They say an argument based upon emotion (rather than logic) is not a good one.  Well, I’ll try to base this blog upon logic, but I can’t say there won’t be any emotion present.  Today I watched one of my “favorite” kinds of TV shows—the Christian news broadcast.  I really despise these—they are one-sided, with a special commitment to the right wing agenda.  Any way, the one today was spotlighting the life of a TV pastor who recently passed away.  At the end of the story, the anchor said that those who love America and wish to see her return to her “biblically moral” foundations especially appreciated this pastor.

Let me first say that a comment like this ignores the obvious—America was not founded upon Christianity.  It was, in fact, founded by the native peoples who had long inhabited this land, and they had a variety of religious beliefs, none of which were Christian.  Christianity did not present itself here until those who claimed to know Christ stole this land.  Brian McLaren describes this steal-conquer-and subject way of founding a new nation beautifully:

In the old modern-colonial world, Christians could wish that everyone everywhere would just get with it and become proper…Christians like us.  In fact, non-Christians could be seen as stubborn rebels who refused to capitulate to the dominating truth.  They could either be seen as “in the way”, a problem to be removed through either conversion (forced or free) or ethnic cleansing… [Christians] showed boldness and confidence in the gospel through what appeared to outsiders (though not to ourselves) as bombast, arrogance, disrespect, and insensitivity. 

So to argue about America’s religious foundations while simultaneously ignoring the people and faiths that were already present here is to deny the real truth.  And let me just say that I don’t believe God gave America to us—Jesus never endorsed stealing, which is precisely how America was “acquired”.

But eventually Christianity did make its way here, via the European settlers who journeyed here.  But that Christianity is one that I would hardly think folks would want to return to, if they considered it deeply.  For one thing, there was not the freedom that some people would have us believe.  Any one who dared to believe something slightly different (and I’m not talking about a whole different religion, I’m talking about deviating from the common understanding of the church at that time) faced jail, banishment, or death.  A look at Quaker history in this country is evidence enough of that.  When people did something wrong, they were subject to harsh, even cruel punishment that I doubt that even the most “conservative” among us would like to see.  I say this because such harsh rules did not produce actual followers of Christ—it simply produced people afraid of getting into trouble and who therefore lived by the rules.  Is that really what certain Christians want us to return to?  If so, then that desire is not born out of a concern that folk know Christ, rather it comes from a desire to have everyone act the same, which is comfortable for some (and misery for a great deal more).

But I caution those who agree with me to view our true history with understanding.  Again, McLaren writes:

We can apologize for the sins of our fathers [and mothers] in such a way that we render ourselves arrogantly superior to them, insensitive both to the challenges of their milieu and to our present and anticipated failures in our own.  So [we must be humble], showing respect for our ancestors in the faith, for what they have handed down to us…even if we have reason to be painfully embarrassed by their racist, sexist, and imperialist bias.

I have a book about crime in the 1930’s, and there is a revealing quote on the cover—“proof that there were never any ‘good old days’”.  It would behoove us to recognize that indeed there weren’t any better days in the past.  Instead of wishing for a “better time” (keep in mind that that ‘better time” was only better for some—just ask a woman or a black person), we should work to make this time a good one, understanding that God’s kingdom is, after all, present and alive.  We need only to jump in and be a humble, loving, and obedient part of it to make this life better.