Thoughts on "Americanized" Christianity...

Last night, in my "leadership" class at school, I had made some comments regarding the Americanization of Christianity and my frustrations with it. To my surprise, my professor agreed and made the oh-so-true statement that America is not, was not, and never will be a "Christian" nation. While it has a heritage of people within who have been Christians and such, it is not a Christian nation.

This thinking came on the heels of an eye opening moment I had a few days ago. I was driving home from work, in route to pick up my son from preschool, and was stopped at a traffic light. Looking to the car ahead of me, I saw two bumper stickers standing loud and proud from the matte black bumper of a late model car. The first read, in small letters, "He's my peace", with a bold, loud splash of the words "Jesus Christ" in all caps below. It was quite a sticker. My eyes floated across this expanse of car behind to rest upon the next. The patriotic colors were in full display, and the image of a waving flag decorated the left portion of the sticker. It read, "We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail", quoting George W. Bush after the 9/11 attacks. I sighed at the connection. He's my peace, the sticker seemed to proclaim, so much so that we can pursue and destroy those who are just like me. The next day, I listened, laying in bed, as NPR recounted a tale of Pat Robertson claiming that the illness of Prime Minister Sharon was due to his political views and actions. We will never stop claiming to know everything!?

Derek Webb, in his new album entitled, Mockingbird, sums it up nicely from my perspective in a song entitled, "A King and a Kingdom":

There are two great lies that I've heard

"The day you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will not surely die"

And that Jesus Christ was a white, middle-class Republican

And if you wanna be saved you have to learn to be like Him.

Hmmm...