiritual, moral, or religious influence. This side also has the weighty argument, that if you say that America was founded as a Christian nation you must also say that Christianity is racist, since it is the epitome of hypocrisy to claim belief in a divine principle that all humans are created equal and own black slaves. On the other side are those who want to celebrate the influence of Christianity, the Bible, and the Great Awakening upon the founding fathers and who oppose the privatization of Christianity into our closet of personal piety, and who believe God has blessed our nation in part because we, as a nation, have sought though imperfectly to honored him. To accurately defend America’s spiritual heritage, let’s begin with historical facts.
HISTORICAL FACTS
A. The significant impact of the Great Awakening (1730s-1740s) In the early 1700s in New England none but church members could hold any office or vote in elections. The motivation for admission to the Lord’s table was not a commitment to Christ; it was getting a job. Christianity became a civil religion. But true Christianity is not an inherited one—inherited from your parents or from your culture. It is a chosen one. George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, and other preachers of the Great Awakening confronted their hearers with that choice. Repent. Believe. Surrender to Christ’s Kingship. We know that The Great Awakening brought new birth into the hearts of many nominal Christian church members and brought at least 25,000 new members into churches in New England alone. And even though the evidence shows that Ben Franklin was not a Christian, God only knows how much George Whitfield influenced Franklin’s beliefs.
B. The Beliefs of the Authors of the Declaration of Independence. On June 11, 1776, the Continental Congress appointed a committee of five to explain their decision to declare their independence: John Adams of Massachusetts, Ben Franklin of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, Robert Livingston of New York, and Roger Sharman of Connecticut. The committee asked Jefferson to write the original draft, who did so in Philadelphia between June 11 and June 28, 1776. It was modified by the full committee and the full assembly. Here are the beliefs of the committee members who shaped Jefferson’s words.
- John Adams was a Unitarian who shifted away from his strict Calvinist upbringing toward Enlightenment rationalism. While he deeply valued the Bible, he rejected central orthodox Christian doctrines, including the Trinity and the absolute divinity of Jesus Christ.
- Ben Franklin was a theist. He believed in a sovereign God who ruled over the affairs of men and intervened in them. He believed in seeking God’s intervention on behalf of America’s cause. It was he who proposed the practice of beginning Congress with prayer, (which was adopted).
- Thomas Jefferson was also a theist. He believed in in a benevolent Creator who designed the universe, but he rejected orthodox Christian doctrines such as the Trinity, divinity of Jesus, and biblical miracles.
- Robert Livingston’s beliefs were deeply rooted in the Protestant tradition. His family origins included a heritage from the Reformed Church in Scotland (his great-grandfather was a Scottish Presbyterian minister) and his upbringing in the Hudson Valley, (NY) steeped him in Christian principles.
- Roger Sherman was a devout orthodox Calvinist. Revered by peers like John Adams as an "old Puritan," his strict Christian faith heavily influenced his political philosophy, deeply shaping his approach to morality, human governance, and the rule of law.
So, history reveals that America was not formed only by Christians; it was formed by a combination of Christians and theists, whose world views overlapped with regards to God’s sovereignty, God’s willingness to intervene in the affairs of men to bless the pursuit of justice, and the value of the Bible. At the same time—it was never a secular, non-religious state, ever.
C. The Wording of the Declaration bears out this sense of accountability to God and belief in his providence:
- “When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitled them…”
- “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their creator with certain Illini unalienable rights that among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness…”
- “We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America in general Congress assembled appealing to the supreme judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions…”
- “And for the support of this declaration with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence we mutually pledge to each other our lives our fortunes and our sacred honor.”
There is zero evidence that America ever existed apart from a strong sense of accountability to God and dependence upon God’s providence as a nation. This is an indisputable fact of history.
D. The First Amendment (aka Establishment Clause) of the Bill of Rights was adopted to prevent a state church, not a religious people: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” Escaping religious persecution in countries where church and state had unbiblically married, many colonists viewed the freedom to worship (or not to worship) according to one's own conscience as a divine imperative. Protestants dissenting from state churches emphasized a personal relationship with God that no earthly institution, especially a state church, should mandate. The “establishment clause” was never intended to exclude religious values from shaping the state, but the opposite. It was adopted to protect individuals from the state coercing, rewarding, or impeding religious practices, not to protect the state from religious individuals influencing its policies.
E. Thomas Jefferson’s meaning in his phrase “wall of separation between church and state” was never to prevent religious values from entering the public arena. Daniel Dreisbach of the Heritage Foundation explains how this term has been taken out of its historic context: He writes:
No metaphor in American letters has had a more profound influence on law and policy than Thomas Jefferson's wall of separation between church and state today, This figure of speech is accepted by many Americans as a pithy description of the constitutionally prescribed church state arrangement and it has become the sacred icon of a strict separationist dogma that champions a secular form of government in which religious influences are systematically and coercively stripped from public life.
Jefferson coined the term “wall of separation between church and state” in an 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist association in Connecticut. The Baptists, a religious minority in their state, feared that the government could infringe upon their religious rights. Jefferson replied assuring them that the First Amendment built a wall of separation between church and state. He meant that the national government was prohibited from establishing a state religion or interfering with the free exercise of religion. Progressive Supreme Court Justices have either mistakenly or dishonestly taken Jefferson’s phrase out of its historic context. Jefferson didn’t want to separate religion from the state: he wrote the Declaration of Independence saying the state’s legitimacy is based upon religion—endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.
F. Secularism’s claim that religion is the primary cause of intolerance and violence has been debunked. Many secularists have argued that one of the main barriers to world peace is religion, with various exclusive claims to superiority and the belief that they are favored by God. Progressives rightly point out that history shows that secular rulers almost always try to argue that “God is on their side,” using it as justification to kill their enemies. Furthermore, the fact that religion can cause war is being proved right this second. Any normal government negotiating with the U. S. to give up its nuclear weapons-grade uranium, would give it up to prevent the enormous suffering of its people caused by the U. S. blockade. But the Shia Islamic Jihadi regime in Iran is refusing to give up its pursuit of a nuclear weapon, at least in part it would seem, because they believe that some catastrophic event will take place before the final, Twelfth Iman returns, and that destroying the Great Satan (U. S.) and Little Satan (Israel) may precipitate that event. The mullahs and IRGC have demonstrated for 47 years how religious extremism causes violence.
However, the history of the 2Oth century proves that “religion-less,” i.e. “secular” regimes are no less violent than religious ones. Soviet Russia, Communist China, and the Khmer Rouge were atheistic states. But their attempts to eradicate religion led not to more peace and harmony but to more oppression. This tragic reality was observed by Alistair McGrath in his History of Atheism: “The 20th century gave rise to one of the greatest and most distressing paradoxes of human history: that the greatest intolerance and violence of that century were practiced by those who believed that religion caused intolerance and violence.”
History reveals that both totalitarian theocracies and godless dictatorships have slaughtered millions of their opponents. We can only conclude that there is a sinful impulse in the heart of all humans to do so.
BIBLICAL TEACHING ABOUT THE CHURCH & STATE
Jesus stated clearly that the conquest of his kingdom is not by force. When he stood before Pilate, accused by the chief priests of being a rival king to Caesar, Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” Jesus contrasts two kingdoms. One is fought for by its followers. Conquest is by the sword. This kingdom might have a spiritual component, as a theocracy, like an Islamic Caliphate. But its spread is by military conquest, and its religious values are then imposed from the top down by coercion. The rapid expansion of Islam across North Africa and into Spain in the seventh century, by its founder, Muhammad, and his followers, was accomplished by the power of the sword. Military defeat brought Islamic government, and Sharia Law was forced on the conquered people. 3200 churches were destroyed or converted to mosques. Muhammad’s and his followers’ method of spreading Islam was clear: defeat nations militarily and force Islamic theocracy upon them.
In contrast, the NT prohibits the building of a Christian theocracy. The power of the sword is given to the state, never to the church. The state uses its political and legal power to punish evil behavior and reward good behavior. In other words, the NT teaches the separation of church and state. The power of the church is spiritual, affirming the legitimacy of a profession of faith, conducting the government of the church, and exercising church discipline. Most importantly, Christ’s kingdom of righteousness spreads in two ways: 1) Christ-followers implementing Christ’s agenda in each sphere of their own lives, 2) through their influence as salt, light, and leaven, never by military conquest. The establishing of God’s covenant people at one time in history in one nation as a theocracy, Israel, has given way to the Day of Pentecost and the sending of the gospel into every nation of the world. Christ’s kingdom does not spread by tearing down the political structure of a nation and replacing it with Christian theocracy. The kingdom of Christ permeates Kingdom Earth, its members living side by side with the lost.
The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest (Mt 13:24-30a).
The kingdom has come into history but in such a way that political structures are not overthrown. The sons and daughters of the kingdom have surrendered to God’s rule and entered into his blessings. They live as redeemed people putting on display restored humanity through obedience to Christ’s agenda for them—in their heart loyalties, their attitudes, and their behavior. Yet, they continue to live in this age intermingled with the lost in a mixed society because the way Christ’s kingdom of righteousness grows is through our example and our influence.
In short, as Christians we are called to stand against secularist progressive ideology, which seeks to strip our history of its spiritual roots, including intentional dependency upon God for his blessing. Christians have every right to link our founding to Judeo-Christian values and to influence every aspect of American culture as salt, light, and leaven, standing for righteousness.
But a respect for historical truth compels us to say, we were not founded primarily by Christians nor as a Christian nation. Jesus repudiated the linking of his church to any civil government. Furthermore, in my view it is also unwise to over-stress the influence of Christianity upon our founding fathers because of the inherent hypocrisy of binding themselves to a Declaration of Independence that says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,” while owning black slaves. To say that we were founded as a Christian country is to say that Christianity excuses, if not embraces, slavery. Accurate history shows God graciously blessing our nation by later correcting this blatant hypocrisy, using many Christians who did believe that all men are created equal, like Harriet Beecher Stowe and Abraham Lincoln.
For Further Prayerful Thought.
1. Why might a black Christian who loves America find it difficult to hear a brother in Christ argue that America was founded as a Christian nation?
2. What did you find most helpful about the religious beliefs of the five men who wrote the Declaration of Independence?
3. If America was not founded by Christians as a Christian nation, why does it matter that we are rooted in a belief in God, recognition that human rights derive from God, and dependence upon him?
4. How would you respond to a progressive friend who says that Christians who want to stop abortion are guilty of violating the constitutional principle of “the separation of church and state.”
