Church and State

We are a Christian nation.

Would it weren’t so. The ethical foundations of a just and sound society are common to virtually all religions and spiritual philosophies. We certainly wouldn’t lose any moral ground by paying greater respect to our constitutionally guaranteed freedom to worship – or not worship – as we please. In fact, re-labeling America a non-denominational nation would be entirely in keeping with our country’s melting pot mythos and diverse ethnic reality.

It’s common knowledge that our nation’s founders came to these shores in search of religious freedom. The phrase “religious freedom” has a nice ring in our modern ears, but the only religious freedom the founders of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay were interested in was the freedom to practice a particularly strict brand of Puritanism and to mandate it as the only acceptable religion of the New World. They not only refused to recognize the Native Americans’ belief systems as bona fide religions, they refused to countenance even slight deviations from the Puritanical spiritual norm within their own communities, as evidenced by clergyman Roger Williams’ banishment from Massachusetts Bay, primarily for spreading “newe and dangerous opinions.” The pith of the peril? Mr. Williams advocated the primacy of conscience over doctrine and preached religious tolerance.

With her historical roots solidly planted in restrictive religious soil, little wonder that a puritanical perfume still wafts over America’s amber waves of grain. Yes, indeed, we’ve come light-years from the bigotry, repression, persecution and abuse that ran rampant in early America. But our progress has definitely been a two-steps-forward/one-step-back sort of dance. For every surge of religious (or racial, or sexual, or social) enlightenment and tolerance, there’s been — and continues to be — a Christian-religious backlash. Look no further than California’s legalization of gay marriage (June, 2008) and the subsequent passage of Prop 8, making it illegal again (November, 2008) for a contemporary example.

Or consider the Pledge of Allegiance. The original was composed by Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister and Christian Socialist, in 1892. Francis’ first cousin, Edward Bellamy, was the author of the utopian novels Looking Backward (1888) and Equality (1897). The two shared the same socialist ideals; Francis was forced to step down from his Boston church pulpit due to the content of his socialist sermons.

His original Pledge read as follows:

I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

He’d considered “with liberty, justice and equality for all,” but as he was writing the pledge in his capacity as chairman of a committee of state superintendents of education, and as those superintendents were against equality for women and African-Americans, he chose to be politic, and leave the word out. The National Flag Conference under the leadership of the American Legion and the Daughters of the American Revolution altered the words again, changing “my Flag” to “the Flag of the United States of America.” Mr. Bellamy did not approve; his protest was ignored. In 1954, the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic benefit organization, campaigned to add the words, “under God” to Bellamy’s pledge. Congress complied, turning a patriotic oath into a public prayer.

The iconic symbols of the Christian faith and chronology of the Christian calendar have been so deeply ingrained in our national consciousness, you have to be a non-Christian to even notice them. When I was a kid, “spring break” was called “Easter vacation.” It says “winter break” on the school calendar, but it’s timed for Christmas. If you’re celebrating Kwanzaa, Solstice, Hannukah, Muharram or anything else, you’ll have to juggle your spiritual festivities with your work-life. If you’re Christian, no worries. Your holy day is the nation’s day off.

There’s been a lot of press these last few years about the “War Against Christmas.” The hype has the same tone as the Pledge of Allegiance propaganda. The latter claims, “The Godless, devil-worshipping heathens have control of our government and won’t let our children pray in their schools.” The former protests that we’re draining the wonder and beauty from their celebration of Christ’s birth by making it politically correct to say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” and by making it politically incorrect to plaster Christian religious symbols all over our public institutions and lands.

The feeling that fuels this Christian outrage is the feeling that non-Christians are making a big fucking deal out of nothing. It’s not just the passionately devout or the Christian fanatics that are offended by the idea of pulling back on the Santa Claus/Christmas Carol fun. It’s ordinary, everyday, rarely-go-to-church folks, folks who don’t even consider themselves true Christians. In their minds, in the minds of these average Americans who just happen to have been born into a family with a Christian heritage, the symbols are so benign, the music so evocative of the season, the greeting so generic, only someone with evil or hatred in their heart could find it offensive.

I have a serious Christian heritage on my dad’s side of the family, but I wasn’t raised a Christian and I can state absolutely that contrary to popular belief, Christmas trees are not a secular symbol, jolly old St. Nicholas doesn’t go down Jewish chimneys and “Away in a Manager” evokes the Christmas season, not the winter-tide. Chronologically and culturally, it was inevitable America establish herself as a Christian nation. Times change. Cultures merge as the world grows smaller and populations swell. Would we were no more a Christian nation, but a nation with liberty, justice and equality for all.