The story of the United States begins with the European Colonization of the Americas. From the "discovery" of the very old "New World" by Colombus to the establishment of plantations or colonies by the British, there hasn't been very much righteousness or truth in the narrative of what actually happened during those years. Indeed, the story opens with such a sense of European superiority and arrogance toward the indigenous peoples of this continent that it makes the racism of the Twenty-First Century look mild by comparison! To be clear, those natives were looked upon as savages, barely worthy of being considered human. Their civilizations were regarded as barbaric, and their use of the land they occupied was looked upon as uncivilized, wasteful, and lazy. In fact, Europeans had such a low opinion of the aboriginal peoples that they regarded their claims to the lands they occupied as having been invalidated.
These attitudes toward the indigenous population of the Americas manifested themselves in a number of ways over the years which followed. Europeans took lands and established settlements without permission. They also launched wars of conquest on the natives and imposed treaties on them based on European laws and values which they did not understand. Moreover, as those natives had no natural immunity to European diseases, the Europeans unintentionally and intentionally introduced lethal epidemics among them which suddenly wiped-out large numbers of the original inhabitants of the land. In fact, according to History.com, "By the close of the Indian Wars in the late 19th century, fewer than 238,000 Indigenous people remained of the estimated 5 million-plus living in North America before European contact." That same source goes on to inform us that the clash of interests between natives and Europeans led "the U.S. government to authorize over 1,500 wars, attacks and raids on Indians, the most of any country in the world against its Indigenous people." By the 1830's, President Andrew Jackson had set in motion the removal of 60,000 indigenous people from the Southeast by the United States Army (many of whom would die along the way in what is now known as the "Trail of Tears."
Likewise, we know that the first African slaves were introduced into what would become the United States in 1619. In their article on "The Middle Passage," Britannica informs us that thousands of Africans were involuntarily loaded aboard ships for the 5,000-mile voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to be sold as slaves in the New World. The same article goes on to inform us that, because of the intolerable heat, crowding and unsanitary conditions within the holds of the ships: "Historians estimate that between 15 and 25 percent of the enslaved Africans bound for the Americas died aboard slave ships." The souls who survived were subjected to forced labor, substandard food/clothing/housing, beatings, and forced separation from family members. Politifact.com informs us that "Thirty-four of the 47 men depicted in the famous 'Declaration of Independence' painting were slaveholders." By the way, that number included such names as John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson! Indeed, history informs us that twelve U.S. Presidents owned slaves (including Washington, Jefferson, and Madison). Moreover, we know that the United States eventually fought a great Civil War over the institution of slavery, and that that war remains the deadliest war in terms of casualties in U.S. history.
As for our notions of republican and democratic governance, we borrowed heavily from the pagan Greeks and Romans. We sometimes forget that Rome had a Senate long before the United States did. Also, within the false history of the Fundamentalist Christians we spoke about at the beginning of this post, the claim is made that all of our Founding Fathers were Christians. Now, in the broadest possible sense, we could say that such statements were true, but the devil is truly in the details. Indeed, the kind of Christianity practiced by men like Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin would be disavowed by the same folks who make these claims. It would be more accurate to state that they were Deists with Christian dispositions. For instance, did you know that Thomas Jefferson wrote his own version of the Gospels which eliminated the miracles and claims of Christ's Divinity? Did you also know that Benjamin Franklin described himself as a Deist and expressed his doubts about Christ's Divine status? Moreover, it is clear that many of the things which these men believed and practiced were inconsistent with Christ's commandment to love your neighbor as yourself. We could justly claim that there were some elements of "servant leadership" incorporated into the Constitution of the United States, but we would be hard pressed to find widespread evidence of it in the actual experience of our government.
Finally, we must admit that the United States was founded in rebellion against Great Britain. Indeed, the Revolutionary War is a well-documented fact of our history. In fact, that war served as the basis for the original extant/borders of our nation. Later, Thomas Jefferson purchased what was then known as the Louisiana Territory from the French tyrant, Napoleon Bonaparte. Likewise, many of us seem to forget that we fought a war with Mexico that resulted in the United States annexing the entire northern half of that nation's territory! We also fought a war with Spain and acquired many of their interests and territories around the world as a consequence of it. We too sometimes forget that the United States became a world power because of our commerce and devotion to building a strong Army and Navy. Moreover, in the course of that pursuit, we have developed and used weapons of mass destruction unprecedented in the history of humankind on this planet! Hence, we can see that any attempt to characterize our nation's beginnings as benign, righteous, just, or "Christian" is very problematic and contradicts much of the historical evidence available to us.
The PLAIN TRUTH is that the United States of America is yet another in a long list of efforts by humans to govern themselves. Like the other nations of the earth, one faction seeks to impose its will and vision on others; and together they attempt to secure their interests and will at the expense of the other nations of the earth. In short, nostalgia for the good old days and patriotic propaganda may make us feel warm and fuzzy; but then again, most fairy tales do just that! As Christians, we would all be better served by a clear-eyed assessment of who and what we are compared to God's standard.
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