The United States: A Christian Nation

In 1892, Associate Supreme Court Justice David Josiah Brewer wrote a unanimous court opinion declaring ... "This is a Christian nation." "I insist that Christianity has been so wrought into the history of this Republic, so identified with its growth and prosperity, has been and is so dear to the hearts of the great body of our citizens, that it ought not be spoken of contemptuously or treated with ridicule," he wrote. Justice Brewer served on the U.S. Supreme Court for 20 years and became known for his relentless exhortation of Christians to perform their moral, religious and citizenship duties to the nation. Yet today, Justice Brewer's words are lost on a secularized society whose citizens recoil from the notion that America's laws should come from a religious conscience. When is the last time anyone in America heard of a legislator offering a law because of his or her Christian beliefs? We are a Christian nation because the people in America are decidedly Christian. Still, our laws, institutions and policies are quickly becoming unchristian, mainly because Christians have been committing political suicide for nearly a century. Blame it on Supreme Court rulings, media bashings, secular education or weak churches; Christians in America routinely censor themselves out of fear of violating some fictitious "separation of Church and State" standard. As Christians we should neither be embarrassed nor cowardly in projecting our faith into the laws of the nation. Christian laws and principles are the foundational concrete upon which the American justice system and guiding doctrines were founded. Whether the United States is a Christian nation matters only if Christians have dominance in America-over its government, social institutions, media, education, social networks, businesses, entertainment, policies, goals and justice system. If Christians are merely spectators, their overwhelming numbers do not matter. They will be merely spectators at a football game, outnumbering the players but unable to make the rules or determine an outcome that will affect not only the teams, but the spectators as well. Christians must ask themselves: Why should we allow the unbelieving, the Jesus-haters, those who mock Christianity, to rule over our lives? They cannot, unless we allow them to. We still have the ball. We have the numbers. But we need to rise up from our seats and perform our Christian duty to America.