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Thursday, July 9, 2020

Is America a Christian Nation?

My late Grandmother Lillian Parker Crain was born on July 4, 1902. She lived on Mountain View (Taylors), SC, farms and never held a public job.
  

She was a patriot but talked more about her love for Jesus and her holiness faith. 
  

When the U.S. asked for her older son to fight Adolph Hitler during World War II, Ma and Pa (Carl) bid their boy farewell, not knowing if they would see him again this side of heaven.   
  

That son, my dad, Jesse B. Crain, reached the rank of sergeant while serving with the 84th Infantry during the Battle of the Bulge (Dec. 1944 to Jan. 25, 1945) — called “the greatest American battle of the war” by Winston Churchill.
  

That conflict raged in the Ardennes region of Belgium and was Hitler's last major offensive in WWII. An attempt to push the Allies back from German home territory, the Battle of the Bulge ruined the German army and brought the war to an end.
  

Ma and Pa’s younger son, Fred, worked on their farm for a year after his high school graduation and then worked at Southern Bleachery in Taylors, SC. He probably would have been drafted, but WWII ended on September 2, 1945, before Uncle Fred was called up.
  

I grew up feeling patriotic during the 1950s. At Mountain View Elementary School, I learned about America history.
  

America’s 13 colonies, called “United Colonies,”  declared independence from England on July 4, 1776. That led to the formation of the United States. By issuing the Declaration of Independence, adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, the American colonies cut political connections to Great Britain.

John Adams said, “The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity.”
   

Internet sources say, “The U.S. Constitution contains no mention of Christianity or Jesus Christ. In fact, the Constitution refers to religion only twice in the First Amendment, which bars laws ‘respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.’”
  

So, were America’s founders Christians?
  

“While not every Founding Father was a Christian … there is an undeniable history of leaders who’ve been intimately acquainted with the contents of the Bible,” author Robert J. Morgan says.
  

Can we call America a “Christian nation”?
  

Supreme Court Justice David Brewer (1837-1910) explained:
  

“ [I]n what sense can [America] be called a Christian nation? Not in the sense that Christianity is the established religion or that the people are in any manner compelled to support it.  
  

“On the contrary, the Constitution specifically provides that ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.’ Neither is it Christian in the sense that all its citizens are either in fact or name Christians.
  

“On the contrary, all religions have free scope within our borders. Numbers of our people profess other religions, and many reject all. Nor is it Christian in the sense that a profession of Christianity is a condition of holding office or otherwise engaging in public service, or essential to recognition either politically or socially.
  

“In fact, the government as a legal organization is independent of all religions. Nevertheless, we constantly speak of this republic as a Christian nation — in fact, as the leading Christian nation of the world.”
  

Baptist theologian Al Mohler warns that many have “confused cultural heritage with biblical Christianity.”
  

“Cultural Christians are deists, pantheists, agnostics, and atheists who adhere to Christian values and appreciate Christian culture,” according to Wikipedia. “This kind of identification may be due to various factors, such as family background, personal experiences, and the social and cultural environment in which they grew up.”
  

Cultural Christians are not biblical (born again) Christians.
   

Is Christianity still strong in the U.S.?
  

According to Wikipedia, “Christianity is the most adhered to religion in the United States, with 65 percent of polled American adults identifying themselves as Christian in 2019, down from 75 percent in 2015. This is down from 85 percent in 1990.” (Remember that poll numbers include Cultural Christians as well as Born-Again Christians.)
   

Is America a “Christian nation”? Pray, and remember these truths:
   

“Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34).
  

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord … ” (Psalm 33:12).

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