Freedom and Christianity

Lose one, and you lose the other

Happy birthday United States of America!

My 4th of July prayer is for freedom to ring from sea to shining sea and that all pause this day to give due appreciation for this blessed land. For blessed lands are not eternal but are provisional. Blessed lands must be maintained by individuals who accept and keep the Covenant above all other forms of idolatry. A big part about living in blessed lands is that idols abound with incredible frequency, and they can disguise themselves as freedom.

Abundance accompanies the good fortune of living in blessed lands. And where there is abundance, there are idols competing for attention. Pop idols, sports idols, political idols and even religious idols all vie for relevance in abundant worlds. Worshipping those "golden calves" feels like freedom because we were gifted the freedom to choose. But when most seek to please the idols instead of the One who blessed our land, chaos, not freedom, ensues.

Christianity, historically, held unique positions within the countries it resided. Since it's very inception, after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Christians had a role the play. Often that role was a "thorn in the side" of the power structures that be, but none the less, they had an impact on government's ability to wield power. Because there is power in idols and the more people worship idols, the more power the idols have. Millions flocked to the NFL because of Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift; the WNBA is seeing record attendance in the wake of Caitlin Clark entering the league. Enemies of freedom really don't care what idols people worship just as long as it keeps the attention off of the One who truly blesses our land.

Within this context, why have Christians been persecuted throughout time? Because Christians are idol smashers. True Christians put none above their reverence for their Lord and Savior. And in lands that demand that certain idols be worshiped, it led to Christians being turned into lion fodder as Nero once decreed. It also led to mass torture and execution of Christians under emperor Diocletian in 303 AD. However, not all persecution of Christians came from pagan leaders, the puritans that eventually founded the United States of America, were persecuted by the Christians running the Church of England. Those separatists first fled England by way of Holland before making their way across the Atlantic to the New World.

What makes the United States of America unique, love it or hate it, is that she was founded on Christian principles. And as a result, America was the first country in history whose government did not persecute Christians, nor any other religion for that matter. It was enshrined in the First Amendment to our Constitution, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." As a result, Christians freely worshiped, without government interference, since our founding. There are over 200 denominations of Christianity in the United States and thousands more worldwide. Not to say that within Christian churches in the US that we don't have our idols. Maga churches, like Joel Osteen's that preach "prosperity theology," certainly are chasing idols and not the true word of God.

To be clear, for a land to be blessed, not all citizens need to be Christian nor worship Christ. But a land needs to have the freedom to do so or else it is not truly free. The United States of America was built on that foundation. Our founding fathers knew that freedom to worship Christ was pure freedom and that other forms of idol worship always ends in chains. Despite what atheists and other non-believers think, that is the blessing of freedom.

However, the United States is at a crossroad now as Christianity, for the first time since our founding, is despised by the people in power. We have leaders within our governments that are hostile towards Christian Churches. Feeling the hate, many churches are ratcheting down their Christianity rather than doubling down on the once inculcated ideals of "e pluribus unum" and "trust in God." American's churches, once propagators of freedom from the pulpit, have succumb to the worship of idols themselves. The secular idols of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) supplant the word of God in too many churches today. And DEI is not freedom, it is precisely the opposite.  As I previously stated, the enemy does not really care what idols we worship, as long as whatever it is keeps us from loving the true One that blesses our land.

This 4th of July, please remember that it was this:

that delivered this:

by the Grace of God. 

We all will do well to pay due reverence, as creatures, to our Creator for our blessed abundance. Contrary to the Osteens of the world, prosperity comes from the freedom to think, speak and be in the world and not from the material trappings of chasing idols. If our nation loses its connection to Christianity for the sake of new government sanctioned idols, so to will it lose her claim on freedom. For her founding Covenant will have been broken and the United States will become just another country on earth that leverages capital (both human and material) into spoils; and “a shining city on the hill” for freedom seekers she will no longer be.