Its an Issue of Power

Christians that do or support this kind of protest have the inability to tell the difference between a redemptive Kingdom of Heaven and a nonexistent Christian Nation. This nation was never intended to be one that was "Christian." Any Christian language that surrounds or exists within the foundational documents of this nation is almost entirely made benign by the fact that there would have been no way of talking about concepts like an unconditional regard for humanity without using words like "all men are created equal." They simply had no way of talking about the fundamental human condition with words like "create."

The reason I say that this language is "almost entirely benign" is because I am sure that a good amount of those involved in the foundation and development of this country have been and are Christians.

The question is now one of determining their intentions for this nation. Did they desire a "Christian nation?" Were separations between church and state set in place solely to prevent Christians from persecuting each other? Leaving the option open to persecute everyone else? I doubt they had the foresight to envision a country in which Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, etc. would desire to live together under one government. This fact makes our efforts to determine their intentions that much more difficult. Would they have written something in that preferred Christianity had they foreseen this coming? I doubt it. If that had been the case they wouldn't have put rules in place to keep church and state separate.

But now we have another problem. This is a nation that has been and is made up of a majority of Christians. This is only a problem if you live in a land that tries to have a representational government. Which we do. So that clear cut line between church and state is going to be blurred a little bit. Back when the majority was larger activities like prayer in public schools and the Ten Commandments in court houses, were simply overlooked because no one would have complained and if someone did their complaint would have fallen on deaf ears. But that is not the case now. The percentage of nominal Christians are declining and so we are discovering that we need to be sensitive to other peoples views and understandings of reality, even if we don't agree. There are finally people to hold America to account for what the original intentions were. And I couldn't be more thrilled.

Christendom has been in power for a long time now and it has cause the faith a whole mess of problems. One of which is the inability to make the distinction I mentioned earlier. As the majority declines Christians will be forced to become a people unto themselves. One ruled by Christ which this country could never be. We will be unable to be rulers who lord it over others. Now we simply have to learn to govern ourselves as people in that are the body of Christ. Our mission will no longer be merely to remain the majority. A mission that allows for the mentality that walking around giving ultimatums is an effective form of evangelism. But now our mission will be to participate in God's efforts to redeem creation and in redeeming creation to help redeem each other.

This realization of what the church was always meant to be will alleviate silly episodes like the one above. Issues like school sponsored prayer and postings of the Ten Commandments will fall by the wayside and finally we (the church) can get on with the business of creating conflicts where they matter most. Where redemption is at stake. Issues like abortion where the constitution and those who wrote it have failed on multiple counts. One being that they focused on the inalienable rights of men and another being that those rights are so individualized that we are unable to deal with the fact that when these rights are finally starting to be awarded to women that they are awarded without the consideration of how the whole of humanity is interconnected which each other. This was not a mistake made solely then but at the inception of the nation when only white men were considered the only ones with rights at the expense of those slaves that were also "created" equal. Maybe this unwillingness to see the interconnected nature of all over our fates is the paramount sin written in to America's founding documents. But this is beyond the point that I am trying to make.

I will end by saying that I will always pray for the day when followers of Christ will start being what they were intended to be and will let go of the blatant idolatry of a "Christian Nation" that is more concerned with controlling how you vote than it is with bring about the God's understanding of the Kingdom of Heaven.