This essay is a brief reflection on the claims that America is a Christian nation. There is much more to say than what is said here. This picture is painted with very broad strokes.
The Pilgrims came to this land seeking the freedom to practice their religion, a religion which they hoped would be purified of all the corruption found in the English church. In time, it became clear that it would be necessary to break the political ties with the homeland. So, with the evident blessing of God, these good Christians, on July 4, 1776, declared themselves to be an independent nation. After a long struggle they defeated the British and became a free, independent “Christian” nation.
Only the rising secularism of the 1950s and 1960s changed that. As prayer and Bible reading were removed from the schools, the nation lost sight of its Christian roots. The United States became a secular nation. It had forgotten its great mission in the world, the mission to be a “city set on a hill” drawing the world to Christianity.
That’s an admittedly simplistic version of the story. And, of course, you know that this version of our nation’s origins has been questioned in recent years. According to the new “revisionist” view of our early history, the Founding Fathers (and Founding Mothers, like Betsy Ross) were deists. They believed God probably existed and had probably created the world but he was not actively involved in the day to day activities of humans. Their goal in creating a new nation was not simply freedom of religion but freedom from religion.
Which version of our nation’s birth is correct? In a sense, both and neither. There are elements of truth in both versions.
The Pilgrims did come to establish a society based on biblical principles, as they understood them; they went on this “errand” into the wilderness, as one of their leaders called it, in order to prove the merits of living according to God’s revealed truth. Of course, many of them hoped their exile from England would be temporary. Their goal was to make the people back home envious, to convince them that they should adopt such a political system. Then, they could go back home.
Eventually they realized they would not be going back home, that they were home. Still, they tried to maintain faithfulness to Christian principles but it was hard.
To begin with, they were not alone. Others had arrived in the new world before them and others came after them. Many of these people had no religious motivation. In fact, a sizable number of the new settlers didn’t even bring their baptismal certificates because they just assumed there would be no churches in the new world. We easily forget that by the time of the American Revolution only one in five colonists were part of any church. Only a few years later, there were reports of people in the Carolinas who had never seen a Bible or heard of Jesus Christ.
The Puritan experiment failed for another reason, one closer to home. Their own children failed to embrace their faith. Before someone could join one of the Puritan churches he or she had to make what we would call a profession of faith. Only those who belonged to a church had voting rights--an effort to keep the right people in places of power. As the early generations grew older, it became clear that many of their baptized children were remaining unregenerate. Reluctantly, these were allowed to join the churches so they could help run the colony. Then these unregenerate men and women began to have children of their own. After considerable debate, the New England ministers decided it would be allowable to baptize these children even though their parents had never made their own professions of faith. So, as the eighteenth century dawned, less than one-hundred years after the Pilgrims landed, much of the church in New England was made up of unregenerate men and women.
Does this mean the revisionist view is correct? No. Those who helped found our nation may not have been believers with a personal relationship with God through Christ, but they were influenced by the Christian world-view. Thomas Jefferson was an avid reader of the New Testament. He even published a version of the gospels which is occasionally republished under the title “The Jefferson Bible.” This little book contained the ethical teachings of Jesus, with no mention of the miracles or Jesus’ claims to be the Son of God. Jefferson believed Jesus was a great moral teacher but denied the fundamental notion that Jesus was God incarnate.
Others among the founders held similar beliefs. They were not orthodox in any sense of the word but they had a great respect for the moral teachings of Jesus.
Still, there were those who seem to have been genuine Christians. Fiery orator Patrick Henry and John Carroll, signer of the Declaration, both appear to have been believers. John Jay, first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, was a devout Christian. Doubtless there were others among the many commanders and local leaders whose names are lost to all but the most meticulous historians. These people made an impact on their families, their communities, and the nation.
Of course, there were those among our nation’s founders who did not have a personal commitment to Christ, but they still valued the influence Christianity had on the culture. Consider this. If you could see the title search for the land on which our house is built here in Worthington you’d find it was once part of a land grant—some of you may live on land that was also part of that grant. This grant, given in 1796, gave a large portion of what is now central Ohio to veterans of the Revolution and to the Moravian Brethren to help them in their efforts in “propagating the Gospel to the heathen.” John Adams, who signed the original grant, and Thomas Jefferson, who also supported the idea, believed the nation would be best served if the Native American population were to adopt Christianity.
Despite this, many Americans at the beginning of the nineteenth century had abandoned Christianity. French skepticism was the order of the day. In the Kentucky wilderness, towns were founded where no one ever intended a church to be built.
A few years into the nineteenth century, Adams signed a treaty with Libya which said, among other things, “…the government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion....”
Confusing, isn’t it? Sometimes observers at the time seem to have been confused. Alixis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), a young visitor from France, toured the U. S. in the 1830s and wrote about what he saw here. Listen to what he had to say about the relation of our nation and Christianity: “There is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America….”
Of course, de Tocqueville said something else interesting about the nation which was of interest to so many in Europe who were waiting to see what would happen to the democratic experiment. He said, “While the law permits the Americans to do what they please, religion prevents them from conceiving, and forbids them to commit, what is rash and unjust.”
So we have to ask, do you agree with Sydney Mead, the American church historian, who described America as “the nation with the soul of a church” or agree with the journalist who said American society has been “post-Christian” for at least three-hundred years?
Those who believe the nation was founded on the fundamental teachings of Christianity and those who believe the nation was founded on secular principles, are responding to the mixed signals sent by our nation’s founders.
But such ambiguity didn’t cripple the church or keep it from doing its work.
About the time Thomas Jefferson was sending the Corp of Discovery led by Lewis and Clark to explore the Louisiana Purchase, hundreds of pastors and other church leaders were beginning to receive the answer to prayers they had been offering for years. They had been praying for a spiritual awakening and early in the new century the revival began. Called “the Second Great Awakening,” this revival exploded in the west in the Camp Meetings Revivals in Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and other states; it was seen in the East on campuses and churches in major cities. A newspaper tried to report the number of conversions per week but soon wasn’t able to keep up with all the reports coming in.
This revival saw the birth of the American missions’ movement. Adonirum Judson, the first American Baptist missionary, committed himself to missions during this revival. This revival transformed churches, institutions, and saw the beginning of the growth which would eventually make the Baptist denomination the largest Protestant denomination in the nation.
Despite the impact of the Second Awakening, by the mid 1800s, American churches were spiritually stagnant. Dr. J. Edwin Orr lists three causes for this situation.
--The demoralizing impact of the Mexican-American war in which mere teenagers from a local military academy were butchered as they attempted to defend Mexico City.
--The humiliating aftermath of so many sincere believers acting on William Miller’s predictions that Christ would return in 1843. Although the majority of American Christians did not fall under Miller’s spell, most Bible-believing Christians were treated with scorn and ridicule.
--The moral impact of the institution of slavery on the culture. The United States, in 1850, was the only Western nation which still endorsed and practiced slavery. Britain, influenced by Evangelicals like William Wilberforce and John Newton, had abolished slavery nearly a half-century before. That so many Christians tried to defend slavery only further eroded the spiritual life of the Christian community.
Then, in 1858, a group of laymen in New York City began a prayer meeting. Only a handful of people attended the first day but before long thousands were involved. Soon, churches across the nation were revived. Converts were in the thousands and the impact of the revival continued even after the beginning of the Civil War. Evangelists sometimes came to the front lines to preach and invite men to faith. Many responded. The impact of the so-called Prayer Meeting revival is difficult to overestimate.
Almost a century later the nation was caught up in the Great Depression. The Depression provides the backdrop of another myth about American Christianity, the notion that the Depression resulted in a spiritual revival. Frankly, there doesn’t seem to be any real evidence to support that claim. In fact, many churches suffered during the Depression from lack of funds and loss of members. During the Depression, 20 to 25% of churches in Texas had to close their doors for a while because of finances.
Only a few years later, following WWII, America did begin to experience another spiritual renewal. This was when Billy Graham burst on the scene.
Consider this. Sometimes people talk at great length about the decline of church attendance among American Christians. This is usually based on the notion that the majority of Americans were faithful to the church until 1960 or so. The truth is, church attendance in America has remained the same for nearly two and a half centuries. Most studies suggest that somewhere around 40% of Americans attend church on any given Sunday. Although some might feel that figure is too optimistic, no one suggests a figure less than 20%. If the higher figure is accurate, church attendance has almost doubled during the nation’s history; if the lower figure is accurate, church attendance has not been much impacted by the vagaries of our culture.
What I believe is more important than statistics regarding church attendance is the declining impact of the individual Christian on the culture.
While I hesitate to say ours has ever been a “Christian” nation, I do believe there was a time when individual believers made a greater difference on the world around them. Part of American history illustrates that when the church is spiritually healthy, the members of that church make an impact on society beyond their numbers.
If the church is spiritually healthy, it doesn’t matter if Christians are in the minority. As happened in first-century, a small band of Christians can turn the world upside down.
There has always been sin in American society. We know that slavery existed for almost a quarter of our nation’s history and for many years Jim Crow laws kept former slaves from enjoying the benefits of citizenship. But did you know that proportionally there were as many abortions each year in America as there have been each year since the Row v. Wade decision.
But in every American generations there were churches which proclaimed a life-changing gospel and there were men and women whose lives were transformed by that gospel. When the church has forgotten to preach that gospel or thought that gospel was no longer relevant or thought its best hope rested in seizing political control, society has suffered.
