A very general topic indeed and one that will take a specific look at people I consider friends and what they choose to do with their time. I guess I'm responding to yet another comment about how horrible the United States is and how other countries are friendlier and "better" than our "Christian" country. I suppose my first thought is to challenge the notion of our country being Christian. While most name Christianity as their faith of choice I'm not sure we are a Christian country. I'm not even sure a country can be Christian. I think people can be Christians. Countries on the other hand, are ordered, either casually or very formally, by the principles of government they choose. Force is sometimes used, as in a coup; a constitution or other founding document can give the order and state principles to be followed. Those principles are often based on some kind of foundational truth or good that is supposed to benefit those who are citizens thereof. Our founders cited, on several occasions, a divine influence which they believed gave each person an intrinsic right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This is a foundational truth upon which our country started and one which has a universal application. While this principle is a comfortable fit with what I understand about Christianity, it does not make our country Christian. It simply establishes a focal point for the basis of a government which was hoped to always protect the basic worth of each individual. Now if one is to read the papers, magazines, watch some TV news, etc, one will see that there are many events taking place in our country that are decidedly unChristian. Nevertheless, many of these activities are protected by a system which has placed on each individual the right to choose their behaviours. If we were a Christian nation in the way that some nations are Muslim nations, then divorce would be rare, sex outside of marriage would be stigmatized, not idealized and prayer would still be welcomed in schools. Nor would we have politicians taking more and more of our freedoms from us. This is not a Christian country. It is, however, a country with many Christians living in it. These Christians are not on the nightly news. They are not trumpeting their works on the street corners or finding ways to move to the top of the Google search list with their tales of goodness. They are, in fact, going about their faith in relatively quiet ways. Much of the 6th chapter of Matt. talks about this type of Christian. The government takes 50% of their income and yet they still give a tithe and offering to the church to help people around the world. They are busy with their jobs and families, yet find time and resources to go to India, Mexico, Peru, Guatemala, Mississippi and anywhere else someone needs medical attention, a well dug or food and water. While they go as ambassadors of Jesus love, offering help to the least of these, they go, in a less obvious though very significant way, as representatives of a free people. A nation that understands each person's worth and intrinsic rights. A nation that offers people, regardless of religion, a place to freely pursue their lives. After all, without a nation that has flourished and grown the way the United States has, we would be left to feel sorry for people around the world. Without an economic engine that has produced the richest nation the world has ever seen we would not be able to offer billions of dollars to a nation fighting AIDS. We would not be able to win, and help countries rebuild, after a war against an exterminator of Jews. We would not be able to move other countries toward a more civil society where people of all ideologies and faiths can work toward very lofty goals with the hope of reaching them some day. From my perspective, though a limited one it is, I see this country as a great country. We are a collection of free individuals living our lives, to a large degree, how we want. And many of my friends want to help others. My fear, moving forward, is that the political class will continue incrementally wrestling away our freedoms until we are a country of monolithic mediocrity unable to mobilize our individual desire to help others because we no longer have the ambition or freedom to do so.
