Americanism and Its Enemies

This entry is part of the Evangelical Outpost blog blog symposium. The symposium focuses on an article by David Gelernter in Commentary entitled Americanism and its Enemies.

A very brief summary of Gelernter’s thesis is that “Americanism” — a belief in that Americans are “morally superior, closer to God” — derives from the Puritans’ vision of a people set apart for devotion to God. The Puritan vision, in turn derived from Biblical imagery relating to the nation of Israel as God’s chosen people and of the blessings God would bestow on His people if they remained faithful to Him.

So far, so good. This is hardly a novel observation, although few serious historians, even serious conservative historians, would state the case so simplistically. Certainly the Puritans’ vision carried through to some extent into the founding of the colonies and later of our Republic, and even more certainly our political leaders have often used symbolism drawn from the Puritanical vision for rhetorical purposes. Of course, this is but one thread in an extraordinarily complex weave, and the “Americanist” impulse can hardly be reduced to this one thread. But the thread is there.

From this, Gelernter suggests “anti-Americanism” is a reaction against the underlying religiosity of Americanism. He notes that, “[i]n modern times, anti-Americanism is closely associated with anti-Christianism and anti-Semitism.” (Emphasis in original.) Here I think Gelernter’s thesis goes dangerously awry.

Gelernter’s thesis first goes astray because of its causal reductionism. It may well be true that many anti-Americanists are also anti-Christian and anti-Jewish. For a large segment of this population, however, this has nothing to do with anti-religious sentiments. Rather, it has everything to do with religion — the religion of radical Islamic fundamentalism. This glaring omission alone spins Gelernter’s thesis to a wisp.

For another large segment of the anti-American population, anti-religiosity and anti-Americanism go hand in hand because they are part of the zeitgeist of postmodern nihlism. They are in many ways “anti-Everything,” having given up any universal truths.

Yet, perhaps paradoxicaly, the answer to these anti-Everythings will not likely be found in a reassertion of confident, unquestioning, manly religiosity of the “W” variety. The forefathers of the anti-Everythings — among whom were the Deists who wrote our founding documents — established Reason as the ultimate foundation of Truth. When that foundation crumbled, they were left with nothing but the Cartesian cogito and the materialist assumptions of modern science. Many of them have abandoned Truth for “Preferences.” It is not “religion” per se that these children of the Enlightenment rage against; it is absolutism in any form.

What the anti-Everythings need, then, is not more propositional bravado, but more incarnational Truth. They don’t need to be told America is a “city on a Hill” towards which they must bow; they need to see Americans, particularly American Christians, “shine like stars in the universe as [we] hold out the word of life.” (Phil. 2:15-16.)

If the only problems with Gelernter’s thesis were these reductionistic tendencies, we might simply shrug and accept it for what it’s worth. But there is a mroe serious problem, perhaps the most serious problem possible — a problem of idolatry.

From the perspective of a religious American, it’s tempting to equate anti-American sentiment with “anti-Christ.” In my own dispensational Christian heritage, there were many who did this quite explicitly. I doubt Gelertner is aware of his kinship to the oddity of American Evangelicalism that is old-school dispensationalism. But whether one takes the dispensationalist’s view that anti-American literally equals “anti-Christ,” or follows Gelertner’s more subtle equation of anti-American equals anti-religious, the result is the same. To be anti-American is to be anti-God.

The problem with this way of thinking is that the lines between America and God, and between Church (the people of God) and Nation (all the people under a God-ordained government), lines that should be sharp and clear, become fuzzy. This can be convenient if one wishes to dismiss critics without much analysis, but it is antithetical to the Church’s prophetic mission. Indeed, it can become its own, perhaps more insidious form of “anti-Christ.” We do well to remember that the “beast” depicted in the apocalyptic imagery of Revelation comes not as an anti-religionist, but as one who coopts genuine prophetic faith.

So do we answer anti-Americanism by reasserting a Puritanical Americanism? I think not. We as Americans answer anti-Americanism by practicing, everywhere in the world, the principles of freedom, dignity and justice that we have historically proclaimed. We as American Christians do not so much answer anti-Americanism, but rather we incarnate the prophetic Word of God, representing in our lives and relationships the living Christ, who will judge all nations, including our own. Anything less betrays our heritage both as Americans and Christians.