The American Creed?

This faith is not limited to our current president, but shared by recent contenders for the office.

Barack Obama, in his acceptance speech, used religious language of “that American spirit, that American promise, that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen…” He called “that promise…our greatest inheritance;” and said, “Let us keep that promise, that American promise, and in the words of scripture hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess.”

John McCain, accepting his party’s nomination, said, “We’re dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal and endowed by our creator with inalienable rights. No country ?? no country ever had a greater cause than that.” He praised America “for its decency, for its faith in the wisdom, justice, and goodness of its people.” As if remembering a religious conversion, he said, “I wasn’t my own man anymore; I was my country’s….I’m going to fight to make sure every American has every reason to thank God, as I thank him, that I’m an American, a proud citizen of the greatest country on Earth. And with hard work, strong faith, and a little courage, great things are always within our reach.”

What is the faith, creed, confession, promise, and purpose of America? Is it “faith in freedom and democracy,” the equality of every man and woman, in generic faith and the greatness of our nation? Is such faith “our greatest inheritance”?

More than a hundred and fifty years before the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution, the earliest founders of the colonial settlements which became the United States understood their purpose differently than the framers of the Declaration and Constitution.

The first colonial charter of Virginia from 1606 stated the purpose of their undertaking. “We, greatly commending, and graciously accepting of, their Desires for the Furtherance of so noble a Work, which may, by the Providence of Almighty God, hereafter tend to the Glory of his Divine Majesty, in propagating of Christian Religion to such People, as yet live in Darkness and miserable Ignorance of the true Knowledge and Worship of God…”

The 1620 Charter of New England said the “principle Effect which we desire or expect” from the colonization of that region to be “the Conversion and Reduction of the People in those Parts unto the true Worship of God and Christian Religion…”

The signers of the Mayflower Compact described the purpose of their venture as, “Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country…” They proposed to “solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid…”

For the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian religion: their purpose was to glorify God and make him known as revealed in Christ. This God centered creed went further than the human concern for rights and liberties endowed by a generic Creator.

Reformed Christians say the chief end of man is “to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” As nations are the collective institutions of man, their purpose can be no less.

National purpose less than God’s glory and redemption in Christ becomes a religion in itself, a belief in generic faith, rights, liberties, prosperity, national grandeur, innate goodness, freedom and democracy. Mankind freed for anything less than the glory of God is enslaved to the worship of the creature rather than the Creator. Civil religion is idolatry.