In the name of god

Richard Hughes, a professor of religion, busts the myth of America as a Christian nation, says Vikram Johri

When President Obama reached out to the global Muslim population in Cairo in June, his speech was littered with references to non-Christian gods and stressed that “the United States is not, and never will be, at war with Islam. In fact, our partnership with the Muslim world is critical ... in rolling back a fringe ideology that people of all faiths reject.”

But the real subtext of the speech, as subsequently shown by members of both the American left and right — to different aims, of course — was to denounce the notion that America is a Christian nation chosen by god to spread the message of goodness and attack evil.

 

It is this national mythologising of a “chosen people” that Richard T Hughes, distinguished professor of religion at Messiah College in Grantham, Penn., sets out to attack in his serious inquiry, Christian America and the Kingdom of God. Hughes busts the myth of America as a Christian nation by quoting widely from the Bible and showing how American actions since the founding of the republic have often contradicted the scriptural teaching of peace on earth and goodwill to man.

From the earliest westward expansion that subjugated the native Americans to the most recent “axis of evil” rhetoric of George W Bush, Hughes shows that the seductive charm of the term “kingdom of god” has mostly been misused to carry out actions that are against the Bible’s spirit.

As a professor of religion, Hughes is ideally placed to bolster his claims with passages from the Bible. Nearly every page in the book has extensive quotes from both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. Hughes lays special importance on demonstrating how the Bible references “kingdom of god” to mean an Arcadian paradise filled with love and justice, and not, as history as shown, a divinely ordained tool to justify the militaristic ambitions of those in power.

While a majority of Americans regard themselves as practising Christians, a strident religiosity is a new phenomenon in public life, Hughes asserts. This is due to a number of reasons, chiefly political. As immigrants from diverse faiths make America their home, demagogues latch on to the Bible to establish the Christian purity of America. Such us-against-them rhetoric, Hughes laments, has gotten more strident in the aftermath of 9/11, since that event allowed the ruling establishment to claim to protect the Christian from the “other”.

One has to take Hughes seriously because as a Biblical scholar, he removes his argument from ideology and plucks it from the source itself. A proud Christian, Hughes is emphatic that true Christianity is removed from hubris and Jesus is best served by acceptance of, rather than discrimination against, the other.

A genuinely thought-provoking read, Christian America and the Kingdom of God makes one wonder if those who wage wars in the name of god really know the holy canon.

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CHRISTIAN AMERICA AND THE KINDOM OF GOD
Author: Richard T Hughes
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Pages: 232
Price: $29.95