It’s easy, especially in recent years, to become divided and pitted against each other due to one’s political beliefs.
Americans tend to side with the political party that they feel has the same values and ideas as them. But recently, it’s starting to feel like these “values” are just an excuse to oppress people with different principles.
Especially with the continuous grouping of Christianity with the Republican party, a growing number of Republicans are siding with the idea that the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation and therefore should continue to be governed under the influence of Christian values.
Yet, most of the Christians who agree with this idea pick and choose what parts of the Bible they should follow and ignore when it inconveniences them.
However, while the majority of the founding fathers were Christian, the U.S. was founded to provide refuge to those seeking religious freedom. Nowhere in the Constitution does it mention Christianity. In fact, it emphasizes separation of church and state as well as religious freedom.
According to an article from CNN, a writer clearing up this question shares James Madison’s thoughts on this topic, saying “Madison praised the new Constitution for keeping faith out of federal office holding, which would welcome individuals ‘of every description, whether native or adoptive, whether young or old, and without regard to poverty or wealth, or to any particular profession of religious faith.’”
However, some conservative Republicans have started trying to justify oppressive laws such as bans on abortion, loss of LGBTQ+ freedoms and stricter border policies as being in line with the word of the Bible.
But how would any of this apply to Christian values? Deuteronomy 10:19 states, “And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.” So how is it okay to commit hate crimes on those of different race, ethnicity and sexual orientation when the Bible emphasizes loving one another no matter what? It emphasizes having compassion for those who you don’t know.
If we were to elevate Christianity as a nation, it would violate the First Amendment. True religious freedom allows any and all faiths to all coexist without interference from the state.
If the U.S. was really a “Christian” nation, then so many different policies and laws would be flipped the other way, because the Bible is not a shield to be used when spreading hatred. The Bible emphasizes love, and if some self-proclaimed Christians stuck to their beliefs, they would know that.
