Those of us who live in the United States often hear that we should elect leaders who will make it a Christian nation. One minister recently declared on television that if he lived in Japan he would expect a Shinto government and if he lived in Indonesia he would expect a Muslim government. Because he lives in the United States, he stated, he expects it to have a Christian government. He asserted that the United States has always been a Christian nation and always should be.

He was partly right. Many of the Europeans who first settled on this continent were looking for religious freedom for themselves, but not for others. They established colonies that conformed to their respective versions of Christianity in many ways. Some made it illegal to engage in business on Sundays. Some used stocks to humiliate and torture those they deemed wayward. Some executed women they called "witches." To put it gently, these pioneers did not embrace "the aloha spirit."

It is also the case, however, that others who pioneered this nation—particularly some who prospered in the middle Atlantic states in the eighteenth century—believed that the government of the United States should be religiously neutral. Some of those who wanted the nation to have no state religion were skeptics. Others wanted the federal government to leave this matter in the hands of the various states. A number were believers who realized that the only way to guarantee religious freedom for themselves was to grant it to others, too. There were also Christians who agreed with Roger Williams, who had founded Rhode Island in 1636 on the principle that "forced worship stinks in the nostrils of God."

Given these different beginnings, it is not surprising that those of us who call the United States home have long experienced a tug-of-war between those who want its government to be Christian and those who want it to be free. Both sides claim to he faithful to the past. Both sides marshal arguments and lines of evidence. Both sides spend much time, money and energy promoting their views. So far for the most part, the idea has prevailed that the government of the United States should make it possible for persons of all faiths and no faith to live as they wish—providing they do not harm others. We can hope that it will continue to do so.

One consideration along these lines is that the United States is one of the few nations in the history of humanity to organize itself this way. The practice of formally or informally giving one religion a favored position has been more common. But who needs another nation with a government that officially endorses Christianity? We have had plenty of them already! Furthermore, the record of nations with Christian governments is not encouraging. Tyranny, superstition, and bloody conflict have disgraced them far too often. Hardly anyone would freely choose to return to such circumstances.

Those who say the United States should be a Christian nation today may believe that this time, if given permission to do so, we Christians would rule well. This is doubtful. We are all human beings. When given too much power we almost always abuse it. This is as true of those of us who are Christians as it is of everyone else.

Most importantly, Christianity does not need to be enforced by the state in order to flourish. If anything, the opposite is the case. Where the government officially endorses one form of Christianity, churches are often empty and support often low. However, where Christian churches realize that no one else will invest in their preservation and growth, indicators of involvement are generally higher. One of the best ways to kill a thriving church is to make it a nation’s official religion.

Many of those who say the United States should be a Christian nation probably don’t mean that its government should enforce one religion on everyone. Their point is that the nation’s policies should be fair and that those who implement them should be honest. Of this there can be no doubt. But one does not have to be a Christian to favor just policies or to be a person of integrity. The links between religion and morality are more subtle and complex than that.

What matters most is that we all strive in every honorable way to foster "liberty and justice for all." And "all" means everybody.

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