God in Government

Our current president announced in his first term that the United States is no longer a Christian country. Some people were up in arms over this, however, I do not believe that he was wrong. Our nation is not a Christian nation anymore, no matter what the President says. He is right, but he isn't right because he is President, he is right because we have changed so much.

But is it the governments fault that we are not a Christian nation? Some would say yes, some no. It is not the job of the government to tell us what we believe. The government is in place to correct wrongs and protect its population. We often confuse government with society.

Whats the difference? Well, government is the elected group of people who run the country by the book. Society is everyone in that country. Morality is defined by society, not government. Government enforces the rules that society dictates, but it does not, in and of itself, create right and wrong. Even though right and wrong are often viewed differently in different times, this is not the fault of government. It is the fault of society.

To put it another way, we cannot have a government that is Christian. It can be run by Christians, it can also rule over Christians, but cannot be Christian itself. This is the same way a restaurant can be Christian run but does not serve 'holy food.' No titles, rules, or punishments will create a Christian government. In fact, history is full of examples of why the Church should not rule a nation. The problem rises from the Church having to make judgements on those who are not in the Church. This is not only difficult, it is impossible. We are only to rule amongst ourselves. Government is non-thiest. Those in power and those who are ruled may be Christians or not, but government is not Christian or non-Christian.

But wait, is not the government of some countries, say China, a non Christian government? Not quite, it is an anti-Christian government, but not non-Christian. What is the difference between anti- and non- ?

Well, look at it this way, I am not anti-female; that is I am not against them. But I am non-female, meaning I am not one of them. It is a difference between our state of existence and our preferences. 

In the end, our government is not the problem. Society is what has turned from God; our government is only ruling in favor of the majority, just like a democracy is supposed to work. So what can we do? Where do we turn? Do we take back government by force and rule with an iron fist? What happened to democracy? More importantly, what happened to turning the other cheek and suffering like Christ suffered?

We cannot reinvent our government without destroying the concept of democracy. Instead, we need to focus on what we can change: Society. We need to change the way the world sees things in order to have them agree with us.

So what exactly is society and how can it become Christian again? Good question. Society is the opinion and understanding of the group of people we are in. We need to lead it back to God by doing what God did. We need to be examples. Christ was ours, we are to be theirs. Suffering, that four letter word in our world of freedom, is key to this. Christ suffered for us, we are to suffer for those around us. This suffering does not mean we hurt ourselves and claim Godliness, no, it means we take what is dished out to us, fair or not. We do not seek our own, we seek the good of those around us. In the end, it comes back to loving our neighbor. That is what we have forgotten in our world of freedom and greed, we have stopped loving our neighbor. Let us do as Christ did, and maybe, just maybe, we can turn society back to God.