Kyle Gebhart

The Declaration of Independence presents ideals that Americans hold sacred, it is a foundation stone in the cathedral of American Civil Religion. It represents the definitive moment where we gained our freedoms and the rights and privileges we cherish and defend. There is a problem though. As a Christian, it is impossible for me to accept that the founding fathers were warranted by God in signing this document.

The Declaration opens:

“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

Now, compare with the following:

“Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.” Romans 13:1-2

As Paul writes these words, he exhorts Christians (suffering under the godless state of Rome) to obey and trust God. Paul’s commanded response to Roman rule is humble submission; however the founding fathers weren’t playing by Paul’s rules.

The signers of the Declaration of Independence were not condoned by Scripture in rebelling against England. Instead, they invoked “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” The key word in these opening sentences of our Declaration of Independence is the word entitle. Nature’s god has entitled them to independence.

This god of whom Thomas Jefferson writes does share some basic qualities with the God of the Bible: a type of omnipotence, a benevolence towards mankind, and an interest in human affairs. However, Jefferson’s god is a foreign god to me. He is the god of American Civil Religion, the god of the Declaration of Independence, but he is not the God revealed in the Bible. We’ll call him the “American god.” Washington referred to him by such titles as, “All-Wise Disposer of Events, Grand Architect of the Universe, or Beneficient Being.”[1]

As my series of posts unfolds, we will see that this American god is almost universally the deity whom the founding fathers invoked, and perhaps worshipped. We will also see that the American god is fundamentally at odds with the God of the Bible.

The Declaration of Independence baptizes our nation into the name of a foreign god,and the founding fathers consciously dismiss the God revealed in the Bible. In the act of American independence, they defy a clear exhortation of the apostle Paul. Paul’s God does not impel revolutions. Paul’s God does not encourage His people to willfully rebel against appointed governors; even if those governors do not fear God. The god of Nature, however, does impel such actions. The fathers are entitled by Nature’s god to throw off English authority. How can we conclude that the founding fathers were following the same God as Paul?

Before I launch into my examination of American Civil Religion I want to establish a working understanding of some key premises. The first premise is that many Christians are unaware of the power of nationalism over their worldview.

Historically, it can be argued, that nationalism is quite young only emerging in its current form in the 1800’s. For much of history the ties that bound people together were more localized. Those ties related to families, clans, tribes or races, and in some cases a common language or religion. It is only with the ascendancy of democracy that large groups of peoples with different ethnic and religious backgrounds were united under the broad, inclusive flags of the modern nation-state.

Under democratic ideals nationalism is pluralistic. It states that each should willingly lay aside religious, cultural, or ethnic differences to unite around a shared value system or ideology. Democratic nationalism states, “We will lay aside our differences, to engineer a nation around these political or social goals.” Unity and agreement with these ideals becomes the source of our greatness. For Americans, these ideals are succinctly stated at the beginning of the Republic in the Declaration of Independance: “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, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

In honoring our revolutionary past, we chose the term ‘patriot’ for anyone who is inspired to throw off the bonds of slavery to other masters and forge ahead in the spirit of liberty. This language fills the pages of our newspapers, magazines and news programs. Being patriotic is central to our popular discourse. A political candidate who appears unpatriotic has signed their resignation. Good Americans are patriotic, bad people are unpatriotic. Burning an American flag is illegal in several states, supporting the troops is essential, having the heart-strings pulled when the national anthem is sung mandatory. If you are a good American, you are patriotic. If you are not patriotic then perhaps you are a communist, a terrorist, or a traitor.

Patriotism is most esteemed within conservative circles. Those circles include a large, vocal portion of the evangelical Christian community. The influence of Christian patriots can be clearly seen in the number of books and articles written over the last decade on the subject. The liberals have penned hundreds of alarmist diatribes fearful of a conservative takeover of America. The conservatives have characterized their opponents as unpatriotic, supportive of terrorism and un-American.

I think, however, that the patriotism of many evangelical Christians is far more dangerous to their spiritual life than they have seen. Jesus and his apostles never supported or denounced political candidates. I won’t go so far as to say endorsing certain candidates is wrong, but the prophetic voices of the New Testament have made it clear to us that our citizenship in heaven is primary. If our nationalism overrides our allegiance to The Kingdom of God, then we have compromised our spiritual well-being.

I believe that there are many in the American church who are already compromised in this way.