The trouble with 'Christian America'
Friday, May 01, 2009
Jon Meacham wrote a cover story in Newsweek a couple of weeks ago that was titled, "The Decline and Fall of Christian America." A title like that is meant to be a little sensational. And Newsweek probably got just what it wanted when Meacham's piece sent Christians all over the country in a tizzy.The article itself, though, really wasn't sensational at all. Meacham is a liberal Episcopalian, and he was mostly just relishing the decline of the so-called Religious Right - a catch-all term for the politicized evangelicalism that came to prominence under Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority in the 1980s. Meacham is also the editor-in-chief at Newsweek, and under his leadership over the past couple of years the magazine has drifted left noticeably. A part of that comes out in a particularly left-leaning religious view, which shows up in reporting of all types but is best seen on a regular basis through Lisa Miller's BeliefWatch column. So in that sense, Meacham's article was just standard Newsweek fare.
But Meacham did cite statistics that are troubling beyond his connection of them with the decline of a politically muscular Christianity. A recent survey shows that the number of professing Christians as a percentage of the U.S. population has decline from 86% in 1990 to 76% today. Any position piece is strengthened by hard numbers, and those were Meacham's. (For a different take on them, go to Michael Gerson's recent column in the Washington Post.)
So is 'Christian America' really dying? Is it not just the Religious Right that is fading away, but is the generally Christian character of our society fading as well?
With a little fear and trembling, I take this subject up in my current column in the United Methodist Reporter. My editor at the Reporter was gracious to give me more space than usual, and with the complexity of this topic I used every bit of it. I won't repeat my whole argument here but instead invite you to check out the column on the Reporter's site.
The gist of it is this: There never was such a thing as 'Christian America.' And the Christians in America shouldn't worry about that.
There cannot be such a 'Christian America,' in fact, because citizenship and discipleship can never be synonymous terms. Christians owe an allegiance to Jesus Christ above the allegiance to the nation. And that means that a Christian's primary frame of social reference is not society at large but rather the church.
If we, as Christians, are really worried about declining numbers of the faithful in this land, we should practice a more robust form of discipleship. Ultimately, it is not by baptizing secular institutions or passing 'Christian' laws that we practice fidelity to God. It is rather by preaching the word of God, celebrating the sacraments, forming disciples of Jesus Christ, and witnessing to the love of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit through our works of piety and mercy in the world.
It is good when Christians exert an influence on the society in which they live. Their participation in the larger world can lead to greater civility in social life and more compassion in the legislation and execution of laws. But the telos of the practice of Christian faith is not to make the world Christian. That makes no Scriptural sense. It is instead to spread the gospel and build up the church. And yes, there is a real difference.
So we shouldn't worry about trying to Christianize America. We should just be concerned with Christianizing the church.
Labels: Civil Religion, Discipleship, Ecclesiology
posted by Andrew C. Thompson at 8:46 AM
7 Comments:
fabuous post. you always get it right. the last paragaph - my favorite of all.
Great article...of all the differences Protestants have with the Catholic Church, that's one thing we can agree with the Pope on: he has long preached that he'd rather have a more faithful church than simply a larger church.
wonderful, thoughtful article andrew. now how do we share this in loving ways with our congregations - especially with some veterans who were told that fighting for america is the same as fighting for Christianity?
I think that this is something a bit easier for younger people in the church to understand because we never really lived through the time when America was a "Christian" nation - where that was the default.
But this is a great fear among older folks in my congregation and I try to gently remind them of these truths... I think that you have given me some additional resources though in encouraging them to continue their mission, without worrying about whether the world will turn their way.
Great post! I shared it with our whole Common Table (the NE AC governing body).
I appreciate the comments on this post. Katie mentions the fears of some of the older folks in her congregation, so I wanted to touch on that. At the risk of oversimplifying, I'll offer this: I think many of the generational differences in how we think about the Christian character of the nation relates directly to how we think about military service. (And here, David's comment about the views of veterans in our congregations is particularly important.)
There are few churches out there that have not been touched in some way by military sacrifice over their histories. We all know people - indeed, often we are just such people - who have lost family members in the wars that the United States has waged over its history. And for those left behind, the notion that their loved ones died for God and country is very important. "Country" alone is not enough. The loss of a family member is devastating in any case, and for a family member who has gone overseas to fight in war, usually in the bloom of youth, the loss is particularly acute. To suffer that loss only for the sake of the nation-state simply doesn't cut it; and when the validity of the war in question is doubted by many (e.g., Vietnam, Iraq), then sacrificing for the nation can turn into sacrificing for the blunders of foolish political leaders. And something that awful is simply hard to stomach.
Thus the citizenry has always had a big stake in believing that it's not just the nation, but God and nation together. Because if values like liberal democracy (where notions of inherent rights are coupled with democratic forms of government) are seen as in the very will of the Creator, then we are able to claim God's allegiance to our political projects. By that rationale, "American exceptionalism" makes complete sense, and affirming that U.S. soldiers die for God is a morally intelligible statement.
The trouble, of course, is that there is nothing actually present in Scripture or tradition to suggest that God cares for liberal democracy over other forms of government. And in the Bible, the only nation that God favors over others is Israel. God's people, who are revealed as Israel-cum-Church, are named as such due to election and not because of anything that inheres in them or in their form of political organization.
And herein lies the problem: Do you simply stand up and preach to your church that those who die in service to the nation died for nothing? I don't think so. If we think we can do that and that people will simply learn to accept it, then we underestimate the stake that all of us have in believing that our lives and the lives of those we love have real meaning. But what other option is available to us, then?
I read a sermon by Samuel Wells, the dean of the chapel at Duke, earlier this year that speaks to this very issue with a great deal of pastoral wisdom and theological insight. You can find it in both pdf and audio formats here:
http://www.chapel.duke.edu/worship/sunday/viewsermon.aspx?id=209
Dean Wells points out the ways in which soldiers embody virtues that can be found in few other places in society. They know what it means to have courage, because they have been tested. They know what it means to experience the deepest forms of sacrificial friendship, because they have been called upon to show that friendship when it matters most. And they know that life is about more than self-preservation, because they have had to be willing to sacrifice themselves for a greater cause. In short, we can and should honor the sacrifices that soldiers have made because those very sacrifices have entailed the demonstration of some of humanity's greatest potentiality.
To honor the fallen in this way keeps their deaths from being meaningless tragedies. And the church can both do that and point to the gospel in order to say that such deaths do not have to happen anymore. We can look to and learn from our loved ones in order to know something of the virtue of their lives, while at the same time realizing that such courage, friendship, and self-sacrifice can be properly demonstrated through our lives in the church.
That's not a perfect solution, but I think it is perhaps one that might help the church pastorally think through how to separate God and nation in a faithful way.
Peace,
Andrew
I'm enjoying this thread, Andrew. If I understand the New Testament correctly, the church is to take on a nonconformist and prophetic identity over against the structures of the world. This is not to say that I am unconcerned about politics or about the improvement of society through legislation. Such improvements are, however, questionable if they proceed from an assumption that they will issue in a Christian America. My concern is that the church be the church, and to do that it must proclaim victory not through a political agenda but through the Christian Gospel. The Christianity of the New Testament presents not simply a more demanding ethic but rather a cross that means the death of our desire for prosperity and power. I therefore view my participation in the culture wars not in terms of calling for a macro-political utopia but in terms of the church’s calling to be the conscience and critic of culture. I've tried to make this point in my forthcoming book, The Jesus Paradigm.
http://www.energionpubs.com/ep_detail.php?sku=1893729567
In our foreign policy America must use its military power reasonably and with a scrupulous concern for peace. A superpatriotism that calls for unfettered power is both un-American and un-Christian in my opinion.
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