Christianity in America: how the Faith of 250 years ago creates unique challenges for today

Years ago, while I was an undergraduate student, I was afforded the opportunity to visit Quebec City in Canada. That cultural and historical exposure I experienced with my group of friends created some of my best memories of that time. Walking the streets of Quebec immediately transported our group to another time, where the fur trade was the economic currency, where civilizations followed the expedient modes of transportation (water, trails, etc), and traditional culture informed the establishment of communities. 

The modern Quebec is much different from the Quebec of colonial America. The people all speak English, the streets are filled with cars, and everyone accepts Credit Cards (though not Discover… ask me how I know…) rather than pelts. Politically, the city is different too: the street names are all reflective of Saints and Christological/Marian titles, and the City itself is home to many beautiful churches, and yet the country of Canada is one of the most secular in the Western hemisphere. And Quebec, being a prominent city within that country, reflects this secularization. Because of this, the wonderful experiences in visiting Quebec were in a sense overshadowed by a hollowness created by an identity crisis: a city Catholic in its DNA which can neither escape its history to pursue its modern goals nor find relevant context for its still-present Faith. Catholics built Quebec; Quebec can’t quite shake them, no matter how hard it tries.

Many countries were civilized by Catholic missionaries, and as such cannot ever be understood without that Catholic foundation. For some, like Canada, this foundation is reduced to merely an inescapable stagnant history which modernity tries (in vain) to not let influence its identity of today. For others, like Poland, the roots of the Faith are so pervasive that one cannot even speak the language of he country without remembering those Catholic missionaries who instituted it. But what about the United States? Our country was inarguably founded on Christian principles, albeit Protestant in nature: have we succeeded in severing the last tie between Church and State? Or are we bound to our history in the same way Canada is? Moreover, is the Christianity of the US’s founding truly as Catholic (or Catholic-compatible) as many modern Catholics claim it is? Let us look briefly at our own country to see how we place within the context of our own history - and therefore judge how coherent our nation’s modern identity is.

There is much discussion today about Christianity and the US’s founding. Some tend to highlight the Enlightenment/Social Contract/Liberalism themes in the founding documents as “proof” of philosophical rather than theological orientation. That’s simply inaccurate to history, though. While it is true that the founding documents lean on Enlightenment philosophies, these documents were inarguably created and intended for Christian civilized living. Look at the pilgrims: they first boarded the boat to the US because England was becoming too Catholic. These individuals were so staunch in their faith (Protestantism) that they were willing to leave their own nation to ensure free practice. This premise of travel to the New World was such an integral part of the pilgrims’ motivations that the New World was exceptionally restrictive of Catholic participation in public life. And the communities these staunch and faithful Protestants would form would produce the the founding fathers. In fact, Protestantism was such a foundational part of the New World’s colonization, the restrictions against Catholicism would not be lifted in any meaningful manner until the aspiring nation sought to garner support and favor in our break with England from our Catholic neighbors to the North - Canada. And so, the documents the founding fathers created reflected well-educated men of Protestant faith communities, not mere philosophers of neutral theology. 

Many of the mindsets we detect in our nation - as well as attitudes informing political policy -  are directly tied to the initial faith-based beliefs of the pilgrims and founding fathers. From the cold, Puritan/Calvinistic temperaments of New England residents to the warm, Baptist personalities of the South, to even the French Catholic influences of Louisiana, our own individual identities and personalities continue to be influenced by whichever creed of Christianity happened to colonize the area of our upbringing. And the “manifest destiny/world police” attitude which informs our interior and foreign policy as a nation unparalleled in force capabilities is directly influenced by John Winthrop’s “City on a Hill” speech. And, the wars in Iraq/Afghanistan were (allegedly) in part prompted by Bush’s evangelical Faith to quicken the second coming of Christ. All this to say: the founding faith principles which formed our nation’s inception are relevant to our own day in meaningful and impactful ways to an extent that Canada’s perhaps isn’t.

The Christianity which continues to influence American identity and politics is very similar to so many other missionary countries in the world. We cannot escape our Christian heritage, try as we might. It is engrained so deeply into our DNA that our very personalities reflect it, from our preferences to our tics. This being said, there is one very distinct way in which the Christianity informing America differs from the Christian heritage of our cultural peers: the US was not a missionary civilization built by Catholics, but a refugee civilization built by Protestants. The struggles Catholicism faced in the early days of our country are not reflected in the religious liberties enjoyed in the year 2026; however, the struggles of individual Catholic communities and persons remains quietly pervasive as we try to reconcile our lived Faith with our subconscious inclinations formed by a different faith foundation. This struggle is so real, it prompted Leo XIII to coin a heresy unique to our country: Americanism. 

Is the US a specifically Christian country? Undeniably. Does it continue to remain strongly tied to its Christian roots, in spite of continued efforts to sever secular and religious ties? Absolutely. But is it a Catholic country, with Catholic principles reflective of the Scriptural values so many first-century Christians gave their lives to witness to? I find myself forced to declare the negative. The US presents unique challenges to those who would live according to the Faith of the ages, struggles which mere religious liberty do not alleviate.