Search for a Christian America

Here is the paper I wrote on “Search for a Christian America”:

Numerous Christians in the United States have a tendency to look fondly at American History as the epitome of Christianity, according to the book “The Search for Christian America” (p. 15). The authors say such Christians see this “Christian heritage,” compare it with today’s culture and claim we need to return to the “Christian nation” of our past. According to God’s Word, however, there is no such thing as a “Christian nation” unless referring to the Body of Christ throughout all nations (I Peter 1:1, 3:9, Exodus 19:6). The result of this idea is that many American Christians use their country’s perspective on history as a guide to Christian living almost as if it were on a par with Scripture. One reason I gathered from the book why some Christians have this view is because the culture of the past assumed they were a Christian nation. Indeed, when the Puritans came over in the 1600s they were setting out, basically, to create a Christian nation, saying they were the New Israel.

During the Great Awakening Christianity could be smelled in the air throughout the Colonies. By the time of the Revolution the smell of Christianity was mingled with smells of independence and Enlightenment thought, which states that absolutely everything can be determined by human reason. With this mixture of confidence in reason, the move for independence and Christian thought people began equating the cause of independence with the cause of Christ. The authors state that, “ patriots invested their cause with the kind of honor that belongs to God alone” (p. 64). Once an independent nation, the diverse population of people constituting the United States of America groped for something to hold them together as “United” as the word in the name of their new country implied. A new religion came into being—civil liberty. Christians became confused because they had thought of the Revolution as the cause of Christ, and this new, veiled religion asked why they needed God in the first place. The state took the place of the church.

To the extent that Christians view the past as primarily Christian they will not see the impact of non-Christian influence in the past. They will begin to see the past as “one-dimensional.” They will look at the past and attempt to see what they want to see and ignore the rest.
The authors emphasize that Christians in the United States today need to become aware of the erroneous assumption that America was founded as a Christian nation. Looking at the past through the lens of the Bible will help Christians identify the cultural assumptions (i.e. that America’s past was Christian) of the past, which in turn might reveal our own cultural assumptions today. With this awareness, Christians should see they must turn to Christ—throughout all ages—rather than the past. This is the authors’ solution.

One observation I had while studying this book was how the authors’ solution seems vague. Although I agree there is no such thing as a “Christian nation” before Christ comes, I wonder, is there any hope for progress—always by way of the cross—in God’s Kingdom now? It may be that the authors believe in Kingdom progress, but it was unclear in the book. To me, it seems important to make this clear because at the end of the book I felt I didn’t know what to do for God’s kingdom except to undertake a “careful examination of Christian teaching of…the nature of culture…” (p. 17).

This leads to my second observation. What did the authors mean by “careful”? The Puritans themselves studied God’s Word very carefully, and yet many didn’t treat the Indians well. This is an example of the fact that even the way we look at Scripture is influence by our culture. What is it that makes the authors’ view correct? What has cleared the authors’ vision of the past and freed them of their present cultural assumptions? In my opinion, understanding those assumptions is most effectively accomplished when we interact with other cultures as we read the Bible and look at the past. This is because it is only together with all the saints—in every culture—that we can fully understand God’s glory, and therefore perceive the past as God would have us see it (Ephesians 3:17-19).

In reading this book my belief was confirmed that Christians throughout all ages must keep their focus on Christ—as found in Scripture—and not be ensnared by what the culture assumes. However, I felt like the authors were vague about the progress of the Kingdom in the world now and unclear by what they meant by their solution of looking at Scripture and the past, “carefully.”