Every Christian in America should be suspect. Every single one of us. Every single Christian in America. Non-Christian Americans should be looking at us sideways wondering where our real loyalty lies. Are we real patriots? This should be their question.
Those Christians, they won’t stop working for justice, peace, and equity in all facets of our common life – what is their deal? Those Christians want us to openly face unfortunate parts of our history, to repent, and to make amends regardless of how uncomfortable that makes us, or how much it changes our narrative of our past. Those Christians insist on ending homelessness at all costs. Those Christians keep visiting prisoners, keep advocating for poor people, keep welcoming immigrants, keep insisting on the value of all people. Those Christians won’t abide hate-filled and sensationalistic language that needlessly divides and others my enemies. Those Christians keep creating communities that cross the racial and socio-economic barriers our country has created. Those Christians don’t believe that might makes right, that wealth equals virtue, that people are collateral. Those Christians seem to be more concerned with what Jesus thinks than what the Founding Fathers thought.
This, of course, is not how people commonly speak of Christians in America. It is certainly not how the majority of Christians in America speak of themselves. For most of us – myself included – we have seen our Christianity and our Americanness as utterly intertwined, even as supporting and upholding one another. It is a commonly accepted idea that America is a Christian nation founded on Christian ideals. We have perpetuated this image regardless of its glaring historical inaccuracy and its plain contradiction to the foundational documents of both America and Christianity.
The idea that my Christianity would be at odds with my patriotism makes me wildly uncomfortable. I hate it, really. For as long as I can remember I’ve been a Christian, and for as long as I can remember I’ve been American. I remember watching a US aircraft carrier docking in San Diego. I was in 6th grade, and that ship was carrying a family friend who had been deployed in the Persian Gulf. As the ship pulled in, its deck lined with uniformed sailors, the loudspeakers blared “I’m Proud to be an American” and I felt it in my 11-year-old bones. And God bless America, I thought. This country that has formed me has been in my prayers since I could pray.
I love Jesus and I love America, and I am not interested in changing either of those things any time soon. I have to admit, though, that I have been conditioned to believe that my love of country and my obedience to Jesus are synonymous – or at least that they are cozy bedfellows, resting comfortably with each other side by side, never at odds with one another. And this is profoundly problematic.
America is not Christian, and it never was. Even if the majority of people who created this country identified as Christian, it was not a Christian country at its founding. And it wasn’t founded with Judeo-Christian values, because there is no such thing as Judeo-Christianity. That phrase is a modern invention with no teeth and less meaning. And as a lifelong (and professional) Christian, I am fine with America not being Christian. I just want us to be honest about it.
I do not believe people or things have to be Christian in order for them to have value or contribute beauty to this world. But I do believe that when something I love runs counter to the claim Jesus makes on my life as a Christian, my responsibility is to follow Jesus. As long as America has existed, there has been great beauty and great horror. There have been ways in which this country has glorified God and ways in which we have acted shamefully, sinfully. Not just as individuals – but on a national level. Both are true, and both have always been true.
The question for the Christian in America is how we can best serve Jesus in America – not how we can be the best Americans and fit Jesus into the cracks of that. And though I have written about it before, it is worth repeating emphatically here that following Jesus as a Christian in America does not mean advocating for Christian nationalism. The way of Jesus is not the way of coercing others into conforming to my religious beliefs. Christian nationalism is both anti-Christian and anti-American. In that sense it has the amazing distinction of being doubly blasphemous to the Christian American.
There is a difference between trying to create a country where everyone identifies as Christian and trying to create a country that is Christlike. A so-called Christian country that puts the Ten Commandments up in the same schools where the children are forced to practice active shooter drills is missing the point. A so-called Christian country that forces people to give birth to children who will receive no medical care and have no safety net is missing the point. A so-called Christian country that racially profiles and illegally detains migrants and refugees while worshiping the migrant refugee named Jesus is missing the point. We don’t need every Christian in America to push our religion onto other people: We need every Christian in America to be more Christlike.
I am tempted to argue that in our current climate, standing up and speaking out for the dignity of migrants, for LGBTQ+ persons, for the poorest in our community – that this would be the height of patriotism: For what could be a more authentic and faithful love of my country than to hold it to the standards and aspirations for which it was founded? But in all honesty, I don’t believe Christians should be expending energy trying to prove that our beliefs are patriotic. Frankly, it does not matter if our beliefs are patriotic: It matters if they are Christian.
Let me say that again. It does not matter if a Christian’s beliefs are patriotic: It matters if they are Christian.
And I find myself thinking, God, bless America. Not God Bless America as a love letter to a perfect country who has merited God’s favor. No: God, bless America, I pray. As a prayer to God that we receive the blessing of knowing the truth of who we are, and the courage to become something more.
God, bless America, I pray. That we might take seriously the welfare of all who reside here, and all who are impacted by our national life, by the choices we and those in positions of civic authority make. God, bless America, I pray, so that we might promote the health, safety, and prosperity of the many, not just the few. God, bless America, I pray, that we might actually recognize the inalienable rights of every human being to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. God, bless America, I pray, such that every one of us may be housed and fed. God, bless America, I pray, that every person in this country might experience the free exercise of their religion, of their speech and assembly. God, bless America, I pray, giving us a clear recognition that everyone should have a vote, everyone should have a voice, everyone should have a say in the workings of this country.
As a Christian in America, I pray, God, that you bless this country with minds to comprehend the wholeness of what we have been and what we are becoming; with eyes to see Christ in every human being so that we might treat every single person with the dignity you have given them; with courageous, disciplined hearts to love the people you have given into our care in real and practical ways. God, bless America, I pray, so that we might be a blessing to others. God, bless America, I pray, not because we have earned your blessing, but because we need it.
