institutions are emphatically Christian . . . . This is a religious people . This is historically true . From the discovery of this continent to the present hour , there is a single voice making this affirmation . . . . We find everywhere a clear recognition of the same truth . . . . These , and many other matters which might be noticed , add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation .” 12
Many people are uncomfortable with the term “ Christian nation ,” and for a good reason . The phrase itself is a misnomer in the sense that a country can never be “ Christian .” Only individual people within nations can be Christian . But in using this descriptive language in connection with America , the court was not saying everybody born in this country was a follower of Christ , nor was the court saying this nation existed just for Christians , nor were they saying that no other religions should be freely practiced in America . But what the 1892 court did clearly say was that our laws and institutions “ must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of The Redeemer of mankind . . . and in this sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian .”
To say that our culture is “ emphatically Christian ” today , however , would be blasphemy . Our revised laws are no longer based upon the teachings of Jesus , as the Supreme Court of 1892 said they should be .
Did we take a wrong turn somewhere along the way ? ■
Dr . Christian Overman is the author of Assumptions That Affect Our Lives and God ’ s Pleasure at Work : The Difference One Life Can Make . Dr . Overman has taught on biblical worldview and Christian education across America and Central America , South America , Europe , Africa , and Asia . He and his wife , Kathy , have four adult children and twelve grandchildren . Contact Dr . Overman at overman @ biblicalworldview . com .
ENDNOTES 1 . Alexis de Tocqueville , translated by Henry Reeves , Democracy in America ( New York , NY : George Dearborn & Co ., 1838 ), 281-291 . 2 . John Adams , The Works of John Adams , Second President of the United States : with a Life of the Author , Notes and Illustrations , by his Grandson Charles Francis Adams ( Boston : Little , Brown and Co ., 1856 ), Vol . IX 229 , Oct . 11 , 1798 . 3 . Woodrow Wilson , The Papers of Woodrow Wilson , Vol . 23 ( Princeton University Press , 1977 ), 18 , 20 . Following this speech given to 12,000 people on May 7 , 1911 , Wilson wrote a personal note to a friend , Mary Ellen Hulbert Peck , in which he said : “ The Bible . . . is undoubtedly the book that has made democracy and been the source of all progress .” [ Papers , 11 ]. 4 . James D . Richardson , A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents , 1789-1897 ( Published by the authority of Congress , 1899 ), Vol . 1 , 220 . 5 . Abraham Lincoln , The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln , Roy P . Basler , ed . ( New Brunswick , NJ : Rutgers University Press , 1953 ), Vol . VII , September 7 , 1864 , 542 . 6 . Daniel Webster , The Works of Daniel Webster ( Boston : Charles C . Little and James Brown ), 1851 , Vol . I , 44 . 7 . Benjamin Franklin , The Works of Benjamin Franklin , John Bigelow , ed . ( New York : G . P . Putnam ’ s Sons ), 1904 , Vol . XI , April 17 , 1787 , 318 . 8 . Robert C . Winthrop , Addresses and Speeches on Various Occasions ( Boston : Little Brown and Co ., 1852 ) 172 . 9 . Calvin Coolidge , The Price of Freedom : Speeches and Addresses by Calvin Coolidge ( New York : Charles Scribner ’ s Sons , 1927 ), 290-291 . 10 . B . F . Morris , The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States ( Philadelphia : George W . Childs , 1864 ), 320-321 . 11 . Ibid ., 328 . 12 . Church of the Holy Trinity v . U . S ., 143 U . S . 457 ( 1892 ).
This article was formatted for publication from Assumptions That Affect Our Lives by Dr . Christian Overman ( pp . 124-130 , Ablaze Publishing , 1989 , ninth edition , 2017 ).
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