Newsweek magazine editor Jon Meacham took notice of Mohler's blog and wrote an attention-grabbing cover story for the Easter week edition. Called "The End of Christian America," the story also explored political ramifications of the trend. Meacham argued that God is not dead, but less influential in American politics, which he saw as a good thing for religion, concluding:
"The decline and fall of the modern religious right's notion of a Christian America creates a calmer political environment and, for many believers, may help open the way for a more theologically serious religious life."As expected, Mohler responded to Meacham's take on his views with an analysis of Meacham's analysis, arguing that Newsweek got it mostly right but overstated his political concerns: "My main concern is evangelism, not cultural influence," Mohler wrote.
It's not my intention to enter that debate, but I couldn't help but reflect that the survey at the heart of the discussion records respondents' self-identification of their religious preference. I've long observed that wearing a Christian label and living a Christian life are two different things.
Does the survey really note a change in the way people live, or does it reflect a decreasing desire to be identified among the "Christians," a term that clearly means different things to different people? Have the actions of some Christians made others less inclined to claim the same name? There's a reason why many believers these days are opting for the term "Christ-followers."
Whatever the label, however, the thing that matters is hard to capture with statistics: it's not what we call ourselves that counts, but how we live.
4 comments:
It has long been a comfortable (and comforting) conceit for Christians to perceive America as a Christian nation.
America has never been a "Christian nation."
True, the early settlers were Christians, but the inhabitants they found here certainly were not. So Christians were a minority from the beginning.
Then, when "the nation" was established by constitution, it was secular--and has been ever since. Government was to be secular and separate from religion.
As far as our American culture and society are concerned, we certainly are not Christian.
The religion of America is materialism and its god is money.
And we Christians are deeply affected and influenced by this idolatry.
IMHO.
I missed the Mohler related exchanges, but have read with interest the 'numbers' being reported in the ARIS 2008 Survey. Surveys are inherently subject to the responders' personal perceptions, which do have a tendency to change over eras. Nevertheless there are important shifts going on even if it is changes in likelihood of answering 'none' or being a 'default Baptist' from days gone by.
Any interested can find a link to download the Summary Report PDF file and commentary I have made to date on the data at:
http://www.tmbc.org//index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=0&func=view&id=110&catid=9
Jesse Helms called himself a Christian.
The Oklahoma native and actress who most recently was a star in the spinoff of Wizard of Oz, "Wicked"; Kristin Chinoweth has an interesting take on identifying herself as a Christian in the entertainment world.
And then there is the recent book by the Brown Student who took a semester at Liberty.
Both are worlds away in lifestyle from what Mohler conceives of as a Christian life.
Where Mohler would fall on the Christian spectrum as defined by the manual at Liberty; that would be an interesting exercise.
The new biography by last name Gooch about Flannery OConnor establishes a fine plumbline for me about what it means to be a Christian.
Woulda been interesting to have Mary Flannery still with us to assess Mohler's Christendom.
I think she would weigh it in the balance and find it particularly wanting.
There is an interesting story here:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/LovingSpirit/
message/20313 entitled The Framers and the Faithful. I think you'll enjoy it.
Christian quotes of Founding Fathers
"History, in general, only informs us what bad government is." -- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826).
"Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." -- T. Jefferson.
"Material abundance without character is the path to destruction." ... "Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed,
I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever." Thomas Jefferson.
"It cannot be emphasized too strongly, nor too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians. Not on religion, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this reason peoples of other faiths have been
afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here, for life liberty and the pursuit of happiness." ... "...If they are of a contrary character, they will be miserable. Righteousness alone can exalt them as a nation...Whoever
thou are, remember this, and in thy sphere practice virtue thyself and encourage it in others." - Patrick Henry.
"We this day have restored the sovereignty to whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising and the setting of the sun. Let his kingdom come." - Declaration of Independence - Thomas Jefferson, John Hancock, John Adams, Samuel Adams, & other signers.
"We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of Government, but far from it. In its' stead, we have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self
government. Upon the capacity for each and all of us to govern ourselves. To control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God." - James Madison - Architect of the Constitution, 4th President.
"For as much as it is the duty of all men to adore the almighty God, to acknowledge with gratitude their obligation to his benefits, and to implore such further blessing. That with one heart and one voice the good people may
express the grateful feelings of their hearts, and consecrate themselves to the service of the divine creator. And together with our humble and earnest supplication that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and to blot out their sins from remembrance. That it may please Him to take schools and seminaries of education, so necessary for
cultivating the principles of true liberty, virtue, and Godliness. And to prosper the means of religion, for the promotion of the enlargement of that Kingdom, which consisteth of righteousness, peace, and joy, in the Holy
Ghost." - 11/1/1777 First National Proclamation of ThanksGiving - Following the Battle of Saratoga.
"principles of morality must be taught in the public schools." ... "Providence has given our people the choice of their rule. And it is a duty as well as a privilege and interest of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians to be their rulers." - John Jay - 1st Chief Justice.
"... And finally, let us not forget the religious character of our origin. Our fathers came hither with a high veneration for the Christian faith. They journeyed by its' light, and they laboured in its' hope. If religious books are not widely circulated among the masses of this country I do not know what
is to become of us as a Nation. If God and his word are not known and received then the Devil and his works will gain the ascendancy. If the power of the Gospel is not felt throughout the length and the breadth of this land, then
degradation, and misrule, anarchy, and misery, darkness, and corruption will reign without end. If we work on marble, it will perish. If on brass, time will efface it. Immortal minds and imbued with principles, with a just fear of God, and the love of our fellow man, we engrave something on those tablets that will brighten until all eternity!" - Daniel Webster - 12/22/1820 - Bicentennial Celebration of The Pilgrims Landing at Plymouth Rock.
"The Bible is the foundation upon which our republic rests." ... "I, Andrew Jackson, in my last will and testament, do affirm that the Bible is true. And upon that sacred volume I rest my hope of eternal salvation, through the
merits of our blessed Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. First, I bequeath my body to the dust whence it comes, and my soul to God who gave it. Hoping for a
happy immortality through the atoning merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world!"
"I have been called an Aristocrat and a Democrat. I am neither. I am a Christocrat." ... "Let the children...be carefully instructed in the principles and obligations of the Christian religion. This is the most essential part of education." ... "The great enemy of the salvation of man, in
my opinion, never invented a more effectual means of extirpating Christianity from the world than by persuading mankind that it was improper to read the Bible at schools." - Dr. Benjamin Rush, Co-signer of the Declaration of
Independence, author of "The Bible in Schools", and the first founder to call for free national public schools.
"Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. ... America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." - Alexis de Tocqueville, mid-19th
century French Statesman.
"It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible." ... "O most Glorious God, in Jesus Christ my merciful and loving Father, I acknowledge and confess my guilt, in the weak and imperfect performance of the
duties of this day. I have called on thee for pardon and forgiveness of sins ... Let me live according to those holy rules which Thou hast this day prescribed in Thy holy word." - George Washington's Sunday evening prayer, written by his own hand in his field notebook.
"The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: It connected in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with those of Christianity." ... "The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were....the general principles of Christianity." ... "We have no
government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion....Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any
other." - John Adams.
"Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the redeemer of mankind... It is impossible that it should be otherwise and in this sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian." - Supreme Court, 1892 Church of the Holy Trinity v.s.
United States.
"The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and His Apostles... This is genuine Christianity and to this we owe our free constitutions of government." - Noah Webster.
"Human law must rest its authority ultimately upon the authority of that law which is divine....Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are twin
sisters, friends, and mutual assistants. Indeed, these two sciences run into each other." Justice James Wilson, Co-signer of the Constitution and an original Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
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