Digging deeper into our religious roots

I've received a lot of personal response to my last post on whether the US is a Christian Nation (it's not), most of it positive, and even the negative has been civil, which I appreciate.  Most of those that disagree go back further in the nation's history to the Puritan immigrants who landed in New England.  My understanding of the nature of the Puritan settlements doesn't change my opinion.  I can agree that the Puritans were a religious people, but not necessarily Christian in nature.
We've all heard that the Puritans fled England because "religious persecution" but that persecution was instigated by the Puritans' persecution of anyone who wasn't of their mindset.  Yes, the Puritans were fundamentalists who had decided that everyone but them was destined for Hell.  Even today that ends to piss people off.  
Of course, it is also not true that the Puritans fled England.  It was more like they were invited to leave.  there was a great deal of rejoicing in English government when they left because they no long had to spend resources protecting them from the angry mobs that wanted to do them in.  The Puritans just wore out any goodwill that might have existed for them in their home country.  So they left... for Holland.
Yep, the Puritans actually took up residence in the land of wooden shoes and windmills for a decade where they continued to push their legalistic beliefs on the Dutch.  Their new countrymen didn't really complain much (the Dutch are a quiet bunch) because they were an extremely tolerant society.  And that really ticked off the Puritans.  After 11 years, they decided that the influence of tolerance was infecting their children.  They needed to go elsewhere, and quick.  But they couldn't go back the England... especially because England didn't want them.  
So with the help of both Dutch and English government officials, the Mayflower became made available for the Dutch Puritans and those that had remained in England to take them to the New World.
What is really strange about this is that one of the leaders of this group, Roger Williams, preached against what he called  the "enforced unformity of religion" in the Church of England, and when they established themselves in the American colonies, they did exactly the same thing.  
When I look at our society today, I can see that tradition in spades.  Everyone is absolutely sure that there way is the right way.  We have entire broadcast networks dedicated to one view of the world over another.  If you want to say that America is a religious nation, then I can completely agree with you.  It's hard to find someone who isn't religious about something, even if it's being religious against religion.  That is what is both very right and very wrong about America.
But if you want this nation to be considered Christian, then you are going to have to abandon a strong focus on whether something is a sin or if something is sinful.  For this nation to become Christian we are going to have to agree that Jesus Christ died to eliminate sin past, present and future.  It's not about who is wrong or right.  It's about who God loves.  And He loves us all, no matter what.  He paid too high a price to have that fact adulterated.

If not a Christian nation, then what?

Last week I wrote about the myth of the US as a Christian nation based on the religious beliefs of the founding fathers. Since I debunked that idea I've been considering what the founders actually gave us, and I have good news, bad news and, depending on your position, really bad news.

The good news is that what they gave us is a tradition of intolerance for intolerance. Say what you want about the Enlightenment, it opened up a lot of doors for discussion. you could believe practically anything you want and talk about it openly. And they did. Without TV and movies, entertainment often consisted of attending lectures on unpopular subjects. Easy access to printing technology (the internet of the 17th to early 20th centuries) made it possible for the most fringe elements of society to get their opinion out. Everyone had an opportunity to freely state what was on their mind.

The bad news is that, while they fully embraced freedom of speech, they didn't much care for the idea of freedom of responsibility for what you say. If you said something unpopular and got a lot of flack for it...even the occasional punch in the nose to the extreme response of a challenge to a duel, well that's what you get. The freedom to be angry at someone for what they said was as acceptable as the freedom to say it.

Today, we don't much like the idea of having to take any kind of flack for what we say. Conservatives were appalled when Democrat congressmen booed George Bush during a state of the union address (which included Nancy Pelosi), and liberals got all huffy (including Nancy Pelosi) when a lone congressman catcalled Barack Obama. But rude reactions to a president are well in keeping with the tradition of our founders. We like to call for a "return to civility" but there never was any when it came to opinion in this country. The only thing that is different now is we are calling for punishment for anyone who disagrees with us.

When I stated last week that the founders of this country were, by and large, not Christian, I did not mean to imply that we religious people in this country are not following their example. One of the primary products of the Age of Enlightenment was the complete abandonment of the doctrine of grace that came out of the Reformation.

"Enlightened" people of the 17th and 18th centuries were all about personal accomplishment and achieving good works. They were not into forgiveness. Washington, Jefferson and Adams took grudges to the grave and it gnawed on them to their deathbed. Alexander Hamilton died in a duel because he could not forgive Aaron Burr.

That's the really bad news is that most Christians in the US, be they liberal or conservative, still follow that example. We talk about grace as a good thing, but don't cross us, especially politically. And for heavens sake, make sure you toe the line in conversation in church. There is no intolerance for intolerance and there is no grace for the "sinner" in our midst.

And that's something we all need to work on

The "christian nation" hoax

I'm about to make a lot of people unhappy.

I was reading a post of a pastor in Miami this morning who made the common assertion that this is a "Christian Nation" historically. He used, as proof, certain quotes from John Adams who he asserts was a serious Christian. That's what got me curious.

I believe the definition of Christian is those who publicly asserts that Jesus Christ is a personal saviour: that he is God incarnate, that he was born in human form, was fully God and fully human, died for sin and rose from the grave in three days. Let me also state that I believe in the doctrine of the Trinity and believe it is crucial, though you won't go to hell if you don't believe that. That is an orthodox belief for most Christians in the United States. John Adams is pretty much my favorite president so I know a few things about him. I know for a fact John Adams doesn't meet that definition of Christian. The first six Presidents of the United States did not meet that criteria. They all denied the deity of Christ (without which there was no sacrifice for sin) and the Trinity. George Washington, Adams' son John Quincy, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe were all deists. Five of the six attended Episcopal churches that welcomed that particular position and Adams, himself, was a Unitarian. The first US President to make a public declaration of Christ as saviour was Andrew Jackson, followed by his successor, Martin Van Buren.

In all of the 43 men who have held the office, only 22 have made such a declaration. Ten presidents made outright statements that they were deists. The rest, including Lincoln, FDR, Gerald Ford and George HW Bush never made a definitive statement. Oh, yes, President Obama has outright said on several occasions that he has "a personal relationship with Jesus Christ."

To say outright that Christian principals are the basis of our country is incorrect. That Christian principles have greatly influenced the development of our country is correct, but at the same time, philosophies that deny the deity of Christ have also had a profound effect throughout the entire history of this country.

I'm saying this because I have something else to share pretty soon, but I just wanted to take the "Christian Nation" argument off the table. The US is not a Christian nation.