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The United States is a secular nation in the sense that all persons are guaranteed the right to practice their religious faith, provided it does not violate the freedom or security of others. It is a guarantee challenged, sometimes violently, through prejudicial acts against some of the faithful—Jews, Muslims, adherents of indigenous religions, and, until relatively recently, Roman Catholics.
Recognition of such behavior as an offense against religious freedom, an assault on human dignity, and an expression of bigotry stands as a testament to an enduring American spirit unwilling to surrender to entrenched prejudice.
That same spirit must now stand firm against a bizarre distortion of the Christian faith promoted by persons in high office such as Pete Hegseth, JD Vance, and Donald Trump, who assert an intent to make a religion masquerading as Christian and biblical into the official religion of the nation. To claim it as Christian is an offense against God; to claim it as biblical is an insult to Holy Scripture.
The Christian Church has struggled long and hard to proclaim faith in one God, whom we experience as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, made known through the life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. To follow in the way of Jesus is to follow what he has taught and commanded. At the same time, others have proclaimed a different faith while calling it Christian, though it departs far from what God has revealed through the prophets and commanded by Jesus himself.
This was true in the earliest centuries of the Church and has recurred throughout history. The Church has wrestled with internal conflict and a recurring need for reform. Yet the good news of God in Christ Jesus—the nearness of the kingdom in ordinary life and the power of redeeming love—has not failed. It continues to lead the faithful into deeper and more profound ways of understanding and following the way of the cross.
The Church—the assembly of all faithful Christians—is once again called to boldness in Christ, to profess the faith in word and deed in ways that clearly distinguish it from corrupt distortions now being advanced as a national religion.
How?
Drawing from my own tradition’s baptismal covenant, I offer the following. It is consistent with—if not identical to—the baptismal commitments proclaimed across the one holy catholic and apostolic Church:
- Be steadfast in worship and fellowship with other Christians; observe the apostles’ teaching; share in the holy food and drink of new and unending life in Holy Communion.
- Persevere in resisting evil; whenever one falls, repent and return to the Lord.
- Proclaim by word and example in daily life the good news of God in Christ.
- Seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving one’s neighbor as oneself—including the stranger, the alien, and those we dislike or distrust.
- Strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being.Respect the dignity of all creation and seek to live in harmony with it.
To follow Jesus in this way draws a wide circle, within which a multitude of faithful lives may be lived according to differing abilities and circumstances. Uniformity is not required. Unity in following the way of the cross is. In that unity in diversity, the Christian faith is most truly proclaimed.
It is what we are called to do—individually and collectively—with quiet confidence whenever and wherever the opportunity presents itself.