With the first dawn of the new year it is natural to look ahead to 2026. Much will be made of “America 250.” Many of the loudest promoters of this milestone are people who haven’t got much of a clue as to why this nation was founded in the first place.
Our job this year is not to simply celebrate “America 250”, but also to ensure that we see “America 251” and beyond.
One of the rising threats to the future is an ascendant push from those who insist that we either become or return to being a “Christian nation.” “Christian nationalism” goes beyond a talking point. Recently, it was a not-so-subtle central theme in a speech from our current vice president. He is one of many in positions of power who believe that being a Christian nation should be the centerpiece of our governance.
I say what I am about to say as someone who was raised as a Christian and remains so to this day. But I was also raised to believe in the separation of church and state as a founding principle of the country that I love. In fact, if one believes in one of the Christian tenets that God granted us free will, that separation is both American and Christian.
But just for one second, let’s forget that there is a First Amendment that enshrines the right to freedom of religion. Let’s forget just for one second that many of our own founders fled persecution from a state religion in their home country.
Those things are significant, but let’s just set them aside for a second.
Let’s talk about what a “Christian nation” should look like.
Maybe I don’t remember Sunday school that well, and I am certainly not a biblical scholar. But certain lessons learned from that faith remain.
The word Christian has the word Christ in it, making the connection to Jesus Christ. Whether you believe Christ was the son of God, or whether you believe he was a prophet or whether you have no belief in any religion whatsoever, look at the life of Christ in the Bible.
If you believe in governing aligned with the values of Christ, then the New Year’s resolution should be to do that for real. It should not be a talking point to rally others in a coercive effort to compel others into adherence to your will. That example does not exist in the New Testament. Christ’s example was to extend a welcoming hand to all.
In John Chapter 8, a woman was to be stoned for adultery. Christ said, “let the man among you who has no sin be the first to cast a stone at her.”
Who among us could cast that stone? Who are we as individuals or as a nation to claim a mantle of infallibility over the liberties of our own people or the peoples of this world?
From our earliest days we were founded with glaring inconsistencies in our words and deeds. We stated in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
And yet for nearly nine more decades we kept millions of people enslaved. And even after they were legally freed, we kept a system of ongoing oppression that lingers even still.
We expanded across the continent making and breaking treaties with people who’d been here before us. We waged war on anyone who stood in the way of our Manifest Destiny. There are more examples across the arc of our history that are not the acts of a Christian nation.
But it is our imperfect history.
Our history is both beautifully aspirational at times and at other times it is violent and shameful. Both can be true. And the ability to understand, accept and hold these two contradictions in our mind is what makes a truly great nation.
But many of the same people stumping for us to be a Christian nation are using it, not because they want to be more Christ-like. They use it as a tool to stoke fear of others, and to get people to forget our foundations. It is a three-step process: persuasion, then coercion, which leads to the erosion of the foundations of liberty and democracy. If you’re not one of them, you will be singled out and marginalized.
A true Christian and a true American will not stand for antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism, xenophobia or the vilification of the LGBT community in this country. Christ himself walked the earth extending an open hand to others.
And yes, I know about the verse in Leviticus that is cited to condemn gays. But if you accept that, you must also accept the verse in the next chapter. That chapter states during harvest that some should be left for the poor and the alien. You must also accept that it says you should not speak falsely of others or withhold the wages of your laborers. And there is this other part about treating the alien that resides with you no differently than the natives born among you.
Sounds like Leviticus calls for us to treat workers fairly, to feed others, to welcome immigrants.
But back to the Christian nation concept. Christ spoke about and acted on many of the things that were addressed in Leviticus. Christ fed the poor. Christ healed the sick. He helped the lame walk and made the lepers whole.
His ministry was based on the idea of the good shepherd leading his flock and seeking out even the one lost sheep. He lived a life of welcoming acceptance and caring for all people. He did not condemn gays.
His family fled persecution to a foreign land and were welcomed on their return. He told parables about the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son. He did not ask for tax breaks for the wealthy. He spoke respectfully with women and acknowledged their wisdom at a time when that was not the norm. Some would use their professed faith to take us back to a time when women were seen as lesser people or even chattel.
The most lasting lesson of what it means to be a Christian to me came from Matthew 25: 37-40: “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or see you thirsty and give you drink? When did we welcome you away from home or clothe you in your nakedness? When did we visit you when you were ill or in prison? The Lord will answer them: “I assure you, as often as you did it for one of my least people, you did it for me.”
And now as we turn the page to our future in America, it is wise on this auspicious anniversary to remember the cornerstone of our founding. In Pennsylvania, William Penn established this Commonwealth. And he enshrined religious freedom in the 1680s and reinforced it again in 1701 in his Charter of Privileges.
The first privilege granted was religious freedom, a concept he called “Liberty of Conscience”. That concept was so important he restated it later in the closing paragraphs of that charter: “BUT, because the Happiness of Mankind depends so much upon the Enjoying of Liberty of their Consciences, as aforesaid, I do hereby solemnly declare, promise and grant, for me, my Heirs and Assigns, That the First Article of this Charter relating to Liberty of Conscience, and every Part and Clause therein, according to the true Intent and Meaning thereof, shall be kept and remain, without any Alteration, inviolably for ever.”
That was 90 years before the U.S. Bill of Rights was ratified. That was 324 years before the governor’s mansion in Penn’s Commonwealth was firebombed in an act of religious intolerance.
In Virginia, religious freedom was established by the Statute for Religious Freedom written by Thomas Jefferson in 1777 and enacted into law in 1786. That statute extended beyond Christians to include all faiths, including Jews and Muslims.
“That our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any more than our opinions in physics or geometry, That therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence, by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages, to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right,
That it tends only to corrupt the principles of that very Religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing with a monopoly of worldly honors and emoluments those who will externally profess and conform to it;
That though indeed, these are criminal who do not withstand such temptation, yet neither are those innocent who lay the bait in their way”
Clearly that statute stands in stark contrast to those who would use faith to exclude others and those who bait others to do the same.
But Jefferson himself calls to mind the complex history of our country. He wrote about life and liberty and was also a slaveholder. He knew of his contradictions and those of his nation. On the northwest wall of the Jefferson Memorial his own words are carved: “Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever”.
If our liberties are a gift of God, who are we to infringe on the liberties of others? And now America faces the threat of those who would weaponize faith to institute a de facto state religion.
If their intent is truly based in the Christianity they profess, their actions should speak louder than their words and support separation of church and state. We were never established as a Christian theocracy or to elevate one faith over all others. If that is what you wish to happen, you are neither truly American nor truly a Christian.
