Intersection of faith and politics

In a recent column, Charles Krauthammer writes, "The God of the Founders, the God on the coinage, the God for whom Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving day is the ineffable, ecumenical, nonsectarian Providence of the American civil religion whose relation to this blessed land is without appeal to any particular testament or ritual."

That's a fine statement, for a Deistic view of the Creator of the universe. As Krauthammer rightly notes, it has indeed been held by many politicians since the 18th century as a way to unite diverse populations into one body politic. But it contains an insidious underside, because what it really attempts to do is to convince people to give up their confessional belief in a God with particular attributes in favor of another god - that of the nation-state.

Liberal democracy instinctively insists that accepting the lordship of nation is a necessity if the population in question is extremely diverse (i.e., comprised of a large variety of ethnicities and confessional traditions). But what of the confessional traditions themselves? For instance, are Christians to accept that the way of life called for by the triune God can be simply circumscribed so that it fits neatly into the cultural and political expectations of a secular state?

This is a troubling problem, and it cannot be solved by the insistence on the part of many in the church that "this is a Christian nation" or that anything the state calls on us to do is simply to be accepted. I write more about this in my current column in the United Methodist Reporter. I would welcome your thoughts.