We have to give credit where credit is due. Paul K. Lott Sr. asks the question, can a nation truly be Christian?
Paul K. Lott Sr. began teaching Sunday school in his father's church when we was 11 and started preaching at age 12. He went on to study theology at Kings College in Wilkes-Barre, PA at the age of 16, before being accepted at Harvard College where he had a dual major in computer science and engineering sciences.
Read what he has to say:
"I am an American patriot and a decorated veteran of the United States Army, and I think it is about time American Christians faced the truth. America is not a Christian nation and it never was. I want to add one more thing to that statement; Thank God.
It amazes me that so many people forget the words of the Christian founder, Jesus Christ. Jesus repeatedly taught that his kingdom is not of this world and reminded those who looked for that kingdom is physical form that the kingdom of Heaven is within. The Jewish nation had a special status that Christians have never had. Moses was sent to create a nation out of slaves for God’s purpose. In the nation of the Jews, God created the birthing place for the Messiah who would come to bring an age where nations no longer mattered. The kingdom of Christ is a kingdom of the heart.
We all know that behavioral modification can make things look better on the surface, but if we take Christ at his word, we also know that behavior modification and the following of blind rules are meaningless to God. Yet, I hear Christians moan over the demise of America as a Christian nation.
The idea of America as a Christian nation is one of the key ideas that undermine the very practice of Christianity. In the days of Christ, his followers understood that status before God depended on faith and actions as a result of that faith. The America as Christian myth has led generations of people to ignore the call of Christ with the comfort that paying lips services to God was more than enough to earn a place in Heaven. The myth of a Christian America has led most people to abandon the practice of personal piety and sacrifice. The myth of a Christian America has robbed the gospel of its power.
When I took over as pastor of the First Church of Christ in Wilkes-Barre, PA, the minister I replaced passed by the near by high school and became angry over how short the skirts of the girls were. I looked at him calmly and stated that I did not think that it matters at all. “Why?”, he asked. I said that if they had a relationship with Christ they would practice modesty. Practicing modesty without that a core relationship with Christ would be meaningless. It is the outward appearance of modesty and Christian appearance that has led so many to ignoring the cause of Christ because they feel that their mimic of outward Christian values is enough. Christian values are only valuable if you actually follow Christ. The outward appearance of Christian like values in a nonbeliever is just an empty exercise. Making laws to force people to appear Christian is the fastest way to make sure that true conversation never takes place.
Society is a reflection of its value system, not a reflection of its religions. Those values only change when the people change. In fact, true religious piety rarely finds a home in a society that thinks of itself as Christian. Nations don’t follow Christ. People follow Christ. When the people follow Christ, the tangled web of laws designed to create the appearance of a Christian nation are unnecessary because true Christian individuals behave in a spiritual way regardless of the law.
The myth of America as a Christian nation has harmed the faith in more ways that I can count. I welcome the realization that we do not live in a Christian nation. In our mythical Christian nation, we have learned to let government take care of the poor and feel no burden to practice Christian charity. In our mythical Christian nation, we have condemned our women to raising children alone, thus plunging them and their children into perpectual poverty. In our mythical Christian nation, we record evil on our cell phones rather than oppose it. In our mythical Christian nation, we pursue pleasure over goodness and kindness in the comfort that we are living in a Christian nation and therefore we must be ok with God.
My advice to Christians is to rejoice at the shattering of this myth. The idea of a Christian nation should be condemned from every pulpit in every state, in every county, and in every city. When the message is understood, maybe, just maybe, we can begin the real work of bringing the kingdom of Heaven to the hearts of America. Remember. Nations cannot be Christian. Only people can."
