Interfaith Religious News Service

Enough already.
by Dale Wiley
News-Leader Springfield MO

It seems that I am unable to pick up a newspaper that does not have at least one discourse about the Christian heritage of our nation.

I agree that our Constitution is the greatest document a government has ever produced. And you can’t read the history of the American Revolution and not see God’s fingerprints everywhere. We are a nation formed on a miracle.

And to that I say, so what? Would it help us to say that we’re a Christian nation if we’ve all forgotten Christ?

Perhaps because other views now are no longer swept under the rug, we Christians seem almost upset that other people want to come to our party. We founded America; others need not apply. Or if you apply, keep quiet about it.

But that attitude is anathema to everything Jesus actually stood for. Listen to the first thing he said in his ministry:

“The Spirit of the Lord … has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free” (Luke 4:18-19).

Nothing in there about whether it ought to be called Christmas or Winter Break. Later, he says to John The Baptist: “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.” (Luke 7:22-23)

Nothing in there about displaying the Ten Commandments in school.

Jesus was uninterested in earthly power and outward gestures; he cared about people. He saw how religion differed from God. He called the most “religious” people of his time “white-washed tombs” (Matt. 23:27) and said they had “neglected the more important matters of the law — justice, mercy and faithfulness” (Matt. 23:23).

Jesus cares nothing about what is written on our school walls and on our bumper stickers and everything about what is written in our hearts. In our current political landscape, what makes you think he would close our borders based on where someone was born, or limit access to health care based on how much money someone makes? Jesus cares about all people, not just rich, native-born Americans.

America is the greatest nation the world has ever known. We often get it wrong (see: slavery, poll taxes, male-only suffrage, Jim Crow laws, etc.), but we generally manage through wars official and unofficial to get it right (see: emancipation, universal suffrage, the Civil Rights era, etc.). But with all of the issues that face us both here and abroad, it is silly and fruitless to worry about whether or not we’re a “Christian nation” when we care so little about what Christ really said.

Humility and service will do much more to turn America into a Christian nation than any history lesson or stump speech. Let’s turn our placards into plowshares and show our message; we’ll be much more successful.