In writing an article with the title, ‘The United States: A Big Idol among Christians Today’, it would be helpful if I were an American. However, I am not, so in an attempt to avoid offending Americans, I would like to begin by making a few points.
First, the motivation for writing this article is only to make constructive criticism, to attempt to correct some wrong views on things. I am not trying to push anyone down.
Second, I think my own country, the
Third, when the late British queen was still alive, I wrote an article encouraging British Christians not to idolise her, so I have a track record of criticising my own country in this sort of way anyway.
Fourth, the idolisation of
Fifth, I know that many American Christians are well aware of the danger of idolising their country.
Sixth, if anyone criticises the U.K., then, as long as the criticism is fair – which it very often is – I am the first to say ‘Amen’. Besides, the whole concept of national pride is one that I have no time for anyway.
Given these points, I really hope that American readers of this article won’t be offended by what I say. Please don’t be.
THOSE WHO IDOLISE THE U.S. FOR ITS POWER AND PRESTIGE
There are actually two ways in which I believe that the U.S. is idolised today. The first of these is not my main concern, so I will just touch on it briefly.
Firstly, then, there is what we could
call a general type of idolisation of
This idolatry affects people throughout the world, and Christians are not immune. It is basically a kind of unwarranted awe. Sinful people are very impressed by power and prestige, and therefore have a tendency to worship things, including countries, that are powerful and prestigious.
At the present time the U.S.
is the strongest and wealthiest country in the world, and therefore it is
idolised.
Any form of worshipping what is created rather than the Creator is, of course, a very serious sin, as the Bible tells many times. Sadly, human nature being what it is, we are all in danger of falling into this type of idolatry. It is therefore very important for us to remain on our guard so as not to be drawn into this sin.
We must remember too that the Bible often criticises, or even pours scorn on, humans or human things that have power or prestige. We can think, for example, of what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:27-28:
‘God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put the wise to shame, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put the strong things to shame, and God has chosen the insignificant things and the despised things, the things that are not, so that He might nullify the things that are...’
God is the one with the real power and prestige, and our worship should be given to Him alone.
THOSE WHO THINK THAT THE U.S. IS UNUSUALLY SPECIAL TO GOD
The second type of idolatry is the one that I want to concentrate on.
There are many Christians
today, mainly Americans, who clearly believe that the U.S. is a country that is
unusually special to God. They think that God is on
It isn’t just nominal or ‘Sunday’ Christians who believe this. It seems clear that more than a few genuinely born-again believers take this view. And I am sure that there is idolatry in play here.
Rejecting the will of God
The first thing we need to note is that
Take abortion, for example. This is a terrible evil that has claimed the lives of millions of unborn babies over the last half century or so in the U.S. We must understand clearly that from the moment of conception a human being with a human soul made in the image of God exists, despite his or her tiny physical size. So abortion is nothing short of murder.
It is true that Roe v. Wade has finally been overturned, but this is unlikely to reduce overall abortion rates more than a little for the country as a whole. And widespread abortion is not something that has been forced on an unwilling population by the American government. It is what most U.S. citizens want.
Of course, there are countries where abortion laws are even more relaxed than in the U.S. and where even more of this kind of evil occurs. But there are also more than a few countries where abortion is much more tightly controlled. In some parts of the world, the value of unborn children is set much higher than in America.
Let’s think about another issue too, so-called ‘gay marriage’. Arrogant Western countries, including the U.S., have dared to try to alter God’s created order for marriage by claiming that it is possible for two men or two women to get married. Like abortion, this is not something that has been forced on the people against their will by the government. It is what most American citizens want, and it is a massive insult to God.
It is important to understand that there are many countries where people wouldn’t dream of trying to change marriage in this way. In many parts of the world, the vast majority of the population rightly sees ‘gay marriage’ as unnatural and offensive to God.
There are many other serious sins that
could also be mentioned, but there is no need for me to make a long list of
ways in which
An inconsistency
One of the real strengths of (genuinely born-again) American Christians is that they are keenly aware of the evil of abortion. These Christians also tend to be well aware that so-called ‘gay marriage’ is an awful thing.
What is so remarkable is that it often seems
to be the same Christians who are well aware of the evils of abortion, sexual sin
and other sins widely condoned in
Why is this? On paper, at least, it doesn’t seem to make any sense.
I will admit that I am not sure of the
answer to this question. However, hazarding a guess, I wonder if the reason is
that some Christians think that something of the Christian agenda of the
Pilgrim Fathers, and those who lived shortly after them, continues to affect
the country’s relationship with God. Maybe they think that despite their sins,
God has pledged Himself in some unconditional way to
It is true that if we think back to the time of the Pilgrim Fathers and soon afterwards, a good case can be made for the view that the American colonies to some extent had a special relationship with God. The people involved had a specifically Christian agenda that was lacking in all or almost all other parts of the world, and that surely counted for a lot in God’s sight.
However, when that agenda disappeared, as it did long ago, we would expect any special relationship with God to have disappeared too. And even by the time of the Declaration of Independence any specifically Christian agenda seems to have been lost.
God is impartial
I don’t claim to have special access to
the mind of God or to know exactly how He views individual countries. Nevertheless,
nothing suggests that today there is anything that could be called a special
relationship between God and
It is noteworthy that in the Bible God reveals Himself as a God who doesn’t show partiality. See, for example, Deuteronomy 10:17; 2 Chronicles 19:7; Acts 10:34-35; Romans 2:11; Galatians 2:6; Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 3:25; 1 Peter 1:17. We can note too that Acts 10:34-35 and Romans 2:11 teach us that in the present Christian era God doesn’t even favour Jews above Gentiles.
All people are therefore on a level
playing field as regards their standing before Him. Like other countries today
– including the U.K., which in my view is even worse –
I would therefore strongly encourage
those Christians, who naively think that
It is to God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, that our worship should be given, not to worldly countries that keep multiplying their sins.
See also:
Is America Really the Greatest Country on Earth?
A Plea to British Christians Not to Idolise the Queen
