In an oft quoted 1798 letter to the Massachusetts Militia, John Adams stated:
“Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Adams was a Unitarian who thoroughly embraced the Enlightenment and would over the course of his life grow more and more hostile to institutional Christianity. Like so many at that time he attended church services but (it could be argued) this was more a sense of social duty and moral principal than any notion of actual worship, communion, or submitting to revelation.
As such, it could be said that Adams typified the very kind of civic religion that continues to bedevil American society and has functioned to confuse and water down genuine Biblical faith.
Regardless this quote is often cited by the Evangelical Right as a justification for political action and a means of assessing contemporary American society.
Many start with an assumption which runs something like this - Since there is no longer any kind of social consensus or agreed on principles with regard to morality, and since religion has clearly been relegated to a secondary status, then it follows that the US Constitution and the order it established are no longer applicable.
This spawns a debate - what to do? How should Christians or more specifically Christian-Americans respond to this reality?
For some it's a call to coercion. Since religion and specifically the Christian religion is necessary for the Constitutional order to function, it's the task of the Church to work toward societal transformation by means of legislation, education (or rather indoctrination), and everything up to (and sometimes including) compulsory church attendance. At the very least, every government building, courthouse, civic ceremony, and public space should be marked by Christian acknowledgement and ritual - which lays claim to the land and functions as a kind of pedagogical exercise. And it goes without saying a great deal of censorship will be required in order to suppress dissent and/or the voices in society that would subvert this order.
In other words, authoritarian and coercive measures must be employed in order to save the democratic republic. The assumption is that once a consensus is re-established then (perhaps) the heavy hand of the state can be eased.
But there's another response to this Adams dilemma (as it were)...
These people argue that since the criteria can no longer be met, than the Constitutional order and its principles are no longer binding. Effectively the present government order is illegitimate. Obviously some who feel this way are willing to put things on hold during the Trump tenure. Or, some will argue that Trump's smashing of the Constitutional order, his disregard for the law and social mores, is a legitimate expression of that very authoritarianism that is now required in light of the broken social order.
Both these positions beg the question regarding a so-called 'Christian' country. Why is Adams' statement treated as gospel? He wouldn't be able to join their churches? If he were alive today they would not view him as a Christian - and rightly so. Let's not be afraid to simply state that he was wrong.
The legitimacy of the American Rebellion is assumed. The regime of rights (which has no basis in Scripture) is assumed. The Enlightenment ideals expressed in the Declaration and Constitution are baptised.
The New Testament provides no support for the idea of a Christian country or for Christians to wield power. It provides no support for either the assumptions or the substance of Adams' statement.
There was something of a social consensus that existed throughout the 19th century. I would argue it was already broken by the late 1800's but as is often the case it takes time (sometimes a few generations) for the fissures to become cracks and for the foundation to break. Industrialisation and the World Wars played a huge role as did changes within Christianity - many of which Adams would have undoubtedly celebrated.
The Mainline Churches fell into apostasy. Post-war Evangelicalism advocated a programme of worldly compromise and cut a devil's bargain with American Capitalism and militarism - all out of fear of communism and a desire to garner power and assert control.
The same Evangelical movement resisted civil rights, then later spun and embraced it through revisionist history. The same movement (in following the culture) embraced feminism, divorce, and psychology.
Is the consensus broken? For argument's sake we'll say there was a consensus but if it has been broken, then who is to blame? Blame the heretics that sold out the faith for academic standing, mammon, political power, and the American Dream. Blame the Mainline and the Evangelicals.
Some will try and still argue the nation is mostly Christian and use this as an argument to re-institute and enforce a Christian order.
And yet their own surveys reveal the majority of professing Christians don't hold to Christian doctrines and don't meet even the basic criteria for a claim to be part of Christ's Church. What their left with is civic religion and cultural Christianity. Some lament this but still celebrate and pretend this empty form is in possession of some kind of substance - or that this empty form is just waiting to be filled if Christians would just get busy. What they'll find is that such Christianity reacts with hostility to actual New Testament teaching, but I've long contended that the bulk of the Evangelical leadership as well as the people in the pews actually hate New Testament Christianity and embrace it only in so far as it affirms their lifestyles and desires and the nation they idolize.
Again, what if Adams was simply wrong? What if his premise was wrong about the republic? What if Adams' claim to morality is found wanting and his understanding of religion was sub-Christian? It's an argument I would make.
What if the Christian support for the American Revolution was a form of heresy and it (along with the state it produced) is ultimately an expression of anti-Christian syncretism?
Adams statements would then be meaningless - as indeed they are.
They are meaningless and the Church leaders who quote him uncritically are to be condemned.
All the subsequent debate is lost in the weeds and revealed to be a waste of time.
So why write about this at all?
Because this kind of corrupt thinking is still being espoused from pulpits, its adherents sit unchallenged in the pews, and this theological rot is everywhere on the Internet.
The Christian response is to reject this heresy. By Christian, I refer to the teachings of the New Testament and those who follow it. We're called to demolish such arguments and realize the sacralists who build their arguments off the likes of Adams will hate us most of all.
They think the battle is against secularism, humanism, homosexuality, abortion, the Democrats, liberalism or whatever else. They worry about 'our' country as they would have it.
They fail to understand that America was never Christian and cannot be. It never was nor can be 'ours' - if by 'ours' you mean the Church. We are pilgrims here - even in this heretic nation born in witchcraft-rebellion.
Our enemies are not found in the Democrats or some group that will destroy the country - assuming that's the case.
Let them destroy it. Let them build their Babels and tear them down. What is it to me? It's Caesar's coin in the end and I put no hope in their visions of glory and power. Nothing here will last. If this troubles you, then I counsel you to read the New Testament again.
The battle for us is not in the realm of American politics or culture war. The battle is over the Church and right now the Church has been taken over by heretics. This has been the case for centuries but at this point in time they've infiltrated, corrupted, and subsumed just about every expression of visible Christianity. We are living in the midst of apostasy even as these heretics think they are scoring victories and are on the verge of triumph. Their triumph would signify the apostasy is complete. We are in a dire situation, a great spiritual battle. But for Christians the enemies are all too often the very people the Church celebrates, venerates, and lionises as stalwarts and martyrs - men such as Billy Graham, Charles Colson, Ronald Reagan, James Dobson, Jerry Falwell and Charlie Kirk. It would take too long to list them all but we must also include living figures like Eric Metaxas, Franklin Graham, Doug Wilson, Ted Cruz, David Barton, Mike Huckabee, Mike Pence, Tim Wildmon, Robert Jeffress, Tony Perkins, Sean Feucht, Doug Mastriano, Lance Wallnau (and the entire Trump-Charismatic sphere) - and certainly we must include the likes of Greg Laurie, Russ Vought, and many more (if lesser known names) within even Confessional spheres. Apart from mentioning Wallnau, we could mention figures like TD Jakes, Paula White, and many more. The list is just too long - a tragic and sobering reality.
To these people and their progeny, we are the heretics and coming from them it's a badge of honour. The apostles were heretics to the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees, and the Zealots. It's no different today. These people oppose God in the name of God. They reject Christ even while they claim to uphold his Name and interests. It is a Matrix-like moment in many respects - even while they claim to be the ones doling out 'red pills'. In reality (if we want to use the movie as a metaphor) they're 'Cypher'-like characters, the traitor who trades the truth for the pleasures of the good life in this age. Or more poignantly when faced with the Temptation in the Wilderness, they take Satan's offer but in their scenario Satan disguised himself as Christ and so they were deceived.
I have to just shake my head when I hear Christians (like David Barton) pulling out quotes from the likes of John Adams to make their case. What stunning ignorance on every level. I have to believe these people are under judgment. They have been blinded and have fallen prey to not just myths and fables, but degraded reasoning and judgment - and intuition that can only be described as worldliness.
They've thrown in with a thief, a charlatan and they have completely destroyed what was left of Christian testimony in this culture. I can see the look on people's faces when I admit to homeschooling my kids or that my wife stays home. They've got me pegged or so they think. I have to quickly qualify and explain the nature of my Christianity but thanks to the polarization and culture war, it's then assumed that because I repudiate Trump I must be one of those 'tolerant' Christians who embraces homosexuality. What a moment. Thank you James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, Doug Wilson, and all the pseudo-Christians in the congress. Thank you for what you have done.
And while they march toward authoritarianism - the only hope they have of gaining and retaining power, the damage they do will take generations to remedy. I'll be long dead by then. I cringe to think of the backlash that's coming. The only other alternative I see is for the country to fragment which may mean a great deal of violence.
And so how will it be then? It will be as it was in the 17th century for Biblically-minded Christians. Because of the polarization brought about by the Magisterial Reformation and all the wars that resulted, the Catholic countries became all but intolerable and so many fled to the 'Protestant' lands where they either conformed or suffered or as was so often the case, they were seduced and within a couple of generations their children embraced the new order and its values. And the Biblical testimony was lost. It's all happening again, the cycle repeats itself. The context is very different but the end result is the same.