The Right's Historical Revisionism

Last week President Obama said that America was not a Christian nation, setting a frenzy over the airwaves of conservative talk radio. Both hosts and callers were dumbfounded and irate at the President's statement. I, for one, was not. Although I am politically conservative, I do not suffer from the historical revisionism of the American right. American conservatives need a good dose of history, philosophy, and Scripture, to remove the shackles of illusion.

I know we were taught in public schools that Europeans emigrated to the New World for the three "G's", gold, glory, and God. Usually they are put in that order, as well. However, a cursory reading of both "The Mayflower Compact" and "A Model of Christian Charity" reveals quite a different story. God was the primary motivation. One need only read the founding charters of the Ivy League schools to support this fact. Spreading Christianity throughout the New world - converting the nations to the Faith - was the rudimentary objective. Even pre-college school children received thorough instruction in the teachings of Scripture through The New England Primer. It was the best-selling text in the colonies, apart from the Bible. Writings of Puritans and Pilgrims abound with Christian teachings and passages from Scripture. Colonial literature drips so heavily with religion, God, and the Bible, perhaps it is only natural that many believe our nation used to be a Christian nation.

But when did the U.S. become a nation? When the Pilgrims landed in 1620? When Winthrop proclaimed that we should be a "city on a hill" in 1630? When Jonathan Edwards attested to the "surprising work of God" in the 1700s? Much time and history transpired between 1620 and 1776. Part of the problem with many conservatives is that they confuse 1776 with 1620, as if our nation was founded upon century-old ideas and sentiments that never changed. The Religious Right does not account for the intellectual hostility towards a Christian worldview that occured with the Enlightenment. The first document of our founding, "The Declaration of Independence," is indebted to the ideals of the Englightenment, not to Christianity.

Consider. When does the Bible give the Christian the right to rebel against authority? Where in the Bible are we told that we have the right to "liberty and the pursuit of happiness?" Would God be pleased with the idea of just calling Him "Nature's God?" Doesn't the Father want the Son to be glorified? Didn't the Son "sit down at the right hand of the Father?" Where is the mention, in our most important founding document, of Jesus being the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords? Does God ever tell us that "all men are created equal?" Compare the opening of Winthrop's, "A Model of Christian Charity," in which he argues for God making some poor, some rich, some base, some virtuous, for His own glory, to the idea of certain "unalienable rights?"

If we consider the Bill of Rights, the picture gets more grim. Would God be pleased with a law that guarantees liars the right to free expression? Does He permit gossip of any man? Is it a Christian idea to allow for diversity of worship in serving a supreme being? I thought the Son was "the Way, the Truth, and the Life?" Think about the 5th Amendment. Does it honor God to allow citizens to prevent themselves from prosecution? Does God ever give His creatures the right to deny their guilt? And, perhaps most telling, what does Scripture tell us is the source of true unity? Does "a more perfect union" come by man-made contracts and laws?

Many American Christians and conservatives need to wake up. This nation was never intended to be a Christian nation. Enlightenment ideals of equality and individual liberty led to the founding of the United States. Certainly there were many Christians in early America. But that is not constitute a God-honoring, or Christian, nation. The fact is, the Enlightenment championed human Reason above Divine Revelation. Not that every founding father or every leader was a Deist or Skeptic. But the most influential ones - Paine, Franklin, Jefferson, Washington - all questioned Revelation. They saw religion as a social good, not as "Truth." They stripped Christianity of its theology, and tried to keep the ethics. This can't be done because morality is connected with the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, who reveal it to mankind. For the Founding Fathers, acheiving political unity was more important than theological precision.

Do you still think America was a Christian nation? I encourage you to read Jefferson and Franklin on religion. Compare their views Jonathan Edwards, Cotton Mather, and John Winthrop. At least by reading, you will be able to discern the enormous difference in thought, tone, and motivation, among the Puritan writers and the Founding Fathers.