Peter and Helen Evans

NOT a Christian nation? Of course we are!

President Obama has been at it again - repeating the rather provocative statement that America is not a Christian nation. To be sure, he's said this for years and he also says that America isn't a Jewish or Muslim nation either. Rather, he says that we're "citizens" gathered around a "set of principles."

Most recently, while touring EUrope, which now includes Turkey, a Muslim nation, this description of our nation might be seen as soothing or appeasing, especially in light of his statement that America is not at war with Islam. This latter claim is delivered as if it was a wonderfully hopeful change from the "failed policies of the last eight years" despite the fact that our last president made exactly the same statement, even within days of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Pres Bush hammered this point repeatedly during his years in office.

Our new president is also playing to his secular base at home when he says we aren't a Christian nation. He wants to reassure them that the first amendment is designed to protect the state from the influence of the church. The Founders, of course, believed that there should be no established state religion, but that the success of democratic government depended on citizens who were themselves governed by religious morality. The history of the twentieth century is dominated by the bloody failure of godless systems of government in Europe, Russia and Asia.

Of course, America is not a Christian nation in the way that, say, Iran is a Muslim nation. This isn't a theocracy; it's a democracy. However, let us consider the "set of principles" which, like a great moral magnet, has gathered these millions of citizens from every other country of the world. The "self-evident" core belief of Americans is that we are all created equal. Equal... how? Equal in the eyes of our heavenly Creator and, here in America, equal before the law that was instituted to preserve our God-given liberty. Only the Christian religion insists on liberty. Without liberty we are not free to love. Only the Christian religion insists on loving God and our neighbors and even our enemies! In fact it's a commandment from God.

Patrick Henry boldly declared: "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here."

This nation is founded on Christian principles. In this nation, equality is expressed as Christian tolerance. That's the reason that every religion of the world feels at home in America, because it IS a Christian nation.

Peter and Helen Evans are authors of Get Serious, The Church's Stand on Contemporary Culture " http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-60696-301-2 ". and culture warriors leading a grassroots movement " http://www.peterandhelenevans.com/video-page.html".