Many claim that the United States is a “Christian nation”, that God is somehow “leading” us, that when we get bad presidents, that is God “giving us what we deserve”, and so forth.
Here’s an example of a similar notion, posted this week on Facebook.
Original Poster (OP): Do not let the affairs of men and their corrupt and wicked practices cause you to lose faith in the God of our nation or Old Glory. Stay true to the noble principles of Holy Scripture and the ideals of the American way. May God Save America!
Realizing that many believe such things, and that few see the unreality of it, I decided to expose the unreality with this response:
Jack: Do the “noble principles of Holy Scripture and the ideals of the American way” bid one to stand idly by as a lawless government breaks the chains of the rule of law and does as it pleases? Are we not bound by our Declaration to throw off unruly government? And just what is God going to do to “save America?” And when is he going to do it?
The things you write here may serve to calm and to encourage, but I’m not sure they’re serving to get anything meaningful done by way of fixing things.
I ask you, therefore, what IS the level of responsibility the American citizen holds for the state of his own union?
Just over an hour later, this enthusiastic response was posted:
OP: By all means, remove those from government that are corrupt and violate the premises of a just and noble nation, but do so peacefully, if possible.
And here’s my reply:
Jack: OK, so a boatload of people just voted to remove Obama but it didn’t work. What should they do now, according to “the noble principles of the Holy Scripture and the ideals of the American way”?
After more than a day had lapsed and no reply had been issued by this active Facebook user, I posted this follow-up comment:
Jack: I figured this would be a hard one to answer. What I observe is that most churches, for whatever their reasons may be—good or bad—, ultimately counsel their members not to get involved in anything political beyond the normal activities associated with voting. Thus stays the country unfixed, since our problems are greater than voting can solve.
The big lie here, however, is that the Christians can and should cease their efforts beyond voting because God has somehow promised to “save America”. There is no rational basis in scripture for such an idea. Add to that the direct observation that it has not happened so far, and you come up with some pretty good math for doubting the doctrine altogether. If only so many Christians weren’t being counseled that it is somehow the “faithful” solution to do nothing, perhaps at least some of them would fall victim to common sense, and would then get busy.
As it is, however, a great many people are useless citizens when it comes to political reform—and apparently, this is just the way their religious leaders want it to be. I say this because they learn this behavior at church, where most everybody seems to be fine with it.
No reply has been received yet, and with each passing day, it becomes more obvious that no reply will be coming. Thus is the unreality of the OP’s position finally exposed. I doubt, however, that he will care much.
How interesting it is if many churches think like this poster. We have loads of complaining going on in the name of God. That is, they don’t like this legislation or that party or this scandal. But it appears that they are resigned only to vote, and then after that, to do nothing whatsoever. Rather, they turn to pray in some expectation that God himself is going to intervene. No one can tell me when God intervened in the past, however, or why he is waiting now to intervene. It is, therefore, an indefensible position made of little more than wishes and some Bible stories about another people from another time and circumstance.
