Rethinking Power, Part One: Is Ours a Christian Nation?
- Jeffrey Jenkins
- Jul 10
- 4 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
Earlier this week I introduced this question and it has generated a surprising amount of thought and conversation:
The more I've wrestled with it, the more I've realized that before answering it, we should ask another:
What do we mean by a Christian nation?
Do we simply mean that many Americans identify as Christians?
Do we mean that Christianity has profoundly shaped our culture?
Or do we mean something much stronger—that a nation should officially govern in God's name?
Those are very different ideas.
As I've reflected on those questions, another one has captured my attention.
Arguably, Christianity exercised some of its greatest influence during its first three centuries, when Christians possessed almost no political power. They had no emperor and no Christian legislature. They were a fledgling body of believers who had no ability to shape public policy. Yet somehow, this small community profoundly influenced the world around them.
What kind of power did they possess?
How we answer that question may profoundly shape how we answer two others: "Is America a Christian nation?" and the natural follow-up, "Should America be a Christian nation?"
So what kind of power did Jesus entrust to his followers? I believe this takes us all the way back to the opening chapters of Genesis.
According to the Bible’s account of creation, from the very beginning, God entrusted us—men and women marvelously created in his image—with a sacred responsibility. We were not created to be passive subjects but, instead, active stewards of creation.
A steward is someone entrusted with a sacred gift and the responsibility to nurture it. As humans, we have been entrusted to care for the world for the common good.
Whether or not we agree with the biblical basis of stewardship, together, we find ourselves responsible for making or breaking the world and culture we live in. This is a serious undertaking.
As a Christian, I believe that when we use the terms faith and faithfulness, we are talking about promising to God, and to one another, that we will do our best with what we have been given. When, out of self-interest, greed, or a lust for power, people seek to dominate others, they corrupt this sacred trust and oppression inevitably follows.
History is filled with examples—from the Inquisition and the religious wars of Europe to the use of Scripture to defend slavery and segregation in our own nation—of oppressive movements in God’s name.
Whenever people claim God's authority to elevate themselves above others, both faith and freedom suffer. Any movement—religious or secular, left or right—that seeks to concentrate power in the hands of a few stands in tension with the God who repeatedly calls us into shared responsibility and mutual service.
History warns us that every generation must decide whether faith will be used to share power or to seize it. Ours is no exception.
We live in a time when debates over the relationship between Christianity and government have become increasingly prominent. Proposals to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms, require Bible instruction in public schools, or direct public funding toward religious education have renewed questions about the proper relationship between faith and political power.
Many of these efforts seek a closer union of religious authority and political power—a vision that increasingly resembles theocracy. It emerges from a theology that sees the United States as a kind of new Israel—a nation uniquely chosen to represent God in the world.
However, there is no theological or biblical basis for viewing any nation—outside of ancient Israel in the Old Testament—as uniquely chosen to represent God or to occupy such a lofty pedestal. In addition, let’s not forget that our nation was birthed as a safe haven of religious and political freedom.
In contrast, the pursuit of religious dominance distorts what God intends for humanity because it replaces service with control, and shared responsibility with coercion.
Jesus modeled for us how God exerts power and influence; God rules through service and love. In contrast, the nationalism being peddled is dangerous. As James Talarico says, “The only thing worse than a tyrant is a tyrant who thinks they're on a mission from God.” (Remarks made at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Austin, Texas, June 30, 2024; also voiced during an interview on The Joe Rogan Experience.)
CONCLUSION
We live in a universe ruled by God. Yet the remarkable story of Scripture is that God does not cling to power in the way earthly rulers do. Instead, God entrusts creation to human beings made in his image. He invites us to become stewards, partners, and co-creators. Because absolute power belongs to God alone, none of us may claim it for ourselves.
Democracy, at its best, becomes a sacred practice of honoring God's image in one another by sharing power, listening to one another, and seeking the common good together.
For now, I simply want to suggest that democracy is more than a political system. It can become a profound spiritual practice. When authoritarianism seeks to build systems of domination, it stands in direct opposition to the way of Jesus, who taught that greatness is found not in ruling over others but in serving them. Respecting God's ultimate authority is precisely what frees us from claiming absolute authority over one another.
If democracy is indeed a sacred practice of shared responsibility, then how might we live differently? How can we participate in public life in ways that reflect God's trust in us and our responsibility to one another?
Here are a few questions worth pondering:
Where have you witnessed religion being used to hoard power instead of sharing it?
How can you practice democracy as a spiritual discipline in your everyday life?
In what ways do you share—or withhold—power in your family, workplace, or church?
When have you confused being right with having the right to dominate?
What would it look like to practice citizenship as an act of faithfulness?
This Pilgrim Note is only the beginning of the conversation.
LOOKING AHEAD
Over the next several weeks, let’s explore together what it would mean for us to call America a Christian nation, why the relationship between faith and political power has become so contentious, and what the Bible might teach us about authority, freedom, stewardship, and faithful citizenship.
My hope isn't merely to answer a political question. It's to invite us to rediscover the surprising way God exercises power—and to consider what that might mean for how we live together as neighbors, citizens, and followers of Christ.
NEXT WEEK:
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