There has been much to say this week about the death of Osama bin Laden. One thing I keep hearing is that America is a “Christian Nation.” I want to set the record straight, we are not.
America is grounded in the Constitution, which never mentions God or Jesus, and actually goes as far to say it forbids the establishment of religion. Because of this, we will never be a Christian nation. But we are a Biblical nation.
So what does that mean?
As a nation we continue to be inspired by Scripture and we hear it used over and over by our leaders. Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand” (Matthew 12:25), as he faced the prospect of a nation half slave and have free.
Lyndon Johnson was fond of saying, “Come now and let us reason together.” (Isaiah 1:18), as he would attempt to build consensus.
And, preacher and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jar famously quoted, “I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places made plain and the crooked places will be make straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.” (Isaiah 40:4-5).
Sarah Plain was wrong last year to challenge us to go “back to what our Founders and our founding documents meant-they are quite clear-that we would create law based on the God of the Bible and the Ten Commandments.”
Our nation is well served by the Constitution’s guarantee of free exercise of religion.
We should never support legislation based on the Bible or make any effort to label America a Christian nation, and I say this having been a Christian my whole life.
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