America is Not a Chosen Nation

On Friday, we looked at the fact that Christian Nationalism is not about defending the gospel but about defending white privilege.

And that brings us to the central internal contradiction of Christian nationalism: It is a complete oxymoron, like “married bachelor.” The fundamental nature of the Gospel is that it is intended for all human beings, that there is no preferred nation, that pride is a sin and love is a virtue, and that “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28). 

America is not a chosen nation. It is a human invention. To be sure, it has many virtues, much to be grateful for, and many good people. But it is, like all human things, fallen and afflicted by sin, and its people are, like any other, in need of salvation. Any greatness we possess should be an occasion for humble gratitude to God, not for swollen pride that we are the authors of our greatness, superior to all other people. The Gospel arms us to do battle with our own sins, not with the least of these, the poor, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow. 

God, in short, is not Caesar’s servant, and Caesar is neither God’s savior nor ours. To be sure, Caesar has a God-given role in the affairs of human beings. As Paul says: 

“[T]here is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been established by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority opposes what God has appointed, and those who oppose it will bring judgment upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear to good conduct, but to evil. Do you wish to have no fear of authority? Then do what is good and you will receive approval from it, for it is a servant of God for your good. But if you do evil, be afraid, for it does not bear the sword without purpose; it is the servant of God to inflict wrath on the evildoer” (Rom 13:1–4). 

The state exists, therefore, to ensure that justice and the common good are upheld, and, insofar as it does that, it does God’s will. But ensuring justice does not mean “ensuring White Christians are always top dog, no matter what” for the very good reason that all human beings, not only the White Christian ones, are made in the image and likeness of God. 

But the issue runs deeper than that because the attempt to make Caesar the savior of Christianity is, in the end, an act of idolatry by its very nature. The Church already has a Savior. The attempt to use the might of the state to impose the Gospel on the “godless” is guaranteed to fail. For the Gospel itself teaches that we are saved, not by the law, but by grace working through faith in Christ. Its very essence is freedom because “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor 3:17). To attempt to force a population of unbelievers to live by Christian values that are completely the fruit of Christian faith in Christ is not only impossible [since, as Jesus himself says, “I am the vine, you are the branches” and “Without me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5)], but it is guaranteed to create a backlash as Caesar tries to force people to do what is impossible for them for reasons they cannot for the life of them understand. 

And, of course, all this is further complicated by the question “Whose Christianity is to be imposed on the ‘godless’?” Some argue, for instance, that some Christian theology is so fundamental that it must be imposed on all and civil punishments visited on those who do not practice it (this is common among those who want civil laws to punish certain pelvic sins). But there are things far more foundational to Christian teaching than sexual morality or the dignity of the human person: namely, the dignity of God, whom we are commanded to love with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Shall we punish atheists? Muslims? Jews? Non-Trinitarians? Pagans? For Catholics, the Eucharist is God the Son, fully present in his body, blood, spirit, soul, and divinity. Shall Caesar, as savior of Christianity in America, punish those who fail to adore the Eucharist? Or if Caesar is Protestant, shall he punish Catholics and other apostolic Christians as idolators? 

In the end, every attempt to make Caesar the savior of the Church is like the attempt to use the One Ring to save Middle Earth. Caesar is neither God’s savior nor ours. He is, at best, God’s very imperfect servant. That is why the Catechism warns (676): “The Antichrist’s deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgment. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism, especially the ‘intrinsically perverse’ political form of a secular messianism.” 

And it is also why the Church, having rejected the Americanist heresy over a century ago, went on to give us the Decree on Religious Liberty at Vatican II. 

“For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the one that is to come” (Heb 13:14).