Christian Nation Redux
There is an adage that if your position is not making “either side” happy, then you are probably on the right track. I find myself in the dubious position of taking comfort in that adage whenever I discuss whether or not America is a “Christian Nation.”
But I do have company. I just finished a pretty good treatment of Christian influences in America, American Gospel by Jon Meacham. Meacham is the managing editor of Newsweek, and is the author of another history treatment, Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship. This isn’t a hack job by a partisan, but a fairly straight forward and honest treatment of a controversial subject.
Meacham does a good job of blowing past the current polarized positions of the two camps at the extremes … the “America is a Christian Nation” folks cuddling up to the Christian Reconstructionists and the “the Founders were all Deists!” group which includes folks like Bill Mahr. On this issue, I don’t find either side “funny”, just wrong.
Meacham’s thesis is that America has a “public religion” that was consistent with the Founders faith,
but was not a sectarian belief system. I can agree somewhat, in that the public face of religion in America in the early days was not specifically denominational. However, it was Christian, which Meacham does admit, but not fully so in my opinion. Meacham doesn’t gloss over the Founders who wanted state support of churches to continue (i.e., Patrick Henry), which is refreshing. He does give enough information to flesh out the diversity of religious opinion around the founding era. And I suspect he agrees with me that today’s conservative Christians, with our emphasis on eschatology and “rapture” theology, might not be able to recognize any of these men as Christians.
If I have a criticism of the book, it is a small one. I think Meacham may grant the Founders a more ecumenical and/or secular outlook than might be warranted. They were, after all, products of their culture. But that is a minor quibble. Well researched with plenty of references, American Gospel avoids the pitfall of reading like a sociology text in favor of an engaging step-by-step treatment that most people with an interest in the subject could enjoy. Highly recommended.
