Christian Nations?

One of the on-going debates in America is whether this is, or ever has been, a "Christian nation." Regardless of your position on this question, you have to begin with the problem of defining your terms. Namely, you have to ask, "What defines a Christian?" Then, you wrestle with, "What is a 'Christian' nation?" Then, if you can come up with good answers to those, you have to decide how these definitions apply to the country in question.

In the United States, people have approached the topic from many different approaches. There are those who say America is a Christian nation because the majority of the population now claim membership in a Christian church. Then, there are those who say America's Christian identity goes back to the founding group of the country - usually identified as the Pilgrims and Puritans. Others point to the Christian origins of our legal system and its principles. And, then, there are arguments about whether America has lost her "Christian" bearings.

If you have read this blog for a while, you know I have definite ideas about this debate. I shall not recreate all of the previous posts. You will just have to search for yourselves. It is sufficient to say here that I do not think the arguments advanced to conclude that America is a Christian nation have any validity.

With this background, I found a recent article in The Times (of London) [from May 15, 2008] written by Camilla Cavendish considering whether Britain is still a Christian nation quite interesting. Looking only at numbers, the results are not too encouraging. It is predicted that there will be more Muslims than Christians in England in a few years. Others also project that Hindus will outnumber Christians there by mid-century. Currently, only about 6% of the Brits attend Christian worship services regularly. This number reflects a trend that began in the late 19th century when less than a third of the country attended services regularly. [Here again, you have to define what "regularly" is.]

The author of the piece writes: [T]he only point I want to make is that being a Christian country has always been about more than belief in God and Sunday worship. In the 2001 census, seven in ten people described themselves as Christian, to the astonishment of many bishops; 22 per cent claimed to be still going to church at least once a year.

Britain is still a Christian landscape, dotted with spires. It is still a place of Christian ritual, where people go to churches to mark marriages and deaths. It still has some heroic pastors who help people cope through terrible times. These things are part of the fabric, but they are strangely absent from much of the debate about national identity. ...

The hymns that we sang at school, the cadences of Bible stories, are part of my identity. What other identity can I have?

Thus, this British author defines Britain as a Christian nation primarily, if not solely, on the basis of tradition and the familiarity with Biblical stories held in common by most of the people. While that may satisfy her, I doubt very much that the more ardent Christians in America would accept that as being valid.

So, what does it mean for a nation to be "Christian"? Can a country be Christian if most of the people do not claim to be Christian? Or, can it be one if most people are not actively involved in the life of a Christian church? How would a "Christian" nation be different in policies and approaches than a "non-Christian" one?

What do you think?