Miller: Christian Nation or Not? by Duane A. Miller over at GOPUSA
Christian Nation…yes or no? The question is a hotly debated issue in political and religious arenas today. Are we a Christian Nation? Were we ever a Christian Nation? I fear that there is a lot of heat generated by the debate, but not much light.
The phrase “Christian Nation” has, unfortunately, many connotations which translate into hot-button political rhetoric in a heartbeat. Please allow me to stake out our position right here. Is the United States a Christian nation? Yes!....and No!
If by “Christian Nation” you mean do we have and support a State Church, such as the Anglican Church in England, the answer is NO. History has taught again and again that when the State and the Church are one and the same; when the Monarch heads the State Church, the people suffer.
It was for that very reason the Puritans left Europe and came to America. They wanted to be able to worship in the style and enjoy the freedom to create their own doctrine disallowed under a State Church. The Puritans came to these shores to create what they considered a Christian nation.
However, what they ultimately created was not much different in structure than what they had rebelled against. Ask the Quakers, the Baptists, and any other Christian dissenters who did not share the Puritan Congregationalist doctrine about how Christian their treatment was under the Puritans. You will find a story not much different from Europe. Unfortunately, those who are trying to purge any vestige of Christianity from our culture, use the Puritan example as their mace to bludgeon those who hold that we are indeed a Christian Nation.
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