Is Ours a Christian Nation? by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 9, 1910

“Is Ours a Christian Nation?”

By F. M. W.

THIS is the heading of an article in the young people’s department of the United Presbyterian of May 19. The writer answers this question in two ways—Yes and No. The affirmative answer recites that Christianity underlies all our laws and institutions; that the American people have been animated by the teachings of Christianity, as shown in their oaths of office, their courts of justice, their schools and homes; that wherever any religion is recognized, it is the Christian religion; etc. Thanksgiving proclamations, the fact that legislative bodies open with prayer, and the laws against Sunday desecration, blasphemy, etc., are cited as further proof.

Then, too, every city, village, and hamlet from the Atlantic to the Pacific has its church spires pointing heavenward as mute witnesses to the truthfulness of the declaration, by the highest judicial authority in our land, “This is a Christian nation.”

This last is a beautiful peroration to a specious and very deceptive argument, the absurdity of which is abundantly shown by the arraignment of the nation, as given in the same article by the Presbyterian itself.

In its negative answer it says:—

“Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.” The practises of thousands of our citizens are far from that which the principles of Christianity call for. As an evidence of this we need only glance at the growing disregard for everything that is enjoined in the teachings of Sinai. Other gods have come in to take the place of the only living and true God, the name of the Holy One of Israel is most shamefully taken in vain, and with many God himself is ignored. The distinctive feature of the family altar, once so prevalent in all Christian homes, is fast disappearing. In many homes it has gone altogether, and because of this, the current of many a life is corrupted at the fountain. The sabbath law is everywhere disregarded. From the Sunday papers, with their tremendous influence as lawbreakers, down to the petty sneak-thief, who, strolling through forbidden fields, climbs the fence and steals the fruit in the orchard, sabbath authority, and even reverence for the day, is lightly regarded. Sunday baseball, horse-racing, automobiling, golf-playing, etc., have turned the day which God set apart for man’s good into a day of sport and pleasure. Instead of being a holy day, it is fast becoming a holiday, which shows that the principles of Christianity have little force over the consciences or conduct of those who do these things.

If this is the spirit in which our so-called Christian heritage is recognized by the men and women composing the citizenship of the nation, we might be left to infer that even if Christianity was not regarded in the lives of the people, it was still considered a Christian nation in fact as well as theory, and that formal profession itself constituted it such without the possession of the virtues for which that profession stands; but the Presbyterian does not take even this favorable view of the situation. We quote further:—

It is not outward acknowledgment of certain formulas that makes one a Christian. Formal recognition of God in law, or even in usage, does not constitute Christianity. Where the life of a nation is at variance with its profession, the root of the matter is wanting. Action that does not tally with profession is strong evidence that the profession has no depth. There must be the religious spirit, the outward evidence of an inward conviction. All the laws of Congress can not change the hearts of men; but the renewed hearts of men can change all the laws of Congress. The evidence that we are a Christian nation will show itself in our willingness to be obedient to the divine law, in our readiness to choose men for public office who fear God, and who are willing to enact laws in conformity with the will of God. It will show itself in our civil and political life, in our commercial institutions, in the way we do business, in our respect for the rights of all, for the day laborer as well as the employer of labor. A Christian nation will follow Christ’s teachings in its public administration of affairs as well as in its private belief.

Some excellent principles are enunciated in the foregoing words. It is indeed true that “formal recognition of God in law, or even in usage, does not constitute Christianity,” and that “all the laws of Congress can not change the hearts of men.” This is a truth which many religio-political reformers would do well to ponder. The recognition of God in the Constitution, the more stringent enforcement of the Sunday sabbath law, will not add one whit to the Christianity of the nation, or to the piety of its individual units. The enforcement of religious forms only makes of men hypocrites, not saints. The evidence of our Christianity, as the Presbyterian observes, will be found “in our willingness to be obedient to the divine law.” But if we are obedient to the divine law, we shall seek to exalt the true Sabbath of the Lord, and not the counterfeit; for that law declares, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” If we are obedient to the divine law, as its principles were exemplified by our blessed Saviour, we shall have nothing whatever to do in seeking to bind the consciences of men, or to enforce religious dogmas or doctrines upon our fellows, whether those doctrines or dogmas are right, or whether they are wrong. He plainly declares that we should “render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, and to God the things that are God’s,” thus clearly establishing a line of separation between the province of the church and the province of the civil government, and declaring, in effect, that the state has no right whatever to legislate regarding religious questions, and that the church should not concern itself with the affairs of the state.

The justice and the wisdom of this truth are demonstrated by all the history of the past. Consequent upon moral degeneracy in the church has ever been the desire to seek affiliation with the civil government to supplement its waning power with men. But the call of God to the church is to a different mission. It is not to seek through legislation to enforce its principles, but rather to go forth with the power of the Spirit of God, clothed with the panoply of divine truth, to teach men the way of life. With these weapons it will become a power against evil-doers and a terror to the unrighteous.

The power of the gospel is the power of love, of persuasion, not of force. Its language is, “We entreat,” “We exhort,” “We beseech.” These are the terms employed by the great apostle to the Gentiles. The church of God to-day truly needs to lift up a standard against evil-doing. Iniquity, like an overwhelming flood, is assailing the state, the church, the home, and the individual life; but let the church occupy its legitimate sphere, and seek by Heaven-appointed methods to meet this tide of evil through the preaching of the gospel and the power of the Spirit of God, and not through human enactment.

The Presbyterian says truly that the evidence of Christianity “will show itself in our civil and political life, in our commercial institutions, in the way we do business, in our respect for the rights of all, for the day laborer as well as the employer of labor;” but the change of heart by which these principles will be exemplified, must be worked out in individual lives through the power of the gospel. In its efforts to save the mass, the church will accomplish the most by seeking to save each individual composing the mass. The nation can be Christianized to the extent, and to the extent only, that each man, woman, and child composing its citizenship is regenerated and transformed by divine grace. Let the church apply itself to this much-needed labor, leaving the state to regulate its own affairs. By thus doing, it will accomplish the most in its divine mission for men. F. M. W.