Would America Exist Without Christianity?
G. Lee Southard, Ph.D
The short answer is a resounding No!!!! If it still existed, it would not exist as we know it.
Christianity has played a profound role in shaping the development of the United States, so asking what America would be without Christianity is really asking how different its culture, institutions, and values might have been had another worldview dominated its founding and development.
Historically, Christianity influenced America in several major ways:
- The belief that human beings possess inherent dignity because they are created in the image of God.
- The development of moral concepts such as justice, charity, forgiveness, equality before God, and the value of the individual.
- The growth of education, including many of America’s earliest colleges founded by Christian denominations.
- Reform movements such as abolition, prison reform, literacy efforts, and charitable ministries.
- The moral language found in many foundational American writings and speeches.
- The idea that rights ultimately come from a Creator rather than from government alone.
At the same time, America has never been exclusively Christian in practice, and its history includes contradictions such as slavery, discrimination, and injustice carried out by people who identified as Christians. Critics therefore argue that America’s development also depended heavily on Enlightenment thought, classical philosophy, pluralism, and constitutional governance.
A balanced historical view is that America was shaped by a combination of:
- Christian moral and religious influence,
- Enlightenment political philosophy,
- English legal traditions,
- The experiences of diverse immigrant groups.
Without Christianity, America likely would have developed very differently culturally and morally. Whether one believes it would have been better or worse depends largely on one’s worldview and understanding of religion’s role in society.
One could reasonably argue that Christianity provided much of the moral and spiritual framework that helped shape:
- personal liberty,
- human equality,
- moral responsibility,
- education,
- and the idea of accountable government.
Without Christianity, America would likely still have become a nation, but not the same nation. Christianity helped shape the moral foundation, concept of human dignity, and vision of liberty that influenced the American experiment.”
What we see in the rest of the world among non-Christian nations is likely the nation America would have become. If that had been the case, we would not want to have lived here.
So to those who do not have the best interest of the country at heart consider what you are doing. The alternative you desire is something you would regret you ever got.
For those of us who love the country we have consider this advice fro Benjamin Franklin. When exiting the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in September 1787, Elizabeth Willing Powel (the wife of the city’s mayor) approached him and asked, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”
Franklin famously replied: “A republic, madam, if you can keep it.”
Will we keep it? I pray we do. There are forces at play in elected office and in the populace at large that do not envision a future America having the same culture and democracy we have had for 250 years.
You should be thinking “How can I help in preserving America’s values all based on Christian influence at the nations founding?” First, know your history and how Christianity influenced America and be confident in defending it in a civil manner. Secondly, when you vote, discern what the candidates stand for and do not vote for those who do not stand for the principles and values that made the country what it is and blesses its citizens in ways no other country in history has. Most important instill Christian values in your children and grandchildren.
