“America is a Christian nation.”

What do people mean by that?

Are they saying that the country was built on Christian principles, like the idea of human rights and the equality of mankind? I can get behind that. It’s sheer blindness to think the founders were not influenced by Christian values.

But I don’t get the sense that that is what those on the Religious Right mean when they say America is a Christian nation or that we need to “take back America.” It sounds more like “Manifest Destiny,” – the idea that God somehow made the U.S. a chosen people, like the Jews. As though we were destined to drive Natives off their land and bring the light of democracy to the world. And those pesky secular humanists are trying to derail our God-given political mandate.

When people say “America is a Christian nation,” it sounds like what they mean to do is force a religion on everyone else without getting the necessary buy-in first. They recognize that Christianity is on the wane in the States and admit we are in a “culture war,” but they don’t realize that if, indeed, we are in a culture war, that must mean Christianity does not represent a vast swath of the American public. It would, therefore, be undemocratic to insist the American public adopt their view of the world.

Believe me, I wish America was a Christian nation, but I accept that it isn’t. And until most Americans want the kind of moral life I want for myself, I don’t want to force it on them just as I would not want them to force their morality on me. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” said a Wise Teacher.

So, no, America is not a Christian nation. I don’t want to force her to be one at the point of a revolutionary gun or through gerrymandering, any more than I want to force a beautiful woman to marry me. I can long for it. I can even pray for it. I can try to woo her. But it has to be her choice.

Can we vote in our moral view of the world? Can we enshrine Christian values like the protection of life at all stages and the protection of the poor into law? Certainly. But only if we do the hard work of actually convincing our fellow citizens to become Christians and/or adopt our values. Not by shouting empty slogans about what we wish our country would look like.

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