This week has been a troubling one for me and many who are followers of Christ in America and around the world.
While not surprised, many of us were shocked and angered when the US President boldly stated to a Turkish audience, “We do not consider ourselves a Christian Nation.”
His complete statement:
"I’ve said before that one of the great strengths of the United States is – although as I mentioned we have a very large Christian population – we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation, or a Jewish nation, or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values."
It appears that he considers the US to be a secular society.
But that demands the question: By what “ideals” and “values” are we bound? Only our history and our religion tell us… or are we a nation undergoing so much fundamental change that we no longer know who we are?
Newsweek boldly declared The End of Christian America on its front cover and followed that title with this statement:
“The percentage of self-identified Christians has fallen 10 points in the past two decades. How that statistic explains who we are now—and what, as a nation, we are about to become.”
Their article, referring to a recent study conducted by The American Religious Identification Survey that indicates Americans are shifting their views on spiritual matters and increasing numbers of people say they don’t practice religion at all, quotes R. Albert Mohler, Jr, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary as saying:
"A remarkable culture-shift has taken place around us... The most basic contours of American culture have been radically altered. The so-called Judeo-Christian consensus of the last millennium has given way to a post-modern, post-Christian, post-Western cultural crisis which threatens the very heart of our culture... Clearly, there is a new narrative, a post-Christian narrative, that is animating large portions of this society."
Cathy Lynn Grossman, a USA TODAY columnist weighed in by saying:
“People who call themselves in some way Christian has dropped more than 11% in a generation.”
And I am reminded why RENEWANATION.
It is critical that we return to where the soul of America is being lost. We must return to America’s classrooms and offer hope by offering every child a Christian worldview.
The huge changes in value and faith we are seeing in American culture are a direct result of the years of indoctrination in naturalism and humanism that has been forced upon our children while forbidding them the tenants which most nurture “ideals” and “values” – faith.
America, if we want our children to have a future, we must rally together as grassroots activists to create an alternative educational system that is not directed by government but is private and committed to offering a high quality, tuition free Christian education to every child whose parents choose this alternative to the secular education now being offered. This is the vision of RENEWANATION.
It is time that our schools once again focus on producing people of Christian character who are educated, thoughtful, articulate, honest, productive, service-oriented young citizens.
We have to start with the children! The bible puts it this way:
“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6
The bible always gets it right. If we will teach it, we will have a nation renewed.
As I reflected on the condition of our country and people, I decided to Google the phrase “We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation” and see what people were saying. If you are interested, I pulled statements from the sites on the first page of Google. I think they will challenge you.
“Obama made waves last summer when he made a similar comment in an interview with CBN News:
Whatever we once were, we’re no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.
There’s nothing wrong with celebrating our diversity. But the fact remains that the U.S. was built on strong Judeo-Christian principles, and there’s nothing wrong with acknowledging that. At any rate, when he makes pronouncements like this, maybe he should make it clear that he’s speaking for himself, instead of using the royal, “we”, because there are plenty of Americans who disagree with him.”
“Someone needs to follow this guy around with a big sign saying “He Doesn’t Speak For Me.””
“Why does this man feel it’s necessary to travel the World, saying these things? All it does is spread confusion.”
“We do not consider ourselves a Christian Nation? Since when? Go read our history!”
““We do not consider ourselves to be a Christian nation…” ...chest swells with pride. ...could it be that I am proud to be an American again? ...I never thought or imagined that I would ever hear that from the mouth of an American President.”
“Our laws, our rights, our institutions, and our Liberty are the result of being a Christian Nation.”
“He needs to go back and read the Constitution, and other historical documents that this country was based on. He and 99% of the Republicrats in Washington!! Fat chance.”
“As a Brit and as an atheist myself, i know full well that America was founded on Judeo-Christian principles and has that philosophy at its VERY CORE... Sure, America is the land of the free and there is no state sponsored religion - but Christianity is utterly central to what America is. To deny that is to live in a fantasy land.”
“I’m glad we aren’t Christian! If we were a Christian nation we would be a Socialist or Communist country, as both of those economic models are more similar to what Christ proposes with his while ‘if you have two shirts give one away’ thing. If we were a Christian nation we would have absolutely no restrictions on immigration. Anyone can come to Christ. If we were a Christian nation we would never go to war. That whole turning-the-other-cheek thing pretty much overrides the thing we’ve got going on with the guns and bombs and whatnot”
“Has the President seen our currency lately? Has he read any of our founding documents, our the writings of the founders? Has he been to a courtroom? What’s on the wall, and what is sworn before testimony? Why was he so eager to espouse his Christianity during the election?”
“ I am reading Thomas Paine's Common Sense and will continue with Rights of Man. Anybody who doesn't think our founding fathers acknowledged our Judeo-Christian background...they better read and think again.”
“First time ive heard an American PM say that. This is another example of why you weren't suposed to vote for Obama.” (This Blogger from Ecuador)
“Persecutions of Christians notwithstanding, non Christians fare the worst in an antichristian world. Nothing like the yoke of God truly removed to create the very hell they claim God makes unfair.”
“This country was founded by Christians seeking religious freedom and Christian principles shaped our founding documents and our culture. This nation would not be a great nation without Christianity and it will not remain a great or moral country without the majority of its citizens remaining Christian.”
"Well...no, any nation that robs and murders unborn children and its own people and promotes selfishness and perversion certainly ain't Christian. I know, I know, but its true."
