Introducing a new contributor to our site…Hrafnkell Haraldsson. He has written a great piece debunking the notion of a “Christian america”.
Mythical America
by Hrafnkell Haraldsson
We’ve heard it all said a hundred times – that America is a Christian nation, that it was founded as a Christian nation, that the Founding Fathers were Bible-believing, God-fearing Christian men, that there is no Wall of Separation between Church and State.
The only problem is, none of it is true.
And the 18th century’s own Evangelicals signed off on the system of government those very secular-minded Founding Fathers established.
Back in the 18th century, you see, people were a lot closer to the events that shaped the new nation. They had close personal experience with the dangers of Church and State meddling in each other’s business. They knew what it was to be persecuted, not by a secular government but by a government under the control of another denomination.
They wanted protection. From each other.
And our new system of government, promised by the Declaration of Independence and come to fruition in the Constitution, gave them what they asked for.
Of course, none of these facts have stopped our own century’s Evangelicals from telling an entirely different story, one founded not in fact, not in history, but in wishful thinking, in history as it should have been – but wasn’t.
And they have big money backing them up. They have glossy websites, glossy publications, book clubs, brochures, even entire series’ of books, including the “Politically Incorrect Guide to…” series, which would be better named, “Factually Inaccurate Guide” or “Historically Inaccurate Guide.”
These books play to the base. Like any works of apologia – and that is what they are – they comfort believers, convincing them, reassuring them, that all is well, that the lies they’ve been told are safe to believe – and to go on believing.
But this mythical Christian America has no more solid a foundation than Creation Science – both are contradictions in terms.
It is true that most of the citizens of the new United States were Christians of one kind or another, many of them, especially following the successful conclusion of the War for Independence, refugees from oppressive religious environments in the Old World. They came here precisely because there WAS separation between church and state, precisely because here, they could be free of government-sponsored religion.
The problem for today’s Evangelicals is that the government itself was secular in nature, founded by men grounded in science and reason and disciples – and products – of the Age of European Enlightenment.
These men had the opportunity to form any sort of government they wished. ANY. They could have made a monarchy of our new nation – it was considered and the idea dismissed. They could have established a theocracy – but no one gave that idea any thought at all. It was never even a possibility. The motto of the new nation was, significantly, “E Pluribus Unum” – Out of Many, One. It was not, equally significantly, “In God We Trust.”
Instead, they gave us a nation founded on ancient principles of democracy, a product of ancient polytheistic Greece, and freedom of speech and thought – also products of the ancient polytheistic world – and human rights, a product of the European Enlightenment so heartily condemned by the Church. Nothing in the new nation was based on biblical principles. The Founding Fathers took more from the Iroquois Federation than they did Old Testament Israel.
There too, facts have not stopped today’s Evangelicals, who ardently insist that our nation was founded on Biblical principles. I would like to inquire where in ancient Israel there existed ideas of Democracy and Free Speech and thought. In ancient Israel, free thought and free speech got you stoned. Nor was there Democracy; there was monarchy and theocracy. There were no human rights. Exercising human rights would get you stoned. It was a society built on exclusion and enforced behavior. There was no liberty anywhere in sight.
So what we have today as the heart and soul of the Republican Base is a Mythical America, an American history of the imagination, one of wishful thinking but not of fact. Just as is much of the Bible, this Mythical America is pious history.
Look at some of the assertions made by the Mythicists:
- The American “revolutionaries” were actually conservatives
- The Puritans didn’t steal Indian lands
- The Bible promotes human freedom
- The enemies of the Bible are enemies of true reason and tolerance
- The Bible made modern science possible (which is why it started in the Middle Ages)
- The Middle Ages were the real “Age of Reason”
- The “Enlightenment” yielded tyranny and war.
It is no surprise that these “talking points” are aped on social networking sites, on FOX News and anywhere else conservatives gather. They’re said as if they’re true. The specious reasoning that goes behind them is repeated as if it even made sense (which it doesn’t).
- The revolutionaries were liberals. They founded our nation on the liberal principles of the European Enlightenment – not upon the conservative principles of the Old World.
- The Puritans did steal Indian lands. Shamelessly.
- The Bible nowhere promotes human freedom. Evangelicals can repeat the myth of Christian egalitarianism and slavery all they want but the truth is, Christianity did not promote egalitarianism and it did not free the slaves.
- The statement that enemies of the Bible are enemies of reason and tolerance proves itself wrong.
- Science did not start in the Middle Ages. It started in the ancient polytheistic world – and, significantly, not in Biblical Israel but in Greece, which promoted freedom of thought and speech. When science saw the light of day again, it was not because of Christianity, but despite it, as the historical record clearly demonstrates.
- The Middle Ages were not the Age of Reason. One has only to look at the rampant superstition, the crusades, the wars against heretics, the inquisition, the witch-burnings, the anti-Jewish pogroms, the forced conversion of Pagan peoples in Northern and Eastern Europe…no, not much Reason but a whole lot of slaughter in God’s name.
- The Enlightenment did not stop war, but it did not yield war as a consequence. It did, however, put a stop to crusades, wars against heretics, the inquisition, witch-burnings, and rampant anti-Jewish pogroms. It was not quite able to stop forced conversion of Pagan peoples but at least we stopped slaughtering them in “God’s” name.
Our society is diverse and free to a degree that has never been possible before in history. Diversity and plurality are a blessing. But to the Evangelicals, it is a threat. It threatens the status quo. It threatens them with loss of power and loss of influence. The more diverse our society becomes, the more resistant they become. The more reactionary they become. They become more intolerant, more hateful, and more inclined to use fear as a weapon to browbeat others into servitude to “their” Bible.
And the more inclined they are to embrace an imaginary, Mythical America. As a result, we are introduced to ideas that have no basis in historical fact, like the points discussed briefly above. We have conservative Christians making blind, unsupported assertions about this Mythical America as though it really existed, without a thought being given to the facts.
And why bother with the facts when talking points are so handy – when apologetic works abound, demonstrating these myths to be fact and denouncing fact as myth? It’s all very comforting to them, and all very damaging, not only for them, but for all of us. They want to impose on the United States a return to the 13th century, to that imaginary “Age of Reason” they talk about, when they – and they alone – were free to do what they wanted – to everyone else. And let not a word be raised in protest.
Because as you all by now know, they can damn and condemn and it’s their God-given right, but should anyone raise a word in protest, it’s a “war against Christianity” or “hate” or “intolerance.” Because it isn’t freedom they really want. It’s the privileging of their myth, of their own beliefs, at the expense of everyone else. It’s the freedom to persecute, without apology or thought, everyone different from them, and like their 13th century brethren, justify it in their god’s name.
Well done…and many thanks for your work!
But America didn’t exist in the 13th century. It could not have existed in the 13th century. It took a genuine Age of Reason to make America possible, and going back to the 13th century would skip right over it. It’s pretty obvious to anyone living in an evidence-based world, but as the Politically Incorrect guide series of books make clear, their interest isn’t in evidence – it’s in wishful thinking.
I love the line "living in an evidence-based world.
One comment I will mention is that in my belief as a christian, I DO believe there is freedom, but not earthly freedom, instead freedom in the afterlife. Somehow they got impatient and decided to make it a "here on earth" type of freedom. But Jesus already told us we won't have that type of life.. how they easily forget.
If one examines your statement, which is indeed often shown as a facet of Christian belief, one will understand why all of the imported Africans in the early history of the US were converted to Christianity. Whether you believe in the divinity of Christ or not, you can see that this particular bit of faith is rather useful to one seeking to control slaves, or the wealthy who want the poor to remain poor and servile to the wealthy. It is not accidental that the modern GOP has two major constituencies: ultra wealthy / corporate interests for actual goals and funding, and a fundamentalist Christian voting base.
Now: What did Jesus actually say about this topic? Your statement of faith didn't cite a verse… Are you being told to be happy in slavery by Jesus, or are you being told by someone else that Jesus wants that? Do note the context of whatever Jesus may have said was around the year 30 AD, with the level of social and technological realities that existed for everyone he spoke to. He did not write the gospels, but rather the gospels are written recollections of what he *spoke* to live audiences.
You wrapped more than two millennia into this post, missing none of the important developments.
That is true concentration upon the core of the problem. My thanks to you! Ing
Thank you. That's gratifying to hear and I'm glad you enjoyed it.
I hopefully did not indict all Christians, as that was not my intention. I think another lesson lost on the Religious Right is "forcing God's hand" – a lesson previously learned by the Jewish rebels in 70 CE. Given that both Judaism and Christianity teach that God will act in his own time – as you say, how easily they forgot.
Thanks, Jeff. I'm not sure how much credit I can take for that one – it's possible I came across it somewhere else and it just stuck in my mind.
The founding people of our Government were considered rebels of their time. Democracy was considered an experiment, as most of the world was still in an agrarian, feudalistic, enslaved situation.
Exactly! This is a prime example of what happens when history is deliberately forgotten/ignored or rewritten – and I think all three apply here. It's a superficial white-wash of the WASP, in essence, and isn't that after all the Republican base right now?
When I've travelled in Europe, and seen all the cathedrals, shrines etc. I always think about how it was all built on the blood, sweat, and sacrifice of the peasants and serfs. I came away from seeing all that with the thought of how visionary the early founders were in rejecting the church and state marriage that represented the governments of Europe in the middle ages.
EXCELLENT! thanks…
on the same theme, i'd recommend GREGORY BOYD's “The Myth of a Christian Nation"
This reminds me of an ancient friend's prayer, when she would feel overwhelmed:
"Lord give me patience!" (stomping feet)…"and I want it Right Now!" After that she would smile…
The sad part is that none of the evangelicals seem to remember smiles, they just taste bile.
It's the business of condemnation. I said this while Bush was in office and it's more true now than ever. Just flat out condemnation – of everything. If the 7th century Jewish priesthood, the Yahwists, scholars call them, who stamped out polytheism in Israel, could come back to life, this is what they would sound like. It's like taking a trip through time.
Excellent Hraf! I'm so glad to see you posting here. This post needs to go viral. The right has worked on stealing language and redefining words for 40 years. We need to take back our language, the definitions of freedom and patriotism, and the TRUTH about the evolution of democracy and the intent of the deist Founding Fathers.
I would encourage anyone who reads this to post it to their FB page, email it to friends, etc.
And to start using taking back the language for true humanitarian democracy.
hi Sarah! Thank you. I was working on something else when all this came pouring into my head from somewhere. I sat right down and typed it out till I ran dry.
I'm not posting on my own blog anymore since it's down with PN and everything else in the same bottomless hosting pit! Honestly, I think this post had about 2 diggs when I went to bed at 10 last night…so nobody was seeing it and I'd been up since 4 or 5 and was too tired to figure out how to propagate it any further. Posting it to A Heathen's Day would have helped but I don't know when my own blog might be back up.
I'll go check digg but do you have the link? For some reason, digg bar comes up for me and then disappears before I can click on it. This was truly masterful.
I don't understand how this only has 3 diggs…but I am putting it on FB to go and digg this.
Hraf, the people you are discussing here are not what I consider real Christians. When I lived in Nome and some of these right wing Christians came after me I was in shock. It was the real Christians there who helped me survive the attack. There were two people in all that I went through there that I define as true Christ-like Christians and I am not a Christian now myself. They were both independent thinkers unlike the others who can only work in a mob.
Definitions are a real problem…what or who is a Christian. It's an argument I've had with Right Wing Christians many times. Throughout much of history, unfortunately, Christianity has behaved repeatedly like these people we're dealing with now – the reckless hate, the mob mentality.
I'm a polytheist, personally, and I live in the Colorado Springs of the Midwest – Fort Wayne Indiana – Not a comfortable situation. A column I wrote for the local paper last year made me infamous according to my mail carrier and letters to the editor have earned me hate mail – unsigned, no return address, of course, and written by somebody with the mentality and education of a 3d grader.
I'm truly sympathetic with your own experiences. Honestly, I sometimes feel like we're dealing with an alien species, their mindset is so different.
They really ARE foreign in so many ways. They shout about their lost America, and listening to them I claim the same. What happened to taking pride in knowledge, information and intellectual achievement? This "conservative" movement relies on people who wouldn't even understand that question!
And if they did…they would be stumped as to why it is inappropriate to call President Obama a communist, fascist and Marxist in the same breath!
They have become a mob. An angry, racist, bigoted, religio-centric, mob!
What an excellent post! Thank you
I'd like to comment on the bullet points regarding the Middle Ages and science. While science did indeed begin in the ancient world, it was unknown in the Christian Middle Ages of Europe. Even the mindset required for science was unknown. No inquiring minds need apply. Europe was completely covered in a shroud of darkness and superstition. All the wealth of the nations was sitting in the coffers of kings and bishops. The 'people' lived in ignorance and destitute poverty. It wasn't until the demise of feudalism and the rise of the merchant class that the people's lot began to improve with the emergence of a middle class. Travel and trade revealed something astonishing. While Christian Europe was languishing for more than a thousand years, off to the southeast was a land of advanced learning – science, math, medicine, art and invention. The elaborate mechanical toys alone would boggle your mind. Yes, the Islamic Golden Age. (gasp) I had the pleasure of visiting a traveling exhibition of artifacts from the Islamic Empire that focused on art, science, and medicine. It was really amazing. The scalpels and clamps for surgery were a thousand years old and virtually identical to today's. The mechanical waterclocks were operational and mesmerizing.
I wanted to elaborate on this part of Hrafnkell's essay to make a point. If you want to know what the 7 Mountain Mandate would look like, you need only to study Medieval European history. Christian Europe in the Dark and Middle ages was a dominionist society. The Islamic civilization was not. In Europe, the pope and his bishops were one voice ruling over every aspect of society, making even kings bend their knees. In the Islamic Empire, rational thinking, individualism, and the search for knowledge were not only acceptable, but encouraged. If today's fundamentalists, both Christian and Islamic, would only look to history, they could see where all their current dominionist ideas will lead.
The fact that the society envisioned by the dominionists would resemble mediaeval Europe is not a bug, but a feature. That's exactly the way they'd like it–albeit in a sort of Protestantized form, sort of like Calvin's Geneva, only more so.
Hrafnkell well done,articulet. Reminds me of reading about the development of the alphabet. And the ensuing manipulations there. which of course leads into the old testament. What a fun time that must have been! Well the fun today is people dont want to read. They want their information in little picture bites. Not only do we have to fight against ignorance but we are confined to do it in 140 charecters or less. Hang in keepup the good work.
Forgot to edit before i sent –oh well.
AKjah, thank you. It's all about "talking points" today – as you say, little 140 character "picture bites" – they're a lot easier to digest and regurgitate than actual facts. My experience with using footnotes to back up my assertions is that those on the Right will refer to me as an "idiot" or a "child" – simply because they don't know what else to say.
I hopefully did not indict all Christians, as that was not my intention. I think another lesson lost on the Religious Right is "forcing God's hand" – a lesson previously learned by the Jewish rebels in 70 CE. Given that both Judaism and Christianity teach that God will act in his own time – as you say, how easily they forgot.
Thanks, Jeff. I'm not sure how much credit I can take for that one – it's possible I came across it somewhere else and it just stuck in my mind.
Excellent Hraf! I'm so glad to see you posting here. This post needs to go viral. The right has worked on stealing language and redefining words for 40 years. We need to take back our language, the definitions of freedom and patriotism, and the TRUTH about the evolution of democracy and the intent of the deist Founding Fathers.
powerful history lesson! You make a a great connection that really points out that there is nothing new…and that history DOES repeat itself…and that we DO need to learn. REALLY learn from our past as a human race, and avoid the pitfalls that are cropping up before us.
Thank you, GenieO for the elaboration. I purposely avoided going in to detail because I all too easily end up writing theses rather than essays!
The "points" I bulleted are all from the "Politically Incorrect Guide" series of books. I own the the book on American history (it's a hoot to read) and I've looked through the others at Borders. This is the crap the Right wants people to digest and regurgitate – I guess if you say it often enough it becomes true.
I agree, Makarios, entirely. And as to what the Religious Right wants, I once posted on that and I"ll link you here,
http://aheathensday.com/2009/02/my-nifty-guide-to…
It didn't keep it's formatting perfectly in the transfer to WP but it's just a little glitch at the top.
NO worries…I got it.
http://digg.com/politics/Guest_Post_Mythical_Amer…
There you go, Sarah!