I was just thinking about the Worship of America. Not Worship IN America . . . but the Worship OF America. You know, the nonsense about how all our founding fathers were sold-out Christians (5 minutes of intellectual research will show you that although they were all extremely religious and believed in the supreme being, few of them would acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Savior and the only way to heaven). It shocks me to find a hymn lyrics in my hymnal such as, “My country … sweet land of liberty … of thee I sing!” and “I like the sound of America, the best sounding word I know.” What? That’s a worship song? I believe we SHOULD pray for our troops — but because they are doing a difficult thing and need prayer, not because they are in the God-Army fighting terrorism.
Now a lot of people get way over sensitive about this and they won’t vote in elections claiming, “My King is in heaven, and he’s coming back.” That’s just ridiculous. My King is in heaven, and he’s coming back . . . but he also told us to respect our government and work within its structures . . . in other words – VOTE. I am a proud American – but my first priority is my faith in Jesus, not in my country. It’s not evil that they are connected – Christianity and government SHOULD be connected; Christians should have their lives SO effected by being in love with Jesus that their Christianity effects EVERYTHING (anything less turns Christianity into a religion). But being an American doesn’t make you a Christian. Jesus does.
How did Christianity and Americanism get so connected? That’s what confused me for the longest time. So I started thinking about the foundations of both: America was founded because there was a group of people that were in bondage to a repressive government. The patriots fought against this repressive government to declare their freedom. Christianity was founded because mankind was in bondage to a sinful nature and destined to hell. God fought against this sinful nature and defeated it; bridging the gap OVER sin and declaring all of humanity’s freedom (should they accept it).
I’ve heard it said Christians have an easier time forgiving people than non-Christians do. I think that’s true because Christians have BEEN forgiven. Christians know what lousy sacks of crap they were, and that Jesus forgave them and redeemed them anyway… so its easier for a Christian to show forgiveness to someone who doesn’t deserve it because they’ve experienced it themselves.
Maybe America’s foundation in FREEDOM got mixed in with Christianity because of its similar theme. Hmm.