Posted on 07/05/2018 7:37:39 AM PDT by I got the rope
Many Christians want to believe that America is a Christian nation, and for the best of reasons. Many of the early founders were devout Christians. Much of America’s history has been shaped by Protestant and evangelical values. God has indeed blessed the nation with extraordinary natural resources and bold and courageous people. It has been and continues to be a land of opportunity, which is why so many across the world want to come here. And its Declaration of Independence and Constitution are grounded in the ideal of liberty as espoused by no other nation in history.
(Excerpt) Read more at christianitytoday.com ...
Quoting Obuma.
Since the beginning of the industrial age, the world changes ever generation. Nothing would have stopped the land appropriation of North America.
Yeah, this one is pretty bad. Straight out of Howard Zinn.
Nothing like having pothead leftists lecturing about how the United States is bad and not Christian before breakfast.
Our first Imam in Chief may be right if you equate being a Christian with regular church attendance. Polls from 2013 show fewer than 40 percent of Americans attend church regularly.
Although the nation was founded with and grew under Judeo-christian principles, you could say that America is at best apathetic to good and evil as defined by Christianity.
True. But that shows that Euro-Americans were a more technologically advanced culture, not a "Christian" nation.
"Nothing would have stopped the land appropriation of North America."
True. But that says that Euro-Americans were a far more populous, better-armed and better politically organized nation, not a "Christian" nation.
"Not a Christian nation" was his point.
Christ gave us the freedom to follow...or not. He cares, but does not dictate.
Our government would work better if the same was followed.....and our founders knew that. While the mistreatment of Native Americans is well documented, most cultures would have annihilated them almost immediately....this did not happen. As for slavery, the good old USA was a leader in the abolishing of slavery. Despite what anyone says, those folks who are descendants of slaves live better today and have accomplished more than any other group who were once enslaved. Not in spite of, but due to the good old USA. God has blessed all of us.
We need to return the blessings and stop wallowing in guilt.
America was largely at war with Native Americans for many decades - and both sides practiced total destruction - not unlike Sherman's March to the sea. But google this, great PBS/BBC Documentary on what makes Western Civilization great:
'Civilizations: The West and the Rest'
There always seems to be a misunderstanding of what “founded on Christian principles” means.
If one means that the United States was founded as a Christian “theocracy”, then yes, the author would be correct in say that is untrue.
But, there is no denying that our founding principles state that the grounding of our freedom and the value of human beings are inherently given by God, and that these Truths are “self-evident” - and by this the Founders meant, the God of the Bible, and the teachings found in the Bible.
The problem, and the author is correct on this point, is that we have not always lived up to the principles we espoused. He is also, sadly, correct that decade after decade the horrible treatment of other human beings was excused or ignored by many supposedly “Christian” Americans.
But, having said all that, our principles have guided us to correct our flaws - more than any other nation - even to the point of shedding blood to correct those flaws.
At the time of our nation’s founding, and during our formative years, was there ANY other nation that had “equality” for all and treated all peoples within their borders fairly, without any prejudices?
The answer, of course, is an emphatic “no”.
Our founding principles are Biblical, and therefore they are good and just and, Biblically, are to be applied to all Americans.
Because we haven’t always lived to those principles doesn’t mean we weren’t founded on them.
The Christian Church has not lived up to the New Testament teachings all through Church history either - does that mean it isn’t “Christian”? Obviously that’s absurd.
In the same way, it is absurd to say that the founding principles of the United States are not Christian.
America could have easily been ordained by God but still be the great and terrible nation as God works in strange ways.
It is also easy to see how the catholic Church was ordained by God to spread the Gospel and then have to be chanllenged by the ones who started the protestant Churches.
It is also easy to see both of them becoming harlots if in fact that is what they are,.
Offhand, I can only name three --- Roger Williams, William Penn, maybe Chief Justice John Marshall? --- but I'm sure there were more.
Analogously, now, when the majority at least passively accept the industrial-scale killing-off of American infants --- 60 million since Roe vs Wade --- there are a relative handful who have spent their lives actively and vocally opposing it.
So: a Christian nation? Arguable. I would say the USA is a nation that has always 'contained' Christians.
On the contrary, I think it's good, and quite necessary, for us to locate and whole-heartedly celebrate our historic strengths, especially those which derived from our Judeo-Christian roots. The Bible, our literature. Hymnody, our music. The clergy (largely) our educated class. That'd be Protestants, Catholics and Jews.
So: Protestant Work Ethic. I'll buy that. But on the plantations maybe it was the blacks who were the Protestants.
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