I'm Thankful to Be an American

Those of you who know me well are probably thinking that these words may seem odd coming from me. It's not that I dislike being an American (though I would have preferred to have been born with a rich Scottish accent), it's just that I've understood my being an American as just another part of God's providential plan and care of my life. I had no choice concerning who my parents would be or where I would be born, it just happened this way providentially. On an earlier post this morning I wrote about health care and was trying to get at the point that the Bible should not be the source of determining which political polity and philosophy I support (by the way I fully understand the controversy in this statement and perhaps will address it at a later date). In posting that blog I picked up D. G. Hart's A Secular Faith which I read at the beginning of the summer. Thumbing through it again I realized just how thankful I am to be in a country like the United States. I often get upset with the religious right trying to take back America for Christ and the other attempts to get back to the "Christian nation" of our forefathers. Hart's book helped me to realize what it actually means to be free. This past year Cassie and I have joined a Presbyterian church and have embraced the traditional doctrines of confessional Reformed theology. It was a matter of adhering to our changing consciences and there was never any threat during this time of the state interfering with our decision. We didn't have to sneak around to underground churches risking our lives, nor were we ever forced to register with the state as we came to embrace paedobaptism, with the risk of persecution (I can handle a couple of rowdy Baptists). We were only accountable to each other, taking for granted that all over the world those who come to Christ must risk their livelihood in making the same decisions that we made. Another quote from Hart's book would help to make clear what I'm trying to say:

"The United States affords Christians remarkable freedom to worship according to the demands of their religion and the dictates of their conscience, a freedom unparalleled in the records of human history. To conceive of those instances where Christians do not
receive public affirmation or state sanction for their convictions or practices as treatment
bordering on tyranny is to trivialize the many instances throughout church history of
persecution" (71).

All the bickering about the 10 Commandments in court houses, prayer in school, and holiday "crèches" only serve to trivialize what is intrinsically a divisive faith. May Christians in this country realize the blessings that we actually do have. The blessings that really count. I have no desire to impose my beliefs on others by making their children pray in Jesus' name or however else I can force Jesus onto them. I do have a desire and a need to hear the Word preached and my faith nourished by receiving the Lord's Supper every Lord's Day, as well as proclaim and share the Gospel with my neighbor without fear of state-sponsored persecution. I am grateful for the freedom I have in this country. Perhaps my teenage rebellion is finally wearing off.