A Christian nation?

Can San Jose be called a Christian city?

This week's bulletin from the Oratory mentioned the statue of Quetzalcoatl in downtown San Jose again. (I thought I had blogged about this last time I saw this in the bulletin, but I can't find the post. Oh wait, I found it. I don't know why a search with "Quetzalcoatl" didn't yield the proper result.)

How many of the city's Mexican(-American) (Chicano?) residents really identify with the statue? Perhaps those who favor their indigenous American (Aztec? Nahua?) heritage over their Spanish heritage--how many of those are really descended from the Aztecs, rather than from one the other peoples conquered, subjugated, or threatened by the Aztecs? Can we say that the majority of San Jose's residents are Christian, at least nominally--they self-identify as Christians, even if they do not practice? Is the same true of Cupertino? The San Francisco Bay Area as a whole? How about California? Or the United States?

In some parts of the United States, the Christian identity of the people may be rather strong. But what of the urban coastal areas? Or the big cities in the Midwest? In such areas, do the inhabitants identify Christmas more with Christ or with the secular, commercial holiday?

If "nation" in "Christian nation" means the country possesses only one people with a single culture and identity, then I would argue that it is misleading to talk about the United States as a Christian nation.

Does the exaggerated notion on the part of Christians that they live in a Christian "nation," when in fact their locale is anything but Christian, hinder their self-understanding and their mission to evangelize? In a locale where Christians are a minority, should they seek official recognition of Christianity and Christian symbols just because they wrongly think of the United States as being a single nation-state with one dominant Christian identity that permeates the whole country?

Is it proper for Christians to vote for a Christian to be president? Daniel Larison has argued that this kind of identity politics is inevitable, even if it is deemed to be 'illegitimate' by those who advocate a secular rationalist approach to politics. But even if a Christian is voted into the White House, is everything he does at the White House of symbolic value for the rest of the country? Even if the United States were properly a federation of republics, would there be an uneasy tension between some sort of Federal identity and one's local identity? If the Federal Government is just the servant of the States, should we care so much how representative their residences are of the "Christian" character of the United States? Or would we be more concerned with their character and whether they live up to the Christianity they espouse?

What is the proper context of "See how these Christians love one another?" Does this mean that they loved their non-Christian neighbors less? Perhaps, in the sense that they may have associated with their non-Christian neighbors less, in so far as those non-Christians were deeply mired in sin and idolatry. Similarly, they have concentrated on building up their friendships with Christians (and maybe non-Christians who were still men of good will). If this is the witness that they offered in the early Church, it seems to be an example we should re-learn today. But if society at large (that is to say the local community) is hostile to Christianity, how should we who live in a supposed democracy deal with it? (It seems such political concerns may not have been relevant to Christians who lived in the Roman Empire before Christianity gained official toleration?)

Even if Christians live in a community with a strong Christian culture and identity, this is not something to be for granted. Rather that needs to be reappropriated each day, as each Christian, no matter what his station in life, seeks to unite himself to Christ more and more, and expressed.

This does not mean that there isn't a place for organizations and movement that focus on "national" issues -- some anti-Christian forces can only and must be combated at that level. But average Christians must relearn to devote their energies to their place and the people who live there. While we can do what we can to avoid the crass commercialism of the secular holiday season, we can strive to bring the Good News, of which Christmas is one moment and a strong symbol, to those around us.


Related links:
San Jose's Mysterious Monuments
Robert Graham Artist
Blanca Alvarado Quetzalcóatl
Official National MEChA Website
National Council of La Raza