The Christian-American Contradiction
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
It may have been seven or eight years ago when I finally realized how strange it was to be singing America the Beautiful during a Church service. I can only imagine it was a byproduct of Post-WWII America that Patriotism and Faith became intertwined, fueling false notions of each founding father being a Christian and forging this nation with the intent of being God’s Country.
There are certainly Christian founding fathers, and a multitude of other historical figures that certainly believed in Christ the sacrificial son of God. However, it is very clear that the founding fathers never intended America to be a theocracy. Before even the freedom of speech or the press are guaranteed, the First Amendment ensures its citizens that never shall the government establish an official religion, nor should any religion be banned.
Yet the Patriotic Church-Goers have tongues tied with accusations of their country being invaded by sinful filth, wrecking America’s good Christian nature. While the history books are already filled with the sinful realities of America’s bloody, prejudiced history, I will not be dwelling on such lessons of fact. I merely wish to focus on the tragedy that these Patriots hail allegiance to a government that demanded they compromise from day one.
Keep in mind I do not seek to speak against America or its most noble of ideals, regardless of its past mistakes. I instead merely wish to point out the contradiction that non-Christians are ruining the nation when the first promise the nation ever made was to permit all religions a safe haven. The First Amendment is clear and without a specifying footnote. There shall be no official religion of America, nor shall any religion be banned or punished.
Of course, the idea that a government could ever “be Christian” is an absurd one. When the Israelites demanded God give them a King like the other nations, He and His prophet Samuel were pretty clear on how badly it would go. The Old Testament is littered with a disobedient people insistent on doing things as the other nations rather than God’s, and repeatedly we witness one corrupt king after the next lead God’s people to sin and disaster. There were good leaders as well, such as Samuel and the annointed king David, but these men were not free from sin and their sons were often willful sinners themselves.
Can you look at the current American President of the year 2018 and believe him to be a Godly leader? He is supposedly of the God-loving party of Republicans, yet he is a vain and prideful man that delights in the hatred of others and has been rewarded for his arrogance with immortality in the history books. Regardless of how many of his decisions you believe to be positive versus negative, any Bible studying Christian should easily be able to look at the man and cringe at how sinful a representative we’ve selected for our country.
I have digressed from my point, however. God had desired his people to need no greater leader than he, and while there was a priestly hierarchy established via the prophets, each prophet was intended to serve the people of Israel – y’know, like Jesus would serve centuries later. What Samuel illustrates is that these mortal, fallible kings do not serve the people, but rather coerce and force the people to serve his own myopic desires.
Again, there are “good” leaders in the Old Testament as well, but even Moses had committed murder and David had suffered a greater scandal of infidelity than either JFK or Bill Clinton.
“Come hither, servant! Your king requires you fetch that which he must most righteously tap!”
There are two lessons that can be gleaned from this in regards to America. The first is gratitude that our country has built into it methods to hold our leaders accountable to the people, ensuring they serve the needs of the people over the needs of their own. At least, that’s how the system is designed. However, in witnessing how rarely politicians are properly held accountable – be they Democrat or Republican – we see the other lesson with clarity.
A human government is fallible because people are fallible.
I would say the greatest struggle of the modern Christian is acknowledging the American government as an imperfect system. When it became a struggle I do not know. It was certainly a step towards improvement upon its founding, but there has always been injustice done in some fashion. Many European nationalities experienced prejudice and poverty, but there is no denying the new opportunity many of them had found. While these groups were seeing progress, however, Chinese were being underpaid and mistreated to build our railroad. In less than a hundred years of our founding we entered a Civil War because of the slavery of our fellow man. Even after the freedom of African slaves was won, we continued to segregate and divide the people based on superficial attributes and assumptions.
I do not speak of these events to proselytize you readers into White guilt. America is hardly alone in such crimes, and such prejudices continue in other countries. What I am seeking to emphasize is that Christian Americans believe in this dream of a “Great America” that never existed. America has always had the foundation for greatness, but that greatness has never been achieved. It has especially never become manifest in a fashion that would be a reflection of God’s kingdom.
Which, perhaps, is where the greatest contradiction in being a Christian-American exists. Who do you owe your greater allegiance to? The Cross and your savior that died upon it, or a flag representing ideals crafted by fallible men and built upon a nation’s extensive history of hypocrisy?
I can already imagine my own parents balking at the audacity of such treachery and treason. I do not mean to rebel against America, though in comparison to the kingdom of God I cannot help but find it wanting.
However, I cannot help but reflect back Acts 11, where the “circumcision party” – simply “they that were of the circumcision” in King James Version – were outraged that Peter had violated Old Testament laws and supped and spoke with uncircumcised Gentiles. Such things were deemed unclean. However, true to Christ’s own mission, Peter illustrates a vision he had seen in which all things previously considered unclean were now accessible.
In other words, all the things that segregated the Jews from the Gentiles – in other words, the majority of us Americans – were cast aside so that salvation could be brought to all upon this Earth.
While the similarities with America’s own segregation is clear, I do not address this passage explicitly for America and its people. I more use it to illustrate that all segregation is abolished in the Kingdom of God.
Again I must ask about which Kingdom it is we pledge our allegiance to. If I am a Christian, then my fellow brothers and sisters are not restricted to a single nationality or language. I am a citizen of God’s kingdom, meaning I am a citizen not of a single government body but the world.
“And Jesus cried, ‘Dost thou suffer me a fool? This denarius is made of chocolate!’”
Yet Jesus also made one other point clear himself:
‘Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?’ But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, ‘Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.’ And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, ‘Whose likeness and inscription is this?’ They said, ‘Caesar’s.’ Then he said to them, ‘Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’
In my heart I am a citizen of the Kingdom of God, but while I live on this Earth I am a citizen of whatever government I dwell under. I pay taxes to the government, I obey the government’s traffic laws, and so long as none of the laws compromise my freedom to practice my religion, I am willing to obey all laws the government puts in place.
That’s the troublesome thought, though. In what way can the government inhibit my freedom to practice my religion? Is fury and anger the best way to protect my freedom? At what point am I violating the First Amendment and forcing my faith unto others?
This is the real contradiction, and one I wish more Christians would recognize and acknowledge. As much as we can vote with a Christian philosophy – and we should be well read in the Bible enough to logically explain our position beyond “because it’s a sin” or “because God said so” – there will always be matters that either force us to compromise our faith or to compromise the First Amendment.
At the same time, it is easier to accept the imperfect nature of this country once you recognize that it has never belonged to God. Why would God need a country upon this sinful Earth, anyway? Especially one that allowed its citizens to deny the salvation brought by his Son? Once you can recognize America as just another flawed government of man, it gradually becomes easier to look at the ballot and understand you’re not voting for a Christian nation.
I do not compromise my values in the voting booth. I do my best to keep from forcing someone else to my beliefs. After all, Jesus did not conquer the Roman Empire and force everyone to worship his father. He and his Apostles peacefully spoke and remained guiltless according to any man’s law. The blood of martyrs was spilled, yes, but that’s because those men served a higher nation.
So my question is, why do we feel the need to serve a flag with greater fervor than we do the Cross?
