June 9
One Nation Under God
In The Church of the Holy Trinity Vs. United States, the justices unanimously decided that America is a Christian Nation. They wrote, “Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of The Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise, and in this sense, and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian.” And later in the same document, they wrote, “These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation.”
In 1892, the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States of America had no problem declaring America a Christian nation. Would anyone do the same a hundred years later?
Our coins say “In God we Trust,” yet the way most people live their lives it proves they really trust in money, not God. Prayer opens every session of Congress and the Supreme Court, but those same government officials prohibit prayer at High School ball games and in public schools. (Frankly, I’m not as concerned that the government won’t allow prayer in the schools as I am that Christian parents do little to encourage it in the home.)
I would argue that we never were a Christian nation. Yes, we were founded on religious principles, but they are not necessarily Christian principles. Thomas Jefferson was a Deist. That’s why the documents he wrote refer to God as “Creator.”
What does all this mean? Instead of decrying the erosion of Christianity, maybe we should do something about it. No, I’m not sounding a call to political activism. We need to proclaim Christ and allow the Christian message to compete in the marketplace of ideas. If we proclaim the gospel, people will respond. And I’d rather see a nation of Christians than a Christian nation any day.
Jim L. Wilson, Fresh Start Devotionals (Fresno, CA: Willow City Press, 2009).
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