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Anniversaries are never just celebrations. They are arguments about the past and identity.
They tell us who we were, who we are, and who we must become.
As the United States marks its 250th year, white Christian nationalists are ready with their argument about the past: that America was founded as a Christian nation.
This week’s episode of The Justice Briefing, part two of my America 250 series, makes the case for a truer story, and for the tool the church needs to tell it: a theology of history.
Every Christian already has a theology of history. The only question is whether it is faithful or corrupt.
The white Christian nationalist version is corrupt. It does not simply say Christianity influenced the nation, which is true.
It insists:
the framers wanted a Christian government;
that America holds a covenant with God like ancient Israel;
that Christianity deserves privileged legal standing, and
that “real” Americans are Christian.
White Christian nationalism is a restoration narrative built on fear and grievance.
It claims that our best days are behind us, so we must turn around and go backward to make America great again.
I call that regression.
I am interested in progression, in the conviction that our best days can still be ahead of us.
Why America 250 Requires a Theology of History
So why does the church need a theology of history at all?
Because the Bible is a history book. Because God repeatedly commands his people to remember, from Deuteronomy 8 to Psalm 77 to the Lord’s Supper itself.
Because the command to remember is protective. When the people of God forget the past, that is when idolatry and injustice creep in.
And because history is about identity. Whoever holds the power to tell the story holds the power to shape who we become.
The church has largely abdicated this work. We teach personal piety and skip U.S. history.
But nature abhors a vacuum. If we get all our history from ninety-second videos and Instagram carousels, we are living on potato chips: quick hits of salt and crunch with nothing substantive underneath.
Doing history well is not abstract. It is a practice. So I get practical in this episode.
I apply the ARC—Awareness-Relationships-Committment—of Racial Justice from How to Fight Racism to the theology of history.
In the end, the Fourth of July is what we the people make it.
It can be a time of mythologizing and propagandizing about the past, or an opportunity to move forward toward a more perfect union.
That is a story worth telling truthfully.
Stay informed. Stay faithful. Stay in the fight.
In This Episode
Anniversaries as arguments about the past and how they shape national identity
What white Christian nationalists actually mean by “Christian nation”
The restoration narrative of regression versus a vision of progression
The biblical case for a theology of history: Deuteronomy 8, Psalm 77:11, and Luke 22:19
The dangers of forgetting, and why memory functions as a guardrail
History and identity: how the power to tell the story is the power to shape who we become
The church’s abdication of history and the “potato chips” problem of getting your history from social media
Applying the ARC of Racial Justice (Awareness, Relationships, Commitment) to doing history well
Where do you currently get most of your U.S. history? What would it look like to add U.S. history as part of discipleship in the church?
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