The church has been an indispensable part of these United States, not least by advocating for abolition, civil rights, and the sanctity of life. The American literary canon is full of biblical allusions, and our legal system’s conception of rights rests on the reality that they are an inalienable gift from God.
For those searching for meaning in America today, however, I want to offer a framework from a congressional address by the African Methodist Episcopal reverend and US congressman Richard H. Cain from January 24, 1874. Cain artfully detailed the role of a free and diverse citizenry in the American experiment:
I believe Almighty God has placed both [Black and white] races on this broad theater of activity, where thoughts and opinions are freely expressed, where we may grasp every idea of manhood, where we may take hold of every truth and develop every art and science that can advance the prosperity of the nation. I believe God designed us to live here together on this continent, and in no other place, to develop this great idea that all men are the children of one Father. We are here to work out the grand experiment…by the development in us of the rights that belong to us, and the performance of the duties that we owe each other. Our interests are bound up in this country. Here we intend to stay and work out the problem of progress and education and civilization.
Cain understood that none of us were placed here by chance. God has filled our every step on this land with purpose (Acts 17:26). In Christ, he has removed “the dividing wall of hostility” (Eph. 2:14), and as Christians, we should work tirelessly to ensure, in Cain’s words, that there’s “no antagonism between the races, no friction that should destroy their peace and prosperity.” That kingdom unity is an imperative for us, and the sins of other Christians don’t relieve us from this duty.
But as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States, the American church is in grave danger of negligently missing the moment. Christians should be leading in social innovation to address the opportunities and dangers of artificial intelligence, to remedy the devastating childhood literacy crisis, and to make peace in a war of the sexes that’s exacerbating our loneliness epidemic. Instead, the church is stuck relitigating questions settled long ago. We’re still debating whether social justice can be biblically sound, long after the abolition and Civil Rights movements unequivocally answered in the affirmative. We’re still imagining that a political party or the right president can save us, pretending government can fix communities full of broken families.
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