“Christendom” is a better, and historically employed, term that expresses the basic truth that the British North American colonies – and, later, the United States of America – were political-legal and social-economic entities grounded for the most part on constitutionalism, British common law, and the Bible. Far from perfectly, of course. But largely and legitimately so.

Given the popularity of the term “Christian Nationalism” nowadays, one might have used those words in the above title. I chose not to do so for two reasons. Negatively, Christian Nationalism was invented by opponents of the church of the Lord Jesus and His gospel. The term was intended – as pastor-teacher-author Dr. Voddie Baucham points out – to be employed as a bludgeon against the church in the name of so-called racial justice. Positively, “Christendom” is a better, and historically employed, term that expresses the basic truth that the British North American colonies – and, later, the United States of America – were political-legal and social-economic entities grounded for the most part on constitutionalism, British common law, and the Bible. Far from perfectly, of course. But largely and legitimately so.

In the late colonial to early national period, a wealth of evidence supports the view that America was part of Christendom (arguably, colonial-and-State Sabbath or Lord’s Day laws and a Sabbath-conscious society provided some of the best evidence, in addition to the Christian character of most voluntary societies, as noticed by de Tocqueville). Many of The Aquila Report readers are familiar with that epoch; therefore, this essay will focus on a relatively unfamiliar period to most – two generations later, as the Founders were passing from the scene and the country entered the Jacksonian Era (in recognition of President Andrew Jackson, the seventh U.S. President, from 1829 to 1837).

If any American community in that period did not consider itself to be Christian in nature, that fact alone should be noteworthy. Although probably no more than a considerable minority of American citizens held a credible profession of Christian faith – significantly, however, many of those were of the middling classes – nearly all citizens undoubtedly considered their community, State, and republic to be of Christian character. (A “considerable minority” is admittedly a rough estimate; in that era the priority of church membership was different from ours; moreover, many church records were nonexistent or have not survived.)

Below are five illustrative cases: two from each of the Carolinas, and one from Virginia – but mountains of evidence could be mustered from other States.

Around 1830, hundreds of communities nationwide petitioned the Congress regarding a postal law that profaned the Christian Sabbath by requiring the transporting and handling of the mails on that day. Led by a local Presbyterian pastor, Rev. William Brearley, the memorialists of Winnsboro, South Carolina, stated, “As we are a christian nation and exult in the honorable distinction, we wish to shew our regard for divine laws and for sacred Institutions. . . .”[1] Note the “christian nation” reference required no explanation (as with Paul’s passing reference to the serpent in 2 Corinthians 11:3, which his readers and hearers accepted as literal and historical, requiring no defense).

In 1833, an Episcopalian leader in South Carolina, Rev. Jasper Adams, authored an address, The Relation of Christianity to Civil Government in the United States. Adams was responding to the assertion by certain distinguished and learned men – “infidels” in the parlance of the day – “that Christianity has no connexion with the law of the land, or with our civil and political institutions.” In tracing the origins of the British colonies and the intentional, indispensable role of Christianity in the forming of their institutions, Adams pronounced, “The Christian religion was intended by them to be the corner stone of the social and political structures which they were founding.” The minister observed that of “the twenty-four Constitutions of the United States . . . we find all of them recognising Christianity as the well known and well established religion of the communities, whose legal, civil and political foundations, these Constitutions are.”  

Several States in New England maintained their religious establishments well into the early national period, in the case of Massachusetts lasting until about 1830. Regardless of denominational establishment in those cases, however, Adams argued that (non-denominational) Christianity was the de facto established religion of the new nation. (By the way, his endnotes are super-impressive, a rich resource.)

In 1829, inhabitants of Hertford County, North Carolina, wrote their congressman concerning the holy Sabbath. They viewed the day’s observance as “highly conducive to the advancement of our national prosperity – to the promotion of our christian character – to the furtherance of our civil and to the security of our religious liberties.” They recalled from Proverbs 14 the “Gospel precept, ‘Righteousness exalteth a nation.’”[2]

In 1836, the Biblical Recorder – the organ of North Carolina Baptists – advanced the cause of Sunday Schools, stating, “If then the preservation of the Lord’s day is essential to the existence of Christianity in our land, multiply Sunday-Schools; gather in the children; make the day a delight, and leave deep the impression that it is one of the most binding and essential duties of life to keep it holy.” Notice that Christianity’s existence “in our land” was assumed, requiring no explanation.

In 1830, Petersburg, Virginia, attorney William Mayo Atkinson – a Presbyterian ruling elder at that time, and later a pastor – authored a local memorial to Congress, declaring in his own fine handwriting,

We glory in the affirmation, that Virginia, at least, is a Christian State and her people are a Christian people. Our forefathers brought with them to this western world their religion and their liberties, and we do believe that they valued their bibles far more highly than their Magna Chartas. From intolerance they were not free, for it was the view of their age, but they were, and they professed to be, Christians.[3]

Atkinson’s boldness and candor regarding the character of his State stands on its own merits.

His words deserve balancing, however, lest readers assume wrongly that Jacksonian America was comprised mainly of practicing Christians. In 1828, the foremost Presbyterian minister in the South, and highly respected nationwide – Rev. John Holt Rice of Virginia – wrote to his friend, temperance reformer and agricultural progressive John H. Cocke. In one telling sentence, Rice acknowledged the challenge of the day: “It would I apprehend be entirely in vain to address religious considerations to most of our countrymen; for they feel not the force of religious obligation.” (In mentioning “countrymen,” it was unclear whether Rice referred to Virginians or Southerners; he used the term in both contexts at different times.)

Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision in 2015, various observers conclude that American society is now essentially hostile to biblical Christianity. One election cycle’s results do not necessarily change that basic calculus. Attacks brazen or subtle against a battered, yet still standing, Christendom in the West – especially in the United States – are apt to continue. If that be correct, it will be of en-courage-ment for biblical churches and Christians to listen to their forefathers from a mostly unfamiliar era, when most of those who walked with Christ by faith identified their society as a “christian nation,” as of “christian character,” and a “Christian State and her people . . . a Christian people.”

Yes, America is part of Christendom.

Forrest L. Marion is a ruling elder in the First Presbyterian Church (PCA), Crossville, Tennessee.

[1] Petition of inhabitants of Winnsborough, S.C. to U.S. House of Representatives, Post Office and Post Roads committee, January 1829 (National Archives, Record Group (RG) 233). Hundreds of petitions are housed under RG233.

[2] Petition of inhabitants of Hertford County, N.C., December 1829, RG233.

[3] Petition of inhabitants of Petersburg, Virginia, February, 1830.