Five years ago, I was stuck in the US for an extended time. I started the year receiving a permanent entry ban from the country I’d lived in for almost twenty years. Then came Covid, and being locked down with millions of others. In the midst of lockdowns and life changes, there was more time to reflect about things we don’t often consider.
After a lifetime abroad, I took the time to reconsider what it meant to be an American Christian and to think through my identity in that stream of Christianity. That led to this article and this sermon on which the article was based. With recent events, including the assassination of Charlie Kirk and after watching his memorial service, I wanted to revisit this topic, highlighting something I think I missed the first time around.
Watching the memorial service, it was astounding to see person after person come forward and speak boldly about Jesus, the Gospel and faith in God. In the midst of these proclamations, there were many other ideas as well. Some of these could be called theologically divergent, others nationalistic and patriotic, and some politically opportunistic. For me personally, they didn’t detract from the good that was there. The testimony that shone through was that this young man built his life around many things, but his faith in Jesus was at the center of all of it. That faith was honored at the memorial, maybe even by those who didn’t personally believe it.
America was founded by a complex assembly of brilliant men, which contained among them evangelical followers of Jesus, deists and some that might be called nominal Christians. A modern Christian in the reform tradition would find a lot to criticize in their orthodoxy. Yet they came together as people of faith to find common interests and beliefs that would unify them. The best resource I’ve found that examines this is a book called American Gospel by Jon Meacham. I read it years ago and it was very influential in the first article linked above.
America wasn’t founded to be a Christian nation, but a nation governed by a constitution “made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other,” to quote John Adams. In Adams view, “without morality and religion to curb human passions like avarice, ambition, and revenge, even the strongest constitutional frameworks would fail, as these passions unbridled by morality and religion would break the cords of the Constitution as a whale goes through a net.” Public virtue depends on private virtue and the success of the republic hinges on the moral character of its people.
That was the big picture that they were looking at. They were creating something that couldn’t survive without a moral people of faith intricately involved in upholding it. The idea was never Christian Nationalism, but a nation of Christians and other people of moral faith, who were also welcomed in.
Christian Nationalism is the boogeyman of the day for many people. Those without faith in God live their lives in fear that they will be coerced into a forced conscription of ideas. They fear a new Constantine who would declare Christianity the religion of the realm and label them “Christian” against their will. There may be some who would desire such an outcome, but that is a rare individual in my experience. It isn’t what was platformed by Charlie Kirk, and it isn’t the perspective I’ve heard in even the most patriotic of services in churches or the public square.
Watching the videos of Charlie Kirk over the last week, I was struck by how a young man who started out as a bold advocate for the conservative movement and the Republican Party became ever more concerned with Gospel proclamation in recent years. For the last five years, he asked apologist Frank Turek to mentor him on how to give better answers to questions of faith he received. They met monthly to hone Kirk’s skills in these responses. It is incredibly rare for a Christian to become more bold in proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ the more famous and more wealthy they become, but that is exactly what we saw with Charlie Kirk.
That’s why I’m writing this update. Not to dismiss the things I wrote before, but to expand them. What is the real American Gospel? It isn’t Christian Nationalism. It isn’t a perverse form of Christianity that is defined by the adjective American, more than the noun, Gospel. It isn’t a cross wrapped in an American flag. It is something much greater than any of those things.
An American Gospel is lived out faith by Americans. Someone who understands the amazing positive impact of transformed lives in Christ. American Christians should want everyone to believe. They should boldly proclaim the truth about Jesus to everyone and earnestly desire all who hear to come to repentance. An American Christian should understand that what makes life good and the world better is not the American identity, but Christianity lived out in families and communities.
We should want America and the world to believe because we know it is the only hope for this life and, more importantly, for eternity. Going into the lion’s den of fiercest opposition and proclaiming the truth is a Christian trait, more than an American trait. The real American Gospel is living out the Word of God in the realities of this world, knowing your eternity is sealed by Jesus’ sacrifice. That is the real American Gospel, just as it is the real Turkish Gospel, and European Gospel and Asian Gospel. It is the Gospel lived out for our good, the world’s good and God’s glory.
I hope we’ll all be challenged to do the same. Know the truth. Believe the truth. Live the truth today and for the future. We have the opportunity to change the world for the better and lives for eternity. Take that lesson from the example of a flawed human being like Charlie Kirk and of a sinner saved by the grace of this amazing Gospel like this author. Believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.
Seeing God 