OK, here's my response to the following article:
(http://www.theidentitybridge.com/identity-fountain-of-american-freedom/vision/)
Interesting article!
Some of the same issues that I tend to ponder and address regarding faith, the body and citizenship.
In thinking about it though I think I believe there is a fundamental mistake made in the assumption that all Americans are, or ever have been Christians.
The the equality endowed by God as a basis for such (as the article assumes) is stated in a document written primarily by self proclaimed non-Christians in a non-Christian context. Preserving among other things freedom of as well as from religion.
If being a Christian means being a follower of Christ, we should note then that this was clearly never Christ's objective. That said, we should also consider too that Christ is never a factor or even suggested within the Declaration. God (or more accurately Creator with a capital C) is mentioned however, and as we all know "God" can be a very vague term depending on one's religious perspective. The authors of the Declaration were intelligent fellows, and so perhaps going no further than Creator, but including Creator as our common qualifier was intentional.
Perhaps, for Christians, less emphasis should be placed on "American" in the term "American Christian". Then the recognition of our loyalty and consequently inherent rights, also reversed to being based in our divine citizenship rather than our earthly one, thus promoting one catholic church. (Not Catholic, but catholic).
Perhaps then after that we might be able to shake the association as that of a political party controlled by the institution of church which requires power over people, and move on to being the church as a body that comes under people to lift them up and toward the heavenly kingdom.
Just as America does not seem concerned about making Christ their foremost priority, Americans, and especially the church is in serious need of recognizing that America is never suggested as being Christ's foremost priority or even concern.
To many it seems the relationship between the two are just as the picture below suggests, the flag a reality, the cross merely a shadow there of.
The fact that nationality is an irrelevant factor in Christ's ministry, but clearly such a prominent factor in ours, is a mystery to me as (to my understanding) the nature of the Christian's concerns should reflect the nature of Christ's.
I can find nothing to suggest otherwise.
Maybe I'm just over-thinking and under-medicated though.
Just my two cents, I could be totally wrong, but I don't think so.
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