Luke 8:4-15
When a great crowd gathered and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable: ‘A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell on the path and was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered for lack of moisture. Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. Some fell into good soil, and when it grew, it produced a hundredfold.’ As he said this, he called out, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’
Then his disciples asked him what this parable meant. He said, ‘To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but to others I speak in parables, so that
“looking they may not perceive,
and listening they may not understand.”
‘Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. The ones on the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. The ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe only for a while and in a time of testing fall away. As for what fell among the thorns, these are the ones who hear; but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. But as for that in the good soil, these are the ones who, when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patient endurance.
So,… are we a Christian nation or not? Over the past year I’ve had two conversations on the topic with two people with very strong opinions. The first person was an evangelical Christian who attends a large, non-denominational church. He was very adamant that the United States is a Christian nation. He stated emphatically that this country was settled by Christian colonists, practicing a Christian faith, with Christian beliefs guiding their government, and therefore the government should promote the Christian faith since we are a Christian nation. I think it surprised him when I told him that I completely disagreed with him, and that I believed we were not founded as a Christian nation. It surprised him because in his mind (and maybe yours) Christian pastors are supposed to believe and teach that this is a Christian nation.
About a month later I had a similar conversation with an atheist. She said emphatically that we are not a Christian nation, that this country was founded by people who had a problem with Christianity and wanted religion left out of politics. She then said that she believed that there should be freedom of religion, but that all religion should be kept out of the public sphere. She was telling me this because she saw me as an “enlightened” Christian, one whom she believed would agree with her. I said to her that I completely disagreed with her, and that I believed that Christian faith is part-and-parcel of our nations’ make-up. To leave Christianity out of the public sphere would go completely against what the founders believed.
So right now you’re wondering if I’m some sort of strange waffler. Most wafflers agree with whoever is speaking to them. I seem strange because I was disagreeing with both. Why? The answer is that I’ve spent a lot of time studying American Christian history, and I know that both of them were misrepresenting it. Most of us have studied American history, and we’ve learned certain facts, such as that this country was settled by people escaping religious persecution, and that in this country we believe in a wall separating church and state. But these facts only scratch the surface of what really took place. And some of them are wrong.
I disagreed with both because both were holding onto simplistic understandings of the settling and founding of this country, and I refused to be simplistic. Unfortunately, we modern Americans don’t seem to be able to hold onto any ideas that don’t fit onto a bumper sticker, and it is easier to say we either are or are not a Christian nation than to dig into the truth. The result is that we say that we either are or are not a Christian nation, when the reality is that what we are is more complex than this. So, this morning I want to give you a very Presbyterian sermon on the whole question of whether or not we are a Christian nation.
What does that mean, that it will be Presbyterian? I saw a recent promotion for the Presbyterian Church that said, “I’m proud to be a Presbyterian because we don’t have to check our heads at the door.” I’m not sure that will be a catchy enough phrase to get people to join our churches, but I think it’s true. We Presbyterians believe in thinking our way through faith, and so this morning I want you to think. I’m going to talk about the colonization of this country and its impact on us as a nation, but at the end I’m not going to tell you how to think. I’m simply going to invite you to think. And the question I’m going to ask at the end is this: “Knowing what you know now, are we really a Christian nation?”
To help you think through this I want to take you through the colonization of America and see if you know it as well as many of us think we do. For instance, answer this question: We are a nation founded by people trying to escape religious persecution—true or false? Whichever way you answered, you were only 50% right. If you understand the role of religion in the colonization of America you’ll see why. I want to look at the four great migrations into America, and talk about how they influenced our nation, and especially our thinking about whether or not we are a Christian nation. I’m basing my talk on David Hackett Fischer’s incredible book, Albion’s Seed. I don’t expect you to read it, unless you are really interested in history. He is known at the foremost expert on American colonization. His book is over 1000 pages long, but it is fascinating. He says that there were four main migrations that influenced American thought. There were other migrations, to be sure, but they didn’t have a foundational impact.
To understand the role of religion among the colonists, you have to start with understanding England itself in the 1600s. It was not a very peaceful place. Most Americans know that we had a civil war in the 1860s, but most don’t know that England went through a civil war in the early 1600s. The power kept passing between Anglicans (those who cherished the king and followed the Church of England), Catholics (those who cherished the king but followed the Roman Catholic Church), and Congregationalists (those who had little use for the king nor the Anglican or Catholic churches, and followed a Calvinist form of religion). Whichever group was in power typically oppressed the other two. This is the context that led to the first big migration to America, which was the Puritan migration into the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
The Puritans were from a soil-poor area of England called East Anglia. It was comprised of Norfolk and Suffolk counties, mainly, along with several other counties. It was on the eastern coast of England, and the people who lived there were very independent and communal. They were Calvinists, following the religious reforms of the Swiss Reformation of the 1500s. They were a thorn in the king’s side, as well as the Anglicans and the Catholics. They did manage to secure power in England for a decade or more under Oliver Cromwell, but their rule was austere and violent. Why did the king allow the Puritans to set up a colony in Massachusetts? Because he wanted to get rid of them, and they wanted to escape their religious persecution in England.
The Puritans set up the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which was comprised of what is today Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine, with the hope that it would become a model Christian society. John Winthrop, in delivering a sermon to Puritan colonists in 1630 as they prepared to disembark in Salem bay, said that he hoped Massachusetts would become a “city set upon a hill” (based on Jesus’ words in Matthew 5) that would become a model to the world. Since then, many Americans have declared that our whole country was founded as this city on a hill.
For the Puritans, their faith was everything. They saw no disconnect between faith and the rest of life. We often think of them as being very austere and rigid, although this wasn’t quite true. It is true that they dressed in a very reserved and modest way, wearing simple linen and wool clothing. Women always had their heads covered, and their dresses revealed no wrists, legs, or chest. The men were dark clothing that similarly covered their whole bodies. There was no showiness about their dress. Also, they believed in hard work, but that the produce of their work should be shared. It is also true that to be a Puritan meant to conform. Everyone dressed the same, spoke the same, and shared virtually the same beliefs. There was little tolerance for dispute. Also, to become fully part of the community, whether church or village, a person had to be born-again. It wasn’t enough, though, to say that you had had a born-again experience. You had to have your experience in public in a way that others could witness to.
Still, it’s not as though everything about them was rigid and austere. Community and family was everything for them. They were known as very loving and devoted parents. And they were known for offering a very free and inclusive democratic government. For example, they were the original creators of the town hall meeting, in which everyone in the community could have a voice. Their community emphasis was also demonstrated in the fact that there were very few poor among them. The community always looked out for the poor. If you were poor in a Puritan community, you would be invited to live with a family, for as long as the rest of your life. Widows and widowers were taken in by local families, and children whose parents died were quickly adopted by family or neighbors. The wealthy among them saw it as their duty to share their wealth, and held very little of it for themselves. You can see this tradition still in Massachusetts in its nickname, “Taxachusetts.” The willingness of people to pay higher taxes to care for the community was natural outgrowth of Puritan culture. To sum up the basic sense of Puritan culture, we can say that:
• They were very salvation oriented (who’s saved and who isn’t), with each person expected to live a pure (Puritan), godly life, adhere to Calvinist doctrine, and have a publicly demonstrated conversion experience. They were extremely intolerant of different Christian ideas, and especially denominations. They did not consider Christians of other faiths to be Christian. They were an abomination. In fact, if you were found to be practicing another faith in the colony—being a Quaker, Anglican, or Presbyterian—you were often forced to walk to another colony, while your head and arms were locked in a stock. As you walked from village to village, you would be spat on, garbage would be thrown on you, and children would hit you with sticks. On rare occasions, you would be hanged.
• They were very community and family oriented, with an emphasis on conformity of dress, belief, and behavior.
• They believed in using force and social pressure to enforce religious belief.
• They believed in the equality of all people, and that what distinguishes people is the nature of their work, not their rank in society. There was little social hierarchy, with each person’s voice being considered important.
So,… this gets back to our basic question. If we are we a Christian nation, are we Christian like the Puritans?
The next major migration to American was night-and-day when compared to the Puritans. These were the Anglican Cavaliers who settled into Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. They were not looking to escape religious persecution because, for the most part, they were in the religious majority. The Cavaliers were the second, third, fourth, and fifth sons of wealthy noblemen from the south of England. Their fathers owned large estates, estates that would be willed to the eldest son upon their deaths. The other sons were given money to make their way in the world. Many came to the colonies to create their own estates and plantations to rival their father’s.
The cavaliers dress was very different from Puritan dress. They dressed in fine silks and cottons. Their hear was long, and they wore swords by their sides. They were Anglican in their faith, and while the church was important to most of them, their faith was consigned mostly to Sunday mornings. The rest of the week they lived and did as they pleased. In many ways their religion was the accumulation of wealth. They were not in the colonies seeking religious freedom. They were seeking economic opportunity, with a goal of becoming rich. To summarize Anglican Cavalier life, we can say that:
• They believed that the universe was created with a natural hierarchy, of which we all are a part and have a natural rank. They believed that this ranking was ordained by God. So in the church there would be God, the king, the archbishop, the bishop, the priests, and then the laity. In secular society there was the king, the nobility, middle-class, servants, and then slaves. To them, all people have a duty to conform to their rank, and to not desire to rise above it. Understanding their view of community, and the Puritan one, you can see why slavery thrived in the south, but never took on in Massachusetts. The Puritans saw Africans as equal, but the Anglican Cavaliers saw them as naturally inferior, and put on this earth to be slaves. As a result, it’s easy to understand why people in the South couldn’t understand what the problem with slavery was, and some today still look down on African-Americans.
• They believed in the use of force, especially to enforce their hierarchy. As a result, they were highly intolerant of any other denomination and forced Puritan and Quaker settlements out of the colony. They weren’t as violent in doing so as the Puritans, but the tolerated no other beliefs and denominations.
So,… this gets back to our basic question. If we are we a Christian nation, are we Christian like the Anglican Cavaliers?
The next migration was radically different from the other two. This was the Quaker migration that settled into New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. The Quakers were a religiously persecuted people from central England. Their faith was very different from Puritans and Anglicans. They were very anti-institutional, believing that everyone could go to God directly without the help of pastor or priest. They also believed in peace and unity, equality, and the validity of other faiths (even if they saw their own as being preeminent).
The Quakers in the colonies, led by William Penn, who founded Pennsylvania (which originally included Delaware and parts of what is now New Jersey), wanted to create a land of religious liberty. And so he not only invited Quakers to come to Pennsylvania, but also Anglicans and Presbyterians, Lutherans and German Reformed, Mennonites and Amish, Harmonites (who settled in our town of Harmony), the Scotch-Irish (whom we’ll talk about later), Jews, and even Muslims. Penn believed he was creating a grand Christian experiment, one that was diametrically opposed to the Puritan one. He was creating a colony on a hill, but one that included all who followed the Christian faith or a religion. He might have seen the Quakers as foremost among all Christians, but he saw all Christians as basically equivalent. This was far from how the Puritans and Anglicans saw things. They each saw themselves as true Christians, and all other faiths as false. The Quakers of Pennsylvania wanted to create a colony that would reflect their religious beliefs:
• The equality of everyone;
• Always seeking peace and unity in society;
• Pursuing religious freedom and social pluralism;
• Being community-oriented, but with a strong sense of personal expressions.
In many ways I see myself as a product of Pennsylvania. I believe in these same values, but I know that I live among many Christians who see only themselves as true Christians, and all others as false. Knowing all this about Penn, the Quakers, and the founding of Pennsylvania, it’s no accident that the signing of the Declaration of Independence took place in Philadelphia. That document would have a hard time finding the same kind of communal support in either the New England or Southern colonies. It’s also no accident that Pennsylvania had the most signers of the Declaration of Independence than any other colony.
So,… this gets back to our basic question. If we are we a Christian nation, are we Christian like the Quakers?
The final major migration to shape American thought was the Scotch-Irish settlement first into Pennsylvania (the only colony that would invite and have them), and then down the spine of the Appalachians. It’s a bit of a misnomer to call them Scotch-Irish because many of them really weren’t Scottish. They really should have been called borderlanders. They came from the borderlands between Scotland and England. These were people who owed allegiance neither to Scotland and England. For centuries they were caught in a vice. When England would attack Scotland, they would demand allegiance from these people, but if they lost the battle, the Scottish would come onto their lands and kill the people there for supporting the English. If the Scottish attacked the English, they would demand the support of the borderlanders. If they lost, the English would then come and kill them. They were caught in a perpetual vice, so they created their own clan system of familial connection and support. When either the Scottish or the English would demand allegiance, these families would gather together and tell each army that not only would they not align with them, but whenever the army passed they would attack them from the rear. These were a fiercely independent and violent people who learned to be self-reliant and to take care of self and family first.
Many of these borderland folk were sent to Northern Ireland when Scotland and England joined to create Great Britain. Despite the peace between Scotland and Ireland, these folks remained violent and disruptive, so it made sense to exile them. From there they moved to the colonies in America. These people were unlike any other to come to America. They were built for the frontier, not the cities. They were uncultivated, and had their own ways that were extremely different from the educated Anglicans, Puritans, and Quakers. They cursed, they got drunk, they spat, and they fought. The women’s dresses revealed ankles and wrists, and sometimes even cleavage. Even the tolerant Quakers were uncomfortable with them, and encouraged them to move to frontier to places like,… Western Pennsylvania.
The legacy of the Scotch-Irish is still with us. These people were not seeking religious freedom. They already felt they had it. In the independence of the borderlands they had formed their own Christian churches. It is said that they often went into the frontier armed with a Bible and an axe. They felt no allegiance to any church, and if they disagreed among their own churches, they were quick to split. I’m convinced that what’s at the root of all our arguing in the Presbyterian Church is our Scotch-Irish roots. We’ve been arguing and splitting for centuries. In each new era we find new things to fight and split about, but it’s in our DNA, it seems, to fight. If you really want to understand the Scotch-Irish temperament, look to the Hatfield-McCoy feud of the 19th century. Do you know what they were fighting about? Neither do I, nor does anyone else. They were feuding because they were Scotch-Irish.
So how did these folk influence the faith of our country? They were the first libertarians. They believed in their own independence, their own freedom, and their right to do what they wanted. They didn’t want to pay taxes, and they didn’t want the government interfering in their lives. From a political perspective, these are the forebears of the NRA, the Libertarians, and even the Tea Party. Their influence on American faith is that they were the first to be spiritual but not religious. They may have gone to church, but often not together. Each individual person or family saw themselves as the real Christians, and all others as pale imitations. And they justified whatever they did on those grounds. They could find biblical justification for anything. Does that sound familiar today?
So,… this gets back to our basic question. If we are we a Christian nation, are we Christian like the Scotch-Irish?
The problem with calling ourselves a Christian nation is that if we look at our roots, there was no consistent Christianity to say what was universally Christian. If we are a Christian nation, which version are we? We can’t be all because they aren’t all compatible with each other. The independence of the Scotch-Irish conflicts with the communal focus of the Puritans. The intolerance of the Puritans and Anglicans conflicts with the tolerance of the Quakers. So which Christianity are we as a nation?
Next week I want to look at the faith of the founding fathers, because it was just as complex and varied as that of the colonists. Until then I want you to reflect on this question: knowing what you know now, would you say that we are a Christian nation?
Amen.
