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Are We Really a Christian Nation, And Why is No the Answer?

Are We Really a Christian Nation, And Why is No the Answer?

Last updated on: July 9, 2026 at 8:10 am by Shawn Paul Wood

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Are We Really a Christian Nation, And Why is No the Answer? 2026-07-08T14:59:48-05:00 Shawn Paul Wood

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A viral clip from Pastor Loran Livingston of Central Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, is doing what “Close to Home” content is supposed to do: Making people uncomfortable enough to actually think about their walk with God.

His argument is simple and, frankly, nearly impossible to argue with once you look at three receipts: America has never been a Christian nation. Not now. Not ever.

Yeah, he said it. And if he were near me, he’d get a hearty dap and a home-cooked meal. Before you go all red, white, and blue kinds of crazy, listen to the merit of his powerful message.

We were founded as a Christian nation, upon Christian principles, sure — but founded on them and living them out are two very different things.

Livingston isn’t dragging the flag through the mud. He’s naming three receipts most sermons (and people) skip. Let’s walk through why he’s right and why the Bible agrees with him, and not most Americans. See? Close to home!

It’s time to determine how this hits close to home. Don’t miss what’s next! Subscribe to our free newsletter to stay informed about what’s happening in the Church and how real Christians can help defend the love and work of Christ. On with the show…

But First…

Preach, pastor!

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A post shared by Pastor Robert (@pastor_robert2)

Receipt 1. The Land We “Discovered” Wasn’t Empty

An older map being invesitgated by someone with a magnifying glass.

America, the not-so-beautiful at times. (Image Credit: Ambient America)

A truly Christian nation doesn’t build itself on the graves of the people already living here. Historians studying the demographic collapse of Indigenous peoples after European contact describe it as nothing less than a holocaust.

It was driven by disease, war, forced relocation, and deliberate violence that scholars have spent decades trying to responsibly quantify across the Western Hemisphere.

In what’s now the U.S. alone, the Indigenous population dropped from an estimated 1.2 to 18 million people at first contact to just 270,995 by 1920. That’s not attrition. That’s collapse.

And the aftermath never ended. Today, American Indian and Alaska Native households experience poverty at roughly twice the rate of the typical American household, with some reservation communities still seeing rates far above that.

Genesis 1:27 says every human being is made in the image of God — not just the ones who won the land.

Deuteronomy 10:17-19 goes further, commanding God’s people to love the foreigner “because you were foreigners” yourselves. A nation that displaces, starves, and forgets an entire people isn’t following that command. It’s ignoring it.

One thing Pastor Livingston would agree with is that this is not a “woke” commentary. Instead, it’s being awake to our nation’s history and the choices of our people.

Receipt 2. Slavery Wasn’t A Footnote; It Was The Business Model

A wooden fence barely standing around the port of Jamestown, Virginia

The scene of the crime: Jamestown, 1607 (Image Credit: Ken Lund via Wikimedia)

Livingston’s second point cuts even deeper. His premise was this country didn’t just tolerate slavery; it built an economy on the theological lie that God was fine with it. How was this ever considered an idea with biblical merit?!

Pro-slavery preachers twisted Ephesians and the so-called “curse of Ham” into a defense of human bondage. Meanwhile, Galatians 3:28 was sitting in the same Bible, declaring there is “neither slave nor free… for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Then came the reckoning.

The Civil War remains the deadliest conflict in American history. Modern historical estimates place the death toll between 620,000 and 750,000 Americans, a toll higher than any other war the nation has fought. We killed our own countrymen by the hundreds of thousands so that some Americans could keep owning other Americans as property.

Amos 5:24 doesn’t read like a compromise document:

“Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”

A Christian nation doesn’t need a war to decide people aren’t property. It already knows. So, how did these hypocritical “God-fearing Americans” think God needed help?

Receipt 3. The Stranger Is Still Waiting At The Gate

A silhouette of the Cross on a hill in the sunset

God bless the stranger who rolled into our lives. (Image Credit: @geRsweb via Pixabay)

Livingston’s clip focuses on history, but this being “Close to Home” means we should be asking what’s still happening. Leviticus 19:33-34 commands that the foreigner living among you be treated “as your native-born” and loved “as yourself.”

Matthew 25:35 puts Jesus Himself in the shoes of the stranger: “I was a stranger, and you invited me in.”

Yet legal immigrants, refugees, and disenfranchised communities continue to navigate a system that too often treats compassion as optional rather than commanded. This isn’t about people who jump a border or smuggle themselves in a box to get here outside of the law.

There are born-here Americans affected by drastic measures. If we measured “Christian nation” status by Micah 6:8 — doing justice, loving mercy, walking humbly — the scorecard gets uncomfortable fast.

Livingston isn’t asking anyone to hate America. He’s asking Christians to stop confusing patriotism with piety.

We can love this country and still admit it was never God’s country in the way the “Christian nation” myth wants us to believe. That myth lets us off the hook. The truth doesn’t.

If this hit close to home, you might also want to read our earlier piece on the most alarming challenges facing American Christianity right now — because a church more interested in comfort than confrontation will never produce a nation that looks like the Kingdom.

The call to action is simple: stop asking whether America is a Christian nation, and start asking whether you are living like citizens of one. That’s the only version of “Christian nation” the Bible ever promised.

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About Shawn Paul Wood

Shawn Paul Wood, Th.D., is an award-winning copywriter, contributor, and content strategist, and ghostwriter of several faith-based articles, speeches, columns, and books who has worked for some of the most admirable brands in their respective industries for over 20 years. As Founder of Woodworks Communications, he leads teams of content strategists and marketing professionals to expand the brands of corporate leaders, serial entrepreneurs, and respected ministers of the Gospel. He aims to help others develop self-discovery through stories and the written word to proclaim the Word to the world. For more information about his portfolio or help telling your story, visit WoodworksCommunications.com. You can read more about the author here.

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