Panting for an American Theocracy

Recently a video clip was forwarded to me in which the videographer--a Mr. Sheppard--choreographed a “walk“ around Washington, D.C. displaying signs of our nation’s religious history. His intention was to decry how we are abandoning the Christian heritage of our founding fathers. Undeniably, the influence of Christianity has deeply leavened our cultural and political past, but the video was an example of how to “use” religion to promote a partisan political agenda, embarrass oneself as historically naïve, and slander the “gospel” impulse. How did Sheppard accomplish so much in one short video?

His technique is standard fare. He snatched a couple of statements by President Obama, whom he apparently considers an enemy of Christianity, and awkwardly twisted them to shape his theme. First, Obama is shown saying that we no longer are a “Christian” nation, but now are also a nation of Jews, Muslims and Buddhists. And the video displays Obama honoring the motto, E Pluribus Unum (from many, one). This is meant to prove that the President dishonors our national character and betrays our Founders’ intent.

In truth, the video is a case study in how “Christians” can misread both the Bible and the American Constitution. Using the Washington Monument, and the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials as visual backdrops, Sheppard lifts up quotes of these men giving God great honor, and displays a map overlay tracing a walk from the memorial monuments to Capitol Hill and back which makes the figure of a “cross.” Given the empty credulousness of his supposed clincher (the “walk pattern“), and the fact that Washington was an Anglican (you know, the church the Puritans fled from) and was disappointingly oblique about God; Jefferson was a religious skeptic who coined the phrase “wall of separation”; and Lincoln--too spiritual to be religious--never joined a church; Sheppard’s message falls flat.

I only comment on this because it is typical of historical club-footedness fueled by a sense of powerlessness in the minds of those who don’t trust the democratic process and think God can work only through political gaming. Many Christians who feel side-tracked on the road to political influence yearn for an American theocracy with their particular brand of righteousness in control. When you need to mischaracterize the current President as an enemy of Christianity in order to rally support for your political opinions, you display the weakness of your position.

But what really troubles me is how Sheppard combines filiopietism (ancestral worship), sloppy judgementalism, and a disregard for the First Amendment’s forbidding of religious “card carrying” exclusivism to sell a bill of goods to his followers. Sheppard’s ham-handedness makes a poor showing for what could be a strong case for a sublime mix of democracy and spirituality. He is splashing around in the shallow end of the pool.

Obama can stand comfortably alongside Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln (all of whom arguably were "religious" in an unevangelical way), not only in his personal morality but also in his public profession of faith and support of biblical principles (despite groundless attempts to smear him). “Christian” is not a “brand” name, and events of history are too complex to be categorized in chunks of Christian-ness. The kind of “caricaturing” in which Sheppard engages is a sieve that leaks good water. Sheppard is no more than a pitchman with nothing but insinuations about politicians and legislators and inscriptions on monuments.

Unnoticed by Mr. Sheppard, God has worked with the people that have in-gathered here over the years--all of them, not just a “brand“ of christians. One of the most “christian" things about America is its open arms inviting of people to join in the blessings from God that our ancestors worked so hard to imbed into a political system that mirrors God's best attributes and expectations.

The word "Christian" is too narrow a term to reverberate all that is Godly. I am sorry to say that the word "Christian" to many people rings bells of intolerance, hypocrisy, self-righteousness, and greed. I believe Obama had this in mind when he said we are not a "Christian" nation--meaning "Christian" as a clustered "group title," a classified noun. The President was onto something much deeper than Sheppard has in mind.

Any good historian can, story by story, trace through how un-Christian many of our heroic, card carrying, "Christian" ancestral heroes blatantly displayed the negative un-godly traits I just listed. I am greatly ashamed of many of the things we acclaim about our national past, not to mention some of the things more recent "Christian" leaders have promulgated. I am not talking "politics." Political parties are inherently incapable of conveying spiritual wisdom. One of James Madison’s insights was that political factions are susceptible to misguided leadership, and that it takes a whole people to navigate through the shallows and reefs. (This is his argument for the benefits of a large populated republic.) Actually, in the video clip Obama is in tune with both Madison (a secularist) and scripture. He was doing just what Christ would do, and what the apostle Paul took as the hallmark of his own ministry--welcoming Gentiles to join God's "Way." Ironically, Obama is the one who displays (in the same few words the video filmed) the heart of the American heritage, political and religious.

To the delight of “follow the leader” Christians, Sheppard uses the word "Christian" as if it were copyrighted and owned by people like himself. The historic reality is that anachronistically “branding” Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln as exemplars of real Christianity leaves unexplained how the upper ranks of the “movers and shakers” in our founding events cannot be labeled as “documented Christians“--consider the names Franklin, Adams, Hamilton, Madison. The “professing” Christians more commonly were second tier leaders, and people in general who reflected an American culture that honored religious diversity and the integrity of political individualism. What nails down the valid claim of a national Christian heritage is awareness of how God blesses, an appreciation for God‘s modus operandi. The “right” people--the people with political acumen and/or leadership charisma--were fortuitously in place to implement the most advanced political system that could promote godly principles; thank God.

Better than glossing history to serve “Christian” politics--and even more impressive--is pointing out how God's hand was on the young country. We can see God guiding the activists and placing the key people with the needed leadership talents in position--whatever their religious tint--to champion our democratic experiment clothed in the most spiritual-friendly of political forms. We don’t have to pretend that our early leaders were the kind of "Christians" that Sheppard considers himself. The "politics" these men bequeathed to us opened the door for Christianity. Their philosophical bent for individual freedom and their commitment to the leveling of class in the public square made them felicitously "christian" (small "c"), not because the individual "heroes" were pious in an "evangelical" fashion. When "Christian" becomes a noun rather than an adjective, God must sigh deeply.

If we can't tell the difference between Christian leaders who dishonor Christ's example and others who pass the litmus test of spirituality but belong to the wrong political party, we are in trouble. When we judge people's spirituality by their politics, the dog starts wagging its tail at the sight of looming strangers. We start spinning appreciative legends about people who can not pass a New Testament inspection of their leadership record.

One of the most un-Christian things that many like Mr. Sheppard promote is the unwillingness to allow any but branded "Christians" to join in the celebration of the benefits of our land of liberty--a land that is home for all people who are citizens, whether Jews, Muslims, Mormons or simply pious but unchurchly people--like Abraham Lincoln.

Obama was not saying that we are not a Christian nation; he was saying we are not "just" a Christian nation. He was countering the idea that (as I was taught) if you are Catholic or a Jew, we should grudgingly accept your citizenship only if you don't aspire to any position of influence (like the Presidency). Obama was clearly making an argument against a favorite Republican theme of "exceptionalism"--one of those attitudes that I can not locate anywhere in Jesus' seminars with his disciples.

Let's drop the capital "C" when we talk about "Christian" America. The word is stained and laden with too many unfortunate historical betrayals and ill-associations. Let's stick with the term "God blessed"; then, not incidentally, Jews and Muslims (God worshipers also) can resonate with our true christian heritage (and are noticeably glad to do so). I do not resonate with many details in the way Jews and Muslims express and practice their faith, but I also have real problems with Methodists and Baptists. Jesus was an "everyman," or else he was no Savior.

The shame is that so many Christians play "follow the leader" and don't recognize when their leaders "miss the mark" of scriptural Christianity in their sweat to be institutionally powerful. As a good example, at my church we have installed a labyrinth walk for spiritual meditation. One of the church leaders displayed the virus of promotional exceptionalism by suggesting that anyone using the labyrinth should be inculcated with correct “theology” before being allowed to use the labyrinth. In my mind, the Church of Christ is not a cloistered body of approved people that meet in a denominationally owned and labeled building.

Today’s right-wing Christians sing the tune that the only “real” Americans are conservative evangelicals, and if you are a Jew, Muslim, or Buddhist you are here on parole and we would deport you on a whim if we can inveigle a "democratic" way to do it. And if you become President with incorrect politics, we will shut down Congress with an announced agenda of "un-cooperation" until we can oust you, while we invent how un-Christian (read that as how un-American) you are. This is blunt hyping of political Godliness for partisan gain.

Good history can tell us of the profound advances America has made in implementing divine principles in civic practices. If America is a Christian nation and E Pluribus Unum is a national motto, how does Obama's lifting up this motto make him anti-Christian?

Give it up Sheppard; your tent is not staked down. Your's is no way to treat a quality tent.

Doug Good