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Who says America is a Christian nation?
By: LILA HANFT Staff Reporter
When a friend recently told me that "America is a Christian nation," I stood with my mouth agape.
"Think about it," she said. "Who founded this country? Pilgrims, Puritans, and Quakers n all Christian."
I had an excellent rebuttal for her (I'm not the daughter of a history professor for nothing). The fact is that several founding fathers held all religions in low esteem. And in their personal correspondence, both George Washington (a nominal Christian) and Thomas Jefferson (a Deist) warned against the dangers of theocracy and specified that liberal democracy and the freedoms it afforded could only exist if the government had no influence over religion and vice versa.
My friend is Jewish, so it wasn't as though she were on some born-again crusade to make every American accept Jesus as his or her personal savior.
She didn't think America should be a Christian nation. What she was saying was even scarier: that American Jews and other non-Christians, as well as non-believers, will always be strangers in a strange land. The country to which we give allegiance, taxes, military service and sometime our lives is not ours in the same way that it is most everyone else's.
‘Christian nation' in the news
My conversation with my friend was not an isolated instance. The words "Christian nation" have been popping up with alarming frequency in American popular discourse. Using the online search engine Nexis, I found 341 instances of the term "Christian nation" in major media outlets over the past 90 days.
Twenty of them are editorials arguing that America is, or was, or should be, a Christian nation.
Other "Christian nation" stories profile groups or individuals bent on proving our nation's innate Christianhood. (There are more of these groups than I'd ever imagined; google "Wallbuilders," "Providence House" or "American Christian History Institute" for some scary ones.)
In a recent New York Times article, David D. Kirkpatrick profiles David Barton, a conservative Christian who has given "spiritual heritage" tours of the Capitol to scores of Congressmen and citizens. On these tours, Barton offers "proof" of the Christian foundations of American history. For example, standing before a mural in which George Washington is surrounded by clouds and angels, Barton reads an excerpt from then-General Washington's "prayer for America." Washington urges citizens to imitate "the Characteristicks of the Divine Author of our Blessed Religion.'' According to Barton, Washington is saying, "Hey, we have won the war but if we don't imitate Christ, we won't be a happy nation."
The plausibility of his interpretation aside, Barton doesn't mention that, excluding this document, references to Jesus or God are extremely rare in Washington's correspondence (he was more likely to refer to a divine "Providence'' and the laws of nature). In a well-known letter to a Jewish synagogue in Rhode Island, in fact, Washington overtly advocated religious freedom, writing that in America all faiths were not only tolerated, but fully equal.
Judicial matters
The term "Christian nation" often crops up in reference to the highest court of the land. In an AP story about the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, author Gina Holland reminds readers that "O'Connor was embarrassed in 1989 after conservative Republicans in Arizona used a letter she had sent (them) to support their claim that the United States is a ‘Christian nation.'"
In other judicial matters, Max Blumenthal, writing for The Nation, attended a "Center for Reclaiming America" meeting focused on ridding America of liberal judges. "The ‘Constitution Restoration Act' (would, if passed,) authorize Congress to impeach judges who fail to abide by ‘the standard of good behavior' required by the Constitution," reports Blumenthal. "If they refuse to acknowledge ‘God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government,' … judges invite impeachment."
The momentum behind the "Christian nation" movement has clearly intensified during the Bush administration. Two years ago, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had to recuse himself from the Supreme Court's review of whether "under God" should be in the Pledge of Allegiance, after he complained (in a synagogue!) that the courts are stripping God from public life. At the time, Scalia also said he believes in "the divine authority behind government."
Religious and irreligious alike
Political philosopher Hannah Arendt, who fled first her native Germany and then France ahead of the Nazis, had a keen eye for the particular ways social movements abridge human rights. In "Religion and Politics" (1953), Arendt writes that the separation of church and state has "singular advantages for religious as well as irreligious people. Modern history has shown time and again that alliances between ‘throne' and ‘altar' can only discredit both."
Arendt's essay presages the religious right's recent attempts to mobilize their particular Christian agenda in every area of public life. Take, for example, "The "Patriot Pastor" movement (www.ohiorestorationproject.com), which intentionally blurs the line between religious and political authority. "Patriot Pastors" agree to a "covenant" that they'll recruit "100 Minutemen of Prayer" (who) will enable 100,000 faithful to intercede at a moment's notice via e-mail" and to register "300 new voters able to shine a light for Godly candidates in the 2006 election cycle."
"If we try to inspire public-political life with ‘religious passion,'" Arendt writes, "the result may very well be … a fanaticism which is utterly alien to … freedom."
The founding fathers were well-acquainted with the waves of fanaticism, zealotry and theocratic totalitarianism that swept Europe. In creating a new government they uniformly avoided the passionate extremes, implementing instead the principles of plurality and tolerance.
The separation of church and state isn't coincidental to democracy. It is its defining feature and the reason America has been a haven from religious and ethnic violence for people from all over the world.
"Think about it," she said. "Who founded this country? Pilgrims, Puritans, and Quakers n all Christian."
I had an excellent rebuttal for her (I'm not the daughter of a history professor for nothing). The fact is that several founding fathers held all religions in low esteem. And in their personal correspondence, both George Washington (a nominal Christian) and Thomas Jefferson (a Deist) warned against the dangers of theocracy and specified that liberal democracy and the freedoms it afforded could only exist if the government had no influence over religion and vice versa.
My friend is Jewish, so it wasn't as though she were on some born-again crusade to make every American accept Jesus as his or her personal savior.
She didn't think America should be a Christian nation. What she was saying was even scarier: that American Jews and other non-Christians, as well as non-believers, will always be strangers in a strange land. The country to which we give allegiance, taxes, military service and sometime our lives is not ours in the same way that it is most everyone else's.
‘Christian nation' in the news
My conversation with my friend was not an isolated instance. The words "Christian nation" have been popping up with alarming frequency in American popular discourse. Using the online search engine Nexis, I found 341 instances of the term "Christian nation" in major media outlets over the past 90 days.
Twenty of them are editorials arguing that America is, or was, or should be, a Christian nation.
Other "Christian nation" stories profile groups or individuals bent on proving our nation's innate Christianhood. (There are more of these groups than I'd ever imagined; google "Wallbuilders," "Providence House" or "American Christian History Institute" for some scary ones.)
In a recent New York Times article, David D. Kirkpatrick profiles David Barton, a conservative Christian who has given "spiritual heritage" tours of the Capitol to scores of Congressmen and citizens. On these tours, Barton offers "proof" of the Christian foundations of American history. For example, standing before a mural in which George Washington is surrounded by clouds and angels, Barton reads an excerpt from then-General Washington's "prayer for America." Washington urges citizens to imitate "the Characteristicks of the Divine Author of our Blessed Religion.'' According to Barton, Washington is saying, "Hey, we have won the war but if we don't imitate Christ, we won't be a happy nation."
The plausibility of his interpretation aside, Barton doesn't mention that, excluding this document, references to Jesus or God are extremely rare in Washington's correspondence (he was more likely to refer to a divine "Providence'' and the laws of nature). In a well-known letter to a Jewish synagogue in Rhode Island, in fact, Washington overtly advocated religious freedom, writing that in America all faiths were not only tolerated, but fully equal.
Judicial matters
The term "Christian nation" often crops up in reference to the highest court of the land. In an AP story about the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, author Gina Holland reminds readers that "O'Connor was embarrassed in 1989 after conservative Republicans in Arizona used a letter she had sent (them) to support their claim that the United States is a ‘Christian nation.'"
In other judicial matters, Max Blumenthal, writing for The Nation, attended a "Center for Reclaiming America" meeting focused on ridding America of liberal judges. "The ‘Constitution Restoration Act' (would, if passed,) authorize Congress to impeach judges who fail to abide by ‘the standard of good behavior' required by the Constitution," reports Blumenthal. "If they refuse to acknowledge ‘God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government,' … judges invite impeachment."
The momentum behind the "Christian nation" movement has clearly intensified during the Bush administration. Two years ago, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had to recuse himself from the Supreme Court's review of whether "under God" should be in the Pledge of Allegiance, after he complained (in a synagogue!) that the courts are stripping God from public life. At the time, Scalia also said he believes in "the divine authority behind government."
Religious and irreligious alike
Political philosopher Hannah Arendt, who fled first her native Germany and then France ahead of the Nazis, had a keen eye for the particular ways social movements abridge human rights. In "Religion and Politics" (1953), Arendt writes that the separation of church and state has "singular advantages for religious as well as irreligious people. Modern history has shown time and again that alliances between ‘throne' and ‘altar' can only discredit both."
Arendt's essay presages the religious right's recent attempts to mobilize their particular Christian agenda in every area of public life. Take, for example, "The "Patriot Pastor" movement (www.ohiorestorationproject.com), which intentionally blurs the line between religious and political authority. "Patriot Pastors" agree to a "covenant" that they'll recruit "100 Minutemen of Prayer" (who) will enable 100,000 faithful to intercede at a moment's notice via e-mail" and to register "300 new voters able to shine a light for Godly candidates in the 2006 election cycle."
"If we try to inspire public-political life with ‘religious passion,'" Arendt writes, "the result may very well be … a fanaticism which is utterly alien to … freedom."
The founding fathers were well-acquainted with the waves of fanaticism, zealotry and theocratic totalitarianism that swept Europe. In creating a new government they uniformly avoided the passionate extremes, implementing instead the principles of plurality and tolerance.
The separation of church and state isn't coincidental to democracy. It is its defining feature and the reason America has been a haven from religious and ethnic violence for people from all over the world.
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| Paulls receive special honor |
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