Sunday, February 17

Another article by my friend Steven Coffman

Christianity in America

At the infamous Scopes Trial of 1925 Christianity in America was dealt a serious blow. After the Scopes Trial ended, Christians retreated from American public life with their tails tucked between their legs. Then, over the next 50 years Christian Americans stayed almost silent and allowed Secular Humanism to replace Christianity as the official religion of America .

The result, our cherished freedoms to express our Christian faith eroded before our eyes. Judges began banning nativity scenes, retailers renaming Christmas trees " Holiday trees," public schools forbidding our children from having group prayer or from even singing Christmas carols. The quality of our Christian education also sank to new depths.

It was not until around 1975 and the "born-again" era ignited that Christians began to re-emerge and re-engage the American culture once again. Christian Americans have made progress since 1975. Many Christian American ministries and Christian American organizations have risen out of this "Christian Reawakening" to challenge and debunk the theory of evolution, to challenge the ACLU, and to take on the 14 percent of those that do not believe God exists.

Yet, with all the ground we have taken back from the secular humanists and the non-believers, there is still work to be done. If the 86 percent of Americans who believe in God want America to truly be restored to the Christian American nation it once was, we first need to teach and prepare this generation, and the generations that follow to recapture their Christian American future.

Since 1999 I have also noticed that some Christians seem to be paralyzed by an obsession with life in the "Last Days." Because of this notion some Christians have become so preoccupied that have lost sight of our fight to restore our nation to the same Christian American values it once held in our government institutions and as a way of life demonstrated publically in our culture. These Christians should refocus on what it means to truly be a Christian in America!

Over 200 years ago, our "Constitution" made the following statement:
"We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."

Should we abandon what are Constitution says for Christian Americans to do? Are we to forsake our heritage? The very first Supreme Court Justice, John Jay, said:

"Americans should select and prefer Christians as their rulers."

He made this statement to reinforce what are Constitution instructs us to do as Americans to help ensure that our Christian heritage, values, and way of life would never be changed.

Are we so preoccupied with our daily lives that we will just stand by and stay silent, as the Christian Americans once did for 50 years following the Scopes Trial, and continue to let our America 's values, heritage, and way of life erode? Remember, in a Democracy the majority rules, but only if each and every person of that majority takes action and speaks out, can we exercise our Democratic rights and truly make a difference.

In his Inaugural Address on Friday, January 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy said, "United, there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do—for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder." Then later in this speech President Kennedy goes on to say, "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country."

And so my fellow Christian Americans, what are you going to do for your country today?