What’s Wrong with America being American?

I read a comment the other day on Facebook, in a discussion about immigration: “What’s wrong with America being American?”

It hit me in visceral way, and I recoiled.

But I sat back and thought about it. Why did this hit me this way? What is wrong with wanting America to be American?

There may be nothing intrinsically right or wrong with that idea. It all depends on answering the question, "what is America?"

I grew up being taught that America is a Christian nation, built on Christian principles. And sure, the founding fathers had some really great, ground-breaking philosophies. But I have come to the conclusion that The United States of America is not and has never been a "Christian Nation," though it may have aspired to be. Because Christ is about bringing good news to the poor, binding up the broken hearted, proclaiming liberty to the captives, opening up the prison to those who are bound, comforting all who mourn, bringing beauty instead of ashes, gladness instead of mourning, and praise instead of a faint spirit (Isaiah 61:1-3). Not just to certain of the poor, broken hearted, captives and mourners. Not just to those who are "deserving," who adhere to our ideas, who look like us.

While our nation was indeed built on principles of equality, independance and freedom from tyranny and oppression, these ideals were explicitly and systematically applied only to the white male. It may sound like I am just repeating the din of the "liberal," the activist and the celebrity, but I do not say this lightly. I did not come to this lightly. I am not quick to parrot the ideas of others, and I question everything I hear. I don’t even say it in a spirit of criticism. Our country was progressive for it’s time. There are some great things about its foundation. But it is true. It just is. That while in the light of day the founders of America were extending rights and freedoms to the white male, in the darkness oppression and tyranny were thriving and growing. There has never been a moment, not one tiny second, that this country did not include peoples of non-European ancestry and peoples who were non-English speaking. And there has not been one moment that this country has not denied these people freedom and equality. Not one moment.

Whether it was the peoples who were here when white settlers arrived, or the peoples that were brought as slaves to build this nation for the comfort and prosperity of the white settlers, or the many waves of immigrants who have continued to arrive up to the present, each group of “foreigners” has been treated as inferior, and experienced a lesser quality of life and dignity. The Italian immigrants, the Irish immigrants, the Eastern European immigrants, and the Jews . . . each have suffered at our hand. And now it is the Muslim and the Latino who are treated as a lesser species, as someone to fear and disdain. A scapegoat for our selfish propensities.

Not only has America oppressed the non-white non-Europeans in our midst, we have tortured them and killed them. From the plight of the slave to the Jim Crow South, to current police brutality. From the Jews to whom we denied asylum when they were being systematically slaughtered to the Muslims fleeing war and terrorism, to the Latinos fleeing drug and gang related violence, to the African fleeing starvation. When the United States claims to be a haven against tyranny and oppression, the very reason for which it was founded, it really means a haven to the white man.

And that is what is wrong with saying that America should be “American.” The America that people mean when they say that is a myth that never existed. For every person that experienced freedom, independence, equality and prosperity, there has been another citizen of this country who has been denied those things based on race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation. We have never, in all our history, treated each person as they deserve to be treated, as someone who was made in the image of God. As someone who is intrinsically worthy and worthwhile.

As for being a Christian nation, sure, we have some Christianity-based principles and moral ideals, but we have not been Christ to the world. 

"If my life denies that I am about the oppressed and crushed —- my life denies the gospel and Christ" (Ann Voskamp).

As a white woman I am grateful to live in America. I am comfortable and free here. Even for people of different ethnicities and religions there are plenty of places that are much worse. But as a Christian I say let us forget the idea of a “Christian” nation, an “American” America. We can’t go back to what never existed. Let’s go forward to bring justice to each person that we can - not the punitive justice of this world that exacts punishment and vengeance, but the Justice of God, which rights the wrongs done to the vulnerable. Let’s forget about trying to enforce our moral beliefs and about holding up our nation as some kind of "shining city on a hill," and instead put our heads down and go to work to show the love of Christ by doing as He did - by showing that we care for the hurts of our neighbors, and that each of them, regardless of race, religion or behavior, is the image of God and infinitely loved by Love Himself.

“The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

You must not oppress foreigners. You know what it’s like to be a foreigner, for you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt.” (Leviticus 19:34, Exodus 23:9)