Civil religion will not suffice
After journeying to America in 1921, the British theologian and author G.K. Chesterton recorded his observations in a volume entitled What I Saw in America (1921). Among the most trenchant of his observations was that America was “the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed” and that America had “the soul of a church.”
In my first history class as an undergraduate at Princeton in 1965, I had a professor who quoted “the soul of a church” quote in my American colonial history class. Of course, Alexis de Tocqueville made much the same observation in his masterful Democracy in America in 1831. Tocqueville’s invaluable work was one of the textbooks in that long-ago class and I can still remember thinking, “How did I not know about this book before now?” (If you have not read it, please do so. You will not regret the experience.)
Exactly a century after Chesterton recorded his observations about America, historian Robert Tracy McKenzie, in his volume We the Fallen People explained: “As a nation of immigrants, they believed that the essence of what it means to be an American had less to do with birth than with belief.”
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On a more elemental level, America has been explained as the only country in human history that was founded on beliefs and ideals, not blood and soil. If one pledges allegiance to the nation’s founding ideals as summarized in the Declaration of Independence, one can become an “American” in a more basic and comprehensive sense than an immigrant could become British, French, German, Russian, or Japanese.
Our founding fathers were operating out of a Judeo-Christian milieu when they founded our nation. They made this clear both by content and intent. When the American Revolution is contrasted with the French Revolution which occurred a little more than a decade later, this important distinction becomes clear.
While there may have been superficial similarities between the two revolutions, the enormous philosophical and theological differences soon became manifestly obvious.
The French Revolution in a startlingly short time devolved into a horrendous and bloody reign of terror and a Napoleonic dictatorship that became the model for modern totalitarian regimes. The American Revolution, on the other hand, led to the longest sustained self-governing Republic in the history of the world—the United States of America.
The essential and defining difference in the two revolutions can be identified in their foundational statements. The American Revolution declared to the world, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.”
The French Revolution asserted the principles of “liberty, equality, and fraternity,” based purely on their assertion of these rights, as opposed to the American Revolution’s basing them on the “Creator” and natural law.
The American Revolution did not declare its independence from God—the French Revolution did. In fact, the French Revolution sought to go all the way back to the pre-Christian roots of European civilization, back to Greco-Roman paganism. For example, they dressed up a famous French actress as the goddess of reason, placed her on the altar of Notre Dame Cathedral, and worshipped her.
Conversely, the Judeo-Christian roots of the American Revolution laid the foundation that protected human rights instead of sacrificing them to the glory of a secular state.
And our Founding Fathers were very aware of exactly what they were doing. In 1798 John Adams, the nation’s second president and one of the chief architects of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, declared: “We have no government armed in power capable of contending in human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made for a moral and a religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.”
And that government was based upon the core principle that “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God…all men are created equal.” These rights were not based upon birth rank, property, brains, beauty, or creed, but in every human being’s God-given right to live, be free and pursue personal fulfillment. Furthermore, it was the Government’s chief purpose “to secure these rights.”
At the state level, Virginia’s Bill of Rights asserted that free government is impossible without “justice, moderation, temperance, frugality and virtue.” Massachusetts’ Constitution declared that “wisdom, knowledge, and virtue” preserve freedom and require an educated populace to promulgate and perpetuate freedom.
And these foundational beliefs have seeped into the nation’s collective memory. A recent poll by The Associated Press found that 70% of Americans believe that America is in danger of losing its identity as defined by them as “the beliefs and values the country represents.” The poll revealed that a significant majority of Americans believe that America should be a country with an essential culture (as opposed to multilateral). What are the beliefs and values that should be embodied in that essential culture? Americans said a fair, impartial judicial system and the rule of law as defined by the Constitution (88%), along with individual freedom as defined by the Constitution (84%).
These bedrock beliefs are inseparably linked to these Judeo-Christian beliefs and if and when the beliefs wane, so will the liberties that birthed them in the beginning.
History tells us a morality based on something other than God is fragile and subject to grievous abuse in times of stress and crisis. A morality based on something other than the God of scripture has proven to be weak and insufficient and far too subjective in times of great national stress.
For some time now, too many Americans have been operating out of a “Christian memory,” having a form of Godliness, but denying the power thereof.
Now, as the moral boundaries erode and collapse, many people see their social, if not personal value. The British author and atheist Richard Dawkins summed it up quite succinctly when he described himself as a “cultural Christian” and bemoaned the decreasing influence of Christianity’s tenets in European culture while at the same time dismissing cardinal tenets of the faith as “nonsense.”
Dawkins explained, “And I find that I like to live in a culturally Christian country, although I do not believe a single word of the Christian faith.”
That reliance on “Christian memory” to carry forward the values of the Christian faith without the substance of personal belief will eventually buckle and fail under the onslaught of naturalistic hedonism. And when that happens, society becomes a very different, and a more immoral and dangerous place.
As this so-called “civil religion” wanes, America is becoming a much more dangerous, immoral, and selfish place. Civic virtue dissipates and the weak and vulnerable face greater dangers and neglect.
There is still time to turn back to the faith of our fathers and mothers and resist the siren song of progressivism.
Alternatively, we will continue to sink even further into the morass of moral relativism that threatens to engulf us.
Dr. Richard Land, BA (Princeton, magna cum laude); D.Phil. (Oxford); Th.M (New Orleans Seminary). Dr. Land served as President of Southern Evangelical Seminary from July 2013 until July 2021. Upon his retirement, he was honored as President Emeritus and he continues to serve as an Adjunct Professor of Theology & Ethics. Dr. Land previously served as President of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (1988-2013) where he was also honored as President Emeritus upon his retirement. Dr. Land has also served as an Executive Editor and columnist for The Christian Post since 2011.
Dr. Land explores many timely and critical topics in his daily radio feature, “Bringing Every Thought Captive,” and in his weekly column for CP.
