We can debate whether America is a Christian nation – I maintain that it is not. But I’m certain that the founding of the nation was deeply informed by Christian ideals, even if the founders were not purely “Christian.”
I think it’s interesting, because I know we can all be caught up in a cause and insist that our cause is just. We can easily set up the ideal and claim that it is that for which we vehemently stand.
But I say right now that in no way does our conduct meet the very standards which we claim to champion. It’s a perpetual “no true Scotsman” scenario. It’s something like someone extolling the virtues of Venezuelan socialism, only to see the country collapse, giving us the inevitable follow up, “well, Venezuela wasn’t a truly socialist country.”
And in our case, this is how it looks: America was founded as a Christian nation. The founders did things which were clearly not Christian (like own slaves). And so we can conclude that the founders were not true Christians.
This is what I’m getting at though. There is an ideal, and in this case, it is the Christian ideal. And it is a wonderful ideal with which one can build a system of society and the principles by which one can be governed. I mean, who can argue with, “love your neighbor as yourself,” or even more so, “love your enemy”? Who can argue with living by the fruit of the Spirit told to us in the Bible – “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control”? As a matter of fact, the writer of those words followed them immediately with the words, “against such things there is no law.” I love these last words, because they’re a gauntlet thrown saying “Who can argue with this?” “Let’s go to the rule book – what we know in our hearts to be so – as a measure of whether these work.”
But for me to claim that Christian ideals are those by which we must be guided and governed is to discount other systems of government. What is wrong with socialism? Can’t we say that the principles of socialism hold much the same principles as those held by Christianity? Is there fruit of the socialist spirit? Aren’t socialists motivated by love for their fellow humans?
I say actually, “no.” But why? Because it is the foundation of these claims that matter. And on what foundation does the socialist rely? In the end, the socialist is no different than the rest of us. At the heart of it, they rely on self. I mean, what else is there? The good of society? This too circles around to self. Why else would we suffer to “sacrifice” that we may live in a socialist utopia? If the good of the people is equivalent to the good of self, isn’t this just what is at the ground truth of the matter? Why would one want people to be treated as humans? What does it matter other than as a personal preference — a feeling?
But where does this feeling come from? By what standard may we say that it is a correct feeling? Because it is that which is generally accepted by society? Society has no sway – no governance over the hearts of men – other than it is composed of the very men whose hearts are governed.
And this is my point – if we are to claim that something is good and right, it would be right to do so by a standard that does not include ourselves as the model. If we don’t do that, we are simply saying that good is that which the most of us decide is right. And if we say that, we are dangerously close to saying “Slavery was right.” “Nazism was right.” “The genocide of so many around the world by those with power was right.” Because these were all things that were generally accepted by the societies in which they were done. And who are we now to say that those who did those things were wrong…other than by the morality by which we live today.
We could test this by asking ourselves honestly, “in another hundred years, will the actions we take today be condemned?” Will people look back and say, “Can you believe that people used to kill and eat animals?” Will we say, “How could anyone insist on owning and driving vehicles powered by gasoline?” Or, “They used to kill babies before they were even born?”
If we could take a time machine into the future, what would we see? I’ve said this before — we would be condemned simply because the hearts of those who make up “society” will have changed, as they always have in the past.
But to hold to the principles I stated above; not because they seem right and work for us, but because they are undergirded by an objective reality that will not change; gives us something to which we may cling – something solid and unchanging – as the guiding principle in how to live our lives and govern ourselves. It could be applied to the “Christian” founders of our nation then and it can be applied to us now and infinitely into the future. And if anyone were to say “why?” we could reply, “Not because it’s good for us and our society (because those things change), but because it is that which our creator has asked of us if we are to hold to a motive that is pure for our governance. Not to be influenced by the swirls and eddies of human emotion and desire, but to hold to a strong and solid rock that does not change.
