Colleagues,

The current raven discussion about whether the US is a Christian nation is
silly. Entering this discussion is equally silly. I do it with head bowed.
The US is not, nor has it ever been, anything close to Christian. Never.
Please, please, please, folks, notwithstanding Prof. Geevarghese's lovely
paean to protestantism (though it occurs to me now it might have been
tongue-in-cheek, or, at least, I hope it was), let's please divorce
Christianity from US citizenship. This is not to say that among our
citizenry there are those who attempt Christian lives, just as among the
citizenry of almost every country, there are those who make that attempt.
However, the political boundaries that define the US are not related to
institutional manifestations of Christianity, except through certain
accidents of history--the same "accidents" of history, by-the-by, that led
to the near-genocide of native peoples on the continent, to slavery, to
capital punishment, to the making of war, and on and on and on. What does
"thou shalt not kill" mean after all if it doesn't mean thou shalt not drop
bombs on people? It may be in the national interest for our government to
attack a foreign country. It is not, however, in a Christian interest to do
so. The political entity that is the United States is not Christian, except
in the minds (or purses) of those who wish to use that delusion for
personal or institutional gain. Jesus had little or no interest in
fatherland or motherland. He was not a builder of nations but a fisher of
men, not a politico but a humanist, not a capitalist but a socialist, maybe
even a communist, determined to keep our eyes focused on the other side, on
the dark side of the sparrow's wing. He was certainly not a man of greed or
ownership, interest, stocks and bonds, arms shipments, invasions into the
lands of other people, slavery, or generally nasty national arrogance.
Aargh. Individual Americans may attempt to be Christian (or Buddhist or
Muslim or whatever). But, God bless 'em, America is not.


David Garrison
Professor and Head
Department of English (2703)
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
615 McCallie Ave
Chattanooga, TN 37403
423 425 4238
423 425 2282 (fax)
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