A Christian Nation, Not a Theocracy

Last Tuesday Night, at the end of the discussion during the Corona Constitution Class, I gave the folks an assignment. Read the Declaration of Independence, and notice how the grievances the colonists had with the British government are similar to the grievances many Americans have with today's federal government.

One of the students sent me an email as he began to read. He stated that as he began to read the Declaration of Independence, he came across Chuck Baldwin's article, How Christians And Conservatives Are Helping To Destroy America, by Chuck Baldwin, November 20, 2014, and wanted me to comment on Baldwin's assessment of how Christian Conservatives may erroneously want a Christian theocracy. I wrote in response:

Thank you for Chuck Baldwin's piece. I've read it already, before you sent it to me, and one thing I can say about it is that it is definitely thought provoking. Baldwin makes many good points, and he "nails it" for the most part, though I think he is generalizing too much and I don't believe conservatives and Christians act like they want a theocracy nearly as much as the Liberal Left spins it that they want one, or as much as Mr. Baldwin says in this article. I think today's conservatives and Christians are more like the founders than we are willing to admit, recognizing faith in Christ, and America being a Christian nation, as an important thing, yet seeing an established church through government as being dangerous. In other words, Faith is God-made, and religion is man-made.

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The men that created this nation were largely Christians, but abhorred organized religion. They recognized, as indicated in the Declaration of Independence, that our rights come from God, and that the "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" are self-evident to a people who recognizes that their rights are "endowed by their Creator." God's influence on this nation is also provided in the final sentence of the Declaration of Independence, where the signers mutually pledge to each other their Lives, Fortunes, and sacred Honor, recognizing that they do so "with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence." In the Treaty with Tripoli, during the Barbary Wars, the United States proclaims we are not a Christian nation, a statement the Left loves to use in their argument against the founders being Christians. What was meant by that statement in the Treaty with Tripoli held true then, as it does today. America is not a Christian nation in the sense of how a Muslim nation is, where the church and state have merged into one; but we are a Christian nation in the sense that our foundations are based on Christian ideals and principles, and that a moral and religious nation alone is capable of freedom. When a nation is not virtuous, and turns its back on God, the people of that country finds that liberty is elusive. I appreciate the email, and appreciate your yearning to understand the Constitution better than you have before. As I like to say, we can't turn this country around if we don't understand the owner's manual. Blessings, Douglas V. Gibbs, Host, Constitution Radio, KCAA AM1050 Author, "25 Myths of the United States Constitution," and "The Basic Constitution" President, Constitution Association Douglasvgibbs.com Politicalpistachio.com Constitutionassociation.com Constitutioneducation.net