A Christian Nation

By Alan Caruba

My areas of expertise are, generally speaking, energy, environmentalism, education, immigration, and anything else that I find of interest which, to be candid, is just about everything.

I got to thinking about this while doing an hour’s radio Tuesday morning with Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association, along with his co-host, Marvin Sanders. The program is aired by the Christian Radio Network on more than 200 stations in 34 states, 19 affiliates, and in Canada.

I have been doing radio for some twenty-five years, so I have a finely tuned antenna for the mood and style of radio hosts. These two fellows were as relaxed about their Christianity as one could find. It wasn’t something they had to prove. It wasn’t something they felt compelled to talk about all the time. I was not there to discuss religion, but energy issues.

At one point, a caller asked some arcane question about American and Christian values. My first thought was that they are one and the same. It has never been a question or an issue for me that America was and is a Christian nation. It was founded by men who were profoundly influenced by Christianity, but like Benjamin Franklin were also interested in the sciences and natural world.

One cannot take a walk around the nation’s capital without reading inscriptions or finding statuary everywhere that reflect the religiosity of the founders and those who followed in their footsteps.

To those who insist that we must make all determinations by numbers, it is clear that more Americans describe themselves as Christian than any other faith. Sadly, a growing percentage of Americans self-describe themselves as no longer believing in God or any specific faith.

This lack of faith, the acceptance of mushy morals, has led some in the nation to accept things like people of the same sex marrying one another. The issue of abortion will not go away so long as there are people whose faith has taught them that killing babies is murder and a sin. An X-rated society is a society in decline.

As they wrestled with the larger issues of the question that was asked, Wildmon and his co-host seemed a bit hesitant to affirm the proposition that America was “a Christian nation” so I did it for them.

Then I asked how we have come to have a President who, in Turkey, told the entire Islamic world that America is not a Christian nation, but rather some amorphous collection of creeds and values. I answered my own question by saying that someone named Barack Hussein Obama might have his own reasons for saying something that appallingly stupid.

If America were not a Christian nation, a tolerant nation, Obama would not be President. His twenty years or so of listening to Rev. Jeremiah Wright spew hatred for America hardly qualifies him to call himself a Christian.

It is no accident that the very First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” First among the protections cited in our Bill of Rights was freedom of religion!

You won’t find such laws in many Islamic nations. You won’t find much or any tolerance either, yet despite 9/11 America’s Muslims have not had to concern themselves for a moment about the practice of their faith.

Sadly, Christianity is under attack in America these days. Frankly, I wish more Christians would be more outspoken in the defense of their faith. Christmas is not “Festus”, it’s Christmas, damn it! Christians have got to stop apologizing for being Christian.

At this point, it would be a good idea to confess that for many years I have not stepped foot in a church or synagogue except to attend the funeral services of people I have loved.

Am I less religious because of this? No, I carry my religion around with me in my genes. It was passed to me by countless generations and by grandparents who had the good sense and great courage to get on a boat and come to America.