What Does It Mean to be an American?

At first glance it may not seem appropriate to offer this subject under a banner that claims Heaven always matters most. However, if you will stick with me, I think I can show how this issue is very important to those who hold Heaven in high regard. Secondly, I will admit that my answer to the title question relies on traditional meaning rather than proposing what it might mean to be American by some novel, progressive definition. Finally, it is the outlandish protest of the far-left fringe against the Donald Trump presidency that motivates me to write. It seems to me that to claim a duly elected President is “Not My President” is to declaim being an American.

Governed by laws

To be an American means to swear allegiance to the Constitution of the United States, as evidenced by the oath taken by those applying for citizenship, those in military service, and all elected federal officials. Those of us born here may never have to take the oath literally, but it is an assumption of citizenship that one agrees with the law of the land. To be governed by law means that there is no higher standard of civic behavior than the Constitution. To refuse the rule of law places one in jeopardy of losing the freedoms granted by the law.

Admittedly, there are at least two opposing views of Constitutional interpretation. The traditionalist view, to which I hold, demands that the founding documents of our nation must be read considering what they meant to the original writers. I believe we must ascertain the intentions of those who initiated this experiment in government by law if we wish to maintain their concept of it. The progressive view of Constitutional interpretation, on the contrary, says that each generation must adapt the words of the founders to whatever circumstances are presently at hand. This fluid view eschews the idea of original intent in favor of dynamic reinterpretation. By this means we have invented rights and protections that would have been not only foreign to the founders, but surely abhorrent to them.

By applying the principle of dynamic interpretation, we often arrive at a curious predicament. The “right” of a woman to murder her unborn child ignores the rights of the child. The “right” of a transgendered person to choose which bathroom he/she prefers ignores the right of a woman to privacy in rest room facilities. The “right” to health insurance which included the forced purchase by all citizens tramples the right to hold property secure from government confiscation. Similar conflicts arise with the “rights” to minimum wage, affordable housing, protection from offending speech and many more.

America is a Republic, not democracy

It was part of the genius of the founders of America to institute republican government rather than a true democracy, although many people today mistakenly call our government a democracy. In a democracy, each citizen votes directly for the rules and regulations that govern society. In our form of government, citizens elect representatives who make law on behalf of those who elected them. While citizens are free to elect whomever they choose, those elected must swear to uphold the Constitution, thus avoiding lawlessness at least in principle. However, as I previously mentioned, this process has brought into question whether the Constitution is in fact being upheld or disregarded.

Another ingenious aspect of our republic is that it limits the ability of a majority to trample the rights of a minority. Without going into great detail, let it simply be said that properly addressed, laws written regarding issues that hold majority support will also protect minorities. This is particularly true of religious minorities which I will address below, but it holds true for other minorities as well. A curious turn of events has taken place with the move to abandon the original intent of the framers of the Constitution: some minorities are now exercising a form of tyranny over the majority. (More on this in Stormy Weather.)

Property rights

One of the principal reasons our forefathers broke from British rule was the practice of taxation without representation. The colonists believed they had the right to determine whether they should be taxed for certain commodities and activities. The British king held that he had the right to impose taxes at will. The inalienable rights to life, liberty and property (as John Locke originally wrote) were central to the colonists’ Declaration of Independence. While it is true that the Constitution does give the federal government the right to tax citizens, the expansion of government beyond its original limited form has brought about new “rights” and the need for additional taxes to provide them. In theory, the American system of government gives citizens the means to restrict the reach of government into their pocketbooks.

Education for all

Another feature of a representative government is the absolute necessity of an educated citizenry. To make intelligent choices regarding representation, the voting population must understand the issues they face. The type of education that makes this understanding possible was traditionally called a liberal education, liberal meaning expansive. By this it was intended that students would be educated in a wide range of subjects and viewpoints. Although education was of paramount importance to the founders, it wasn’t until several generations after the founding of America that the institution of government funded “free” public education became the norm.

It is interesting to note that most of the early supporters of free public education were the ancestors of today’s progressives. And today, the teacher’s unions, one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington, agitate for a continuation of their monopolistic enterprise which is failing miserably in its primary task. Not only do American students test embarrassingly low on basic skills, they are also leaving school bereft of any sense of moral values or civic responsibility. One does not have to be religious to understand that absent a moral foundation, a nation of laws will descend into anarchy. Values clarification and indiscriminate tolerance for all opinions as taught in today’s schools will eventually lead to the deconstruction of everything America once stood for. This is not progress; it is regression. If this situation is allowed to continue, life will become, as noted by philosopher Thomas Hobbes, nasty, brutish and short.

Religious freedom for all

Finally, it is ironic to note that the religious freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment to the US Constitution is being undermined by the pull of progressive thinking. A lie often told by the progressive left is that the founders of America were not Christian in any real sense. This cannot be maintained if one reads the founding documents they created, the FederalistPapers in which they explained their motives, and the letters of the men themselves. If, as the left claims, some of them were Deists, this still makes them theists, not atheists or anti-theists as many progressives assert. The Founders wanted to protect freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. (For more on this thought, read What Price Freedom.) Many of the early American settlers came explicitly because of government restrictions of their religious views.

To be an American does not mean to be a Christian, but it certainly means citizens have the right to free exercise of their Christianity under the First Amendment. So do Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and any other religious faction that does not prohibit others from exercising their rights. The progressive left, which for all practical purposes is atheistic, is attempting to de-establish Christianity from the public square. Nothing could be more unconstitutional. In a free republic, all citizens have the right to express their views in the public dialogue and the voting booth. A majority of Christians cannot by voting stamp out all other religious practice, but neither can the atheists stamp out all religion.

This is where Heaven begins to matter to this definition of what it means to be American. If Christians want to maintain some semblance of the rule of Heaven on Earth, we must maintain what I have defined as the traditional American condition. For the time being, Christians represent a majority belief in this country. We have a Constitutional right to express that belief. (For a discussion of how this might work, see A Timely New Book.) If progressives are allowed to redefine what it means to be an American, Christians will lose the right to free expression. While I believe the Bible does describe a time at the end of human history when such a state exists, I do not wish to speed its coming. Although the Holy Spirit is the ultimate force restraining evil in the world, the American system of government as originally conceived has been a tool to the same end. I pray we do not allow the enemy to redefine America so that it no longer cooperates in that work.