Confusing Christianity with America


I once received a short letter from Stanley Hauerwas in response to an article I had written titled “The Vigor of Wild Virtue.”  It’s a pretty extraordinary thing to get a written letter (this was a bit before email responses became easy) from anyone and especially the man whom Time called the best theologian in America.

I have read just one book by Hauerwas, his memoir Hannah’s Child, and I can assure you it is a wonderful read.  I read it several years ago but went back to it recently because I remembered that he was concerned with what might be called today “Christian Nationalism.”  Let me just tease you with a few sentences from a Time essay he wrote shortly after 9/11:
G. K. Chesterton once observed that America is a nation with the soul of a church.  Bush’s use of religious rhetoric seems to confirm this view.  None of this is good news for Christians, however, because it tempts us to confuse Christianity with America.  As a result, Christians fail to be what God has called us to be: agents of truthful speech in a world of mendacity.  This identification of cross and flag after September 11 needs to be called what it its:  idolatry.

Well, that’s my tease.  More to follow later.

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