Dear Editor:
Cal Thomas' commentary of Sept. 10, "Two Kingdoms in Conflict" asserts that the U.S. has never been a "Christian nation." He is quite correct in a literal sense, but he misses a vital point regarding the very underpinnings of our society and our system of government.
At their core is the phrase from the Declaration of Independence that "all men are created equal." While it took well over a century (plus a war and several amendments) for the equality of all Americans to be realized as a matter of law, nonetheless it is that very Christian precept that serves as the foundation of our country.
The concept that each and every human being is endowed by our Creator with infinite intrinsic worth, equal to that of every other person, is the linchpin that enables a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people" to work.
Take away the idea of God-endowed equality, and democracy collapses like a house of cards the first time someone in a position of power asks, "Equal? Says who?" Indeed, from a practical, human standpoint, not one of us is literally the equal of any other person on the planet. Only in God's economy of infinite love is each of us truly equal. And this tenet of human worth comes straight from the New Testament where Jesus taught and demonstrated time and again the value of those whom the self-appointed elite considered the dregs of society.
Small wonder, then, that America's questionable efforts to introduce a governmental system like ours into countries with no Christian background has met with less-than-sterling success. Without the concept of each individual being infinitely loved by a God who "shows no favoritism" (Romans 2:11 NLT), government by consent of the governed makes little sense.
Thus, while it is true we have never been a "Christian nation," the increasingly popular notion that Christian principles have nothing to do with our country's ideological backbone is in error. Worse yet, it has the very real potential to doom this nation that is, as Lincoln put it, "dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."
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