Our Independence: America's Misconception and Hypocrisy

My next post was going to continue my breakdown of Adam and Eve, but the week leading up to the 4th of July, I drove by a church displaying the message along the lines of: "We thank the Lord for our independence". So, here is an edited excerpt of what I wrote last summer:
Following tragic events on our American soil such as the Aurora movie theater shooting, the Newtown shooting, and 9/11, our president is expected to say things such as “This, I think, is a day for prayer and reflection” [link 5:20] “We are praying for them… May God bless the memory of the victims” [link 3:20], “Tonight I ask for your prayers for all those who grieve… and I pray they will be comforted by a power greater than any of us, spoken through the ages in Psalm 23: ‘Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me’” [link 2:25].

Why do we have these expectations from our leaders? Obviously, because we claim to be a ‘Christian nation’. Despite the separation of church and state that our country was founded upon, we have coined the phrases ‘In God We Trust’, ‘God Bless America’, ‘One Nation Under God’, etc. (Despite various court cases, ‘One Nation Under God’ has not been omitted from the Pledge of Allegiance). [link] So when and why were these phrases actually adopted?

v    ‘In God We Trust’: 1864 on coins; 1956 became national motto; 1957 on paper currency. [link] The phrase was adopted by the U.S. government “largely because of the increased religious sentiment existing during the Civil War”. [link] Letters of appeal from citizens of the Republic in the North to the U.S. government urged their leaders to recognize the Christian God as their Lord and protector, especially the Reverend M. R. Watkinson, Minister of the Gospel from Ridleyville, Pennsylvania. In his letter of appeal to Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, he stated: “You are probably a Christian. What if our Republic were not shattered beyond reconstruction? Would not the antiquaries of succeeding centuries rightly reason from our past that we were a heathen nation?” Thus the phrase ‘In God We Trust’ was then created out of the precautionary principle that future countries would perceive the United States to be an irreligious, uncultured, and uncivilized nation. 

v    ‘God Bless America’: 1938, upon singer Kate Smith introducing Irving Berlin’s revision of his patriotic song on her radio broadcast on Armistice Day. [link] Europe was showing threatening signs of the impending Second World War, so Irving Berlin decided to write a ‘peace’ song. Americans then, of course, immediately praised the song as a statement of being global peacemakers. It was, again, adopted as a means to improve our public image to the world.

v    ‘One Nation Under God’: 1954. This was added to the Pledge of Allegiance in spite of the Cold War against the threatening and dominantly atheistic Soviet Union. [link] As President Eisenhower stated: “In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America's heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country's most powerful resource in peace and war” (Flag Day speech, 14 June 1954). [link] Eisenhower labeled Christianity as America’s heritage and future, and as a spiritual weapon against other countries.

My point is that these three patriotic phrases have all been adopted for reasons of politics, war, public image, and superficiality.

A misconception that Americans hold is that this country was founded upon the basis of Christianity. The phrases mentioned above were not adopted until 77 years after the U.S. Constitution was signed (1787), at the earliest. As John McCain commented during a Sep. 28, 2007 interview with BeliefNet.com:

"I would probably have to say yes, that the constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation... The lady that holds her lamp beside the golden door doesn't say ‘I only welcome Christians.’ We welcome the poor, the tired, the huddled masses; but when they come here they should know that they are in a nation founded on Christian principles." [link]

However, refer to this critical response:

“Alan M. Dershowitz, LLB, Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, wrote in his Huffington Post Op-Ed ‘McCain and the Godless Constitution’, posted Oct. 3, 2007:

‘Recently John McCain... declared that ‘the Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation.’ What an ignoramus! McCain should go back to school and take Civics 1, where he might learn that the United States Constitution was called ‘the godless constitution’ by its opponents, because it was the first constitution in history not to include references to God or some dominant religion. The Constitution mentions religion only once, in prohibiting any religious test for holding office under the United States.

The Bill of Rights mentions religion twice, once in prohibiting an establishment of religion (a clear reference to any branch of Protestant Christianity, which was then the dominant religion) and a second time, in guaranteeing the free exercise of all religions. Several years after the ratification, the Senate ratified a treaty with the Barbary regime of Tripoli which expressly proclaimed that ‘the Government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.’’” [link]

The truth is that our Founding Fathers strongly advocated the separation of church and state. Religion is only mentioned in our governmental doctrines as a free exercise and stresses no advocacy toward a country of Christianity. Out of the seven men recognized as our Founding Fathers (John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and George Washington), Alexander Hamilton and John Jay claimed themselves to be Christians. [link] The rest were associated with Deism, Pantheism, Unitarianism, or Congregationalism at best; they generally believed in the possibility of a God of the universe that does not involve Himself in the ordeals and lives of human beings. [link, link] Thomas Jefferson actually revised the Holy Bible into his own edition named The Jefferson Bible, where he took only the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament and omitted “every verse dealing with the virgin birth, miracles, resurrection, claims of Jesus' divinity and other puerile superstition.” [link] It became a much shorter book. Jefferson did not believe in the divinity of Jesus, but still recognized him as one of the greatest moral teachers of all time. Because the majority of our Founding Fathers were not firm believers, the words ‘Jesus Christ’, ‘Christianity’, ‘Bible’, ‘Creator’, ‘Divine’, and ‘God’ are never mentioned in the U.S. Constitution a single time. [link] That is also why we do not stone the many Americans who work on Sundays (Numbers 15:32-35).   

Rebellion

The most convincing argument as to why America is not a Christian nation in origin is this: we fought for our independence against Great Britain, which was dominated by the Church of England, or Anglican Church: “Religious organization remained an issue as Great Britain moved into the 1700s. The dominant religious body remained the Church of England (the Anglicans), which conservatives considered the orthodox faith. The Church of England was favored by England's landowning elite, and parliament's House of Lords was an Anglican preserve. Referring to the Church of England, the conservative political party, the Tories, was also called the ‘Church’ party.” [link]

So, whose side would the Lord have been on? The nation represented by devoted Anglicans, or the nation represented by rebellious secularists? The answer is obvious, especially considering: “For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king.” – KJV 1 Samuel 15:23. Rebellion is often associated with sin (Exodus 34:7, Leviticus 16:21, Psalm 106:43, Jeremiah 29:32). Therefore, if God were involved with the American Revolution, He would have been in support of the Church of England. Yet, somehow the secularists managed to overpower this omnipotent God. Where were the prophecies of war and destruction against our nation like the prophecies of the Old Testament? (Numbers 31, Ezekiel 6, Joshua 8, Isaiah 13,14,20,21)

If one were to say that the United States has become a nation comprised of a majority of claimed Christians, then that would be true. However, to say that this nation was given to us by God’s grace or with His support is untrue, and it only depreciates the value of the efforts of all of the men and women who valiantly fought for our independence, unification, and freedom. 

Americans’ hypocrisy

One of the current issues in the U.S. political scene is the controversy of whether or not our government is violating our right to privacy with new technology that allows them to monitor our phone calls, texts, emails, etc. to identify threats of terrorism (the NSA). Most Americans advocate against this governmental power. Why, then, do so many Americans hypocritically welcome the absolute monitoring of a relentless God to judge them of their every thought and action? It does not make any sense to me. I have no desire to believe in a supernatural and intervening God of such strict authority.

Anyone who does not worship the Lord is banned from His Heaven and condemned to an alternative realm such as a fire-burning Hell. Analogously, would Christians then consider it acceptable for Barack Obama to convict all of his opposing Republicans and third-party followers to deportation or a lifetime of torture in prison? I would hope not. America’s leaders have generally held the virtue of accepting ideological disagreements; people may live in this country regardless of their political view or religious belief. That is a virtue that our supposed loving Creator cannot claim to possess. 

Americans are such proud supporters of our representative democracy and our rights to express our disagreements, reasonably question authority, and think freely. Yet, the majority of Americans accept monarchal authority, absolutism, censorship, pleasure prohibition, and thoughtcrime conviction as the government of the universe.