Render Unto Caesar

“Show me the money for the tax.” And they brought him a coin.  And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”  Matthew 22:19-22

Much has been made recently of the notion that America is, or should be a Christian Nation.  At the risk of sounding anti-American, I intend to show that we are not and have never been that.  You may doubt it if you like, but I love my country and am grateful to have been born in a land where we are free to worship God, can live in safety, and have the comforts of plenty of food, clean water, electricity and heat, access to education.  However, from a Biblical perspective, I have come to learn that we are not what some have aspired to be, and we have never been.

I am going to start by examining the cause of the Revolution.  Next I will look at the driving principle our nation was founded upon: freedom.  I believe Americans have interpreted this concept exactly the opposite from the Biblical principle of freedom.  And lastly, I will look at how we have lived out our faith over the centuries, specifically in regards to slavery and race relations.  This is not to say that there are no Christians in this country, but that the US was not, is not and should not be a “Christian Nation”. 

The driving reason for the American Revolution was “Taxation without Representation”.  If you google “causes of the American Revolution”, you get a list of taxes and incidents protesting taxes, such as the “Boston Massacre” or the Boston Tea Party.  It began with the French and Indian War and Parliament's subsequent array of taxes levied on the colonists to pay for the war that gave the colonies freedom from the dreaded French.  Jesus, however, did not ask whether Caesar had a right to levy taxes, whether the taxes were just or fair or whether the Jews had a vote in what they owed.  

If you read Romans 13, there is an expectation that the government is not evil.  Romans 13:4 “For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended.”  Paul, it seems, despite having lived through the terror of Caligula and Nero’s reigns, did not imagine a Stalin, Mao or Hitler-type regime where one could find oneself in jeopardy despite doing nothing wrong.  Therefore, standing up for one’s rights, or the rights of oppressed peoples (i.e. Jews in Nazi Germany), even to the extent perhaps of Bonhoeffer participating in a plot on Hitler’s life could be contemplated, in my opinion.  Admittedly, that is reading between the lines a bit.  

The justification for the American Revolution was completely against Jesus’ teachings.  By comparison, Canada was gradually granted more and more autonomy, becoming a self-governing nation within the British Empire in 1867 and gaining complete independence in 1982, without a single shot being fired in the cause of “independence”.  George III’s England was asking the American colonies to pay additional taxes to make up for the cost of the French and Indian War.  This was not an unreasonable request.  The colonists’ anger came from not having a voice in their government.  Honestly, if they’d had representatives in Parliament, the taxes almost certainly would have been enacted anyway.