True or False: The United States is a Christian Nation

A Case For Qualified Answers

You probably weren’t expecting to start your day with a civics test, but here we go. There are three kinds of Americans. Some will rush to say unequivocally that this statement is true. Others will hasten to say that this statement is false. Then there are those like me who will respond with a question. What do you mean by “Christian Nation?”

A lot of Americans are talking past each other on this issue because we’re not stopping to carefully define our terms. And a lot of Americans don’t want to bother with hammering out definitions because, well, it’s complicated.

A Nation with a Christian Majority?

If a Christian majority makes a Christian Nation, then we are a Christian Nation. Christianity is, and always has been, the dominant religion in the United States. But what if professing Christians become a minority? Will we then cease to be a Christian Nation?

Pew Research shows a troubling trendline. In 1972, 90% of Americans identified as Christians. Today it’s about 65% and declining. If current trends continue, Christians will be a minority by 2070. Will the United States be a Christian Nation then?

A Nation with Christian Founders?

Another word needs to be defined here. What is a Christian? We evangelicals are happy heirs of the Protestant Reformation and the apostolic tradition. We affirm the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed. We confess that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to the authority of Scripture alone, to the glory of God alone. By this definition, if Christian Founders make a Christian Nation, then there’s room for debate.

When I wrote my book on Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin, I explored the belief systems of the most notable Founders and here’s a summary of what I discovered.

Most of these high-profile Founders denied cardinal doctrines of Christianity, but they were in general agreement on the superiority of the ethical system taught by Jesus. While many of our Founders were not genuine Christians, we can say that there was a Christian moral consensus among the Founders.

A Nation with Christian Founding Documents?

The Declaration of Independence does refer to God as “Nature’s God,” “Creator” and the “Supreme Judge,” common ways an 18^th century Deist would refer to God. But the Declaration never mentions Christ and the Constitution never mentions God at all, except in the date (“in the year of our Lord.”)

A Nation with Christian Leaders?

Does a Christian Nation require that only Christians can hold elected office?  If so, there should be a religious test. Of course, our Constitution forbids a religious test, indicating that our Founders didn’t intend for there to be one. But if that prohibition wasn’t in the Constitution, we have another problem. Which kind of Christians do you want to be in charge? The Roman Catholics? The Eastern Orthodox? The Episcopalians? The Methodists? The Baptists? The Lutherans? The Presbyterians? The Pentecostals? The Church of Christ? The Founders’ keen awareness of Europe’s history of religious wars helped them foresee the nightmare, so they put Article VI in the Constitution.

A Nation with Christian Laws?

If a Christian Nation lifts all the laws out of the Bible and sets them into our judicial code, would that be Christian Nation? Are we okay with the state enforcing laws against blasphemy, heresy, sabbath-breaking? Should the servers at Zaxby’s be put in jail for serving me a salad last Sunday? And if we say that only carefully selected Biblical laws should be enforced by the state, who gets to select them?  

So What’s The Conclusion?

I raise lot of questions here, and I believe there are good answers. I’m currently teaching Public Theology 101 on Sunday nights at our Madison Campus, and we’re doing a deep dive on the subject. My aim with this article is not to answer all the questions I raise, but to make this point: It’s complicated.

So, I might be willing to say that the United States is a Christian Nation using this definition:

The United States is a nation whose people and government have been historically, profoundly, and uniquely influenced by Christianity for the common good.

Our Founders agreed that our experiment in self-government would be successful only if our citizens are virtuous and informed, not vicious and ignorant. For that reason, they wisely bequeathed to us the First Amendment, guarding the most important institutions in our nation from the newly formed federal government: the church and the press.

These two institutions are effective checks on the power of the state, holding our government accountable. As I’ve written here, churches are important “mediating institutions” that limit government. Religious freedom is the first freedom, and Christians are Constitutionally guaranteed a place in the public square with everyone else, free to persuade their fellow Americans to adopt and enforce laws that maintain public order, promote peace, protest injustice, provide for the weak, and protect the innocent.

I don’t know what the future holds, but the trend-line is alarming. When professing Christians no longer understand the difference between right and wrong and the church is corrupted by partisan politics, valuing power over truth and love, the church loses its moral authority and can no longer effectively fill the role that our Founders envisioned.

May God bless America, and show us mercy.