The American Experiment

Those that were at The Truth Project on Wednesday heard the interesting take on "The American Experiment" offered by Dr. Del Tackett. It was an interesting discussion and an interesting take on America.

I have a couple problems with the video, and the way it reinforces some sterotypically Christian responses to our government. First, the video was adamant that the Constitution proves that America was founded as a Christian nation based on Biblical principles. The favorite phrase used to justify that is the clause that "All men were created equal."

While that bedrock principle describes a certain vision for America and where we still strive to go, I don't think you can use that as concrete proof. Think about the Constitution. What that line really meant is all adult white males were created equal. We're talking about a document that denied people rights based on gender (ladies weren't granted the vote for more than a century) and counted people as less than whole based on skin color. That doesn't exactly match the Bible, or our mandate as Christians.

Second, the video time and again talked about the faith of the Founding Fathers. Tackett ascribed Christian values to people based on quotes that never once mentioned Jesus Christ. This is more than a semantic discussion.

There is a big difference between believing in God, a "creator," a "Lord of Light," religion, and morals, and being a Christian. A Christian believes Jesus Christ is the son of God, our Lord and Savior. A Christian believes that you can only achieve salvation by putting his or her faith in Jesus alone.

A deist believes in the idea of God. Jews are deists, so are Muslims, and I would wager so are a majority of the self-professed "Christians" that live in America.

I believe that America is a noble dream of equality and freedom that never totally existed the way people hoped. But that doesn't mean we can't keep fighting for it. And it certainly doesn't mean we should stop trying to reach people with the Gospel.

But maybe we could use the Bible to reach people instead of trying to convince them that it's what Thomas Jefferson believed...