The Way Past American Exceptionalism

Christian critics of the United States often have a point. The nation is guilty of many injustices and the promoters of American greatness often turn a blind eye to the enormities of American policy.

But what religious critics (at least) often miss is how they play into the hand of American exceptionalism. Here’s one recent example where a participant at Urbana 2015 refused to participate in communion because of the U.S.’s sins (I won’t even ask why a parachurch organization is administering a sacrament):

Urbana 2015 had opened a can of worms and started a very public conversation on race but that conversation was nowhere near finished. Divisions had been identified, but they were not brought together. Brokenness had been exposed, but it was not healed.

We needed to pray. Not for the persecuted Christians living in other countries, but for the persecuted people of color living right here in the United States of America. We needed to pray for the communities that had endured genocide, stolen lands, broken treaties, enslavement, Jim Crow laws, boarding schools, internment camps, segregation, deportation, and mass incarceration. We needed to pray for a country that, in its very Declaration of Independence, declares Native peoples to be “savages.” And in its Constitution literally defines “We the people” as white, land owning males. And to this very day, bases its legal precedent for land titles on the Doctrine of Discovery and the dehumanization of indigenous peoples. We needed to pray for the thousands of African American youth who had taken to the streets, like their parents and grandparents before them, proclaiming at the top of their lungs that their lives matter. We needed to pray for communities of color suffering from historical trauma due to the ethnic cleansing and slavery that expanded and built this nation. And we needed to pray for the trauma of our White American brothers and sister whose communities are living in complete denial of the horrific injustices and genocide that was enacted on their behalf. . . .

When you live in a country that believes in its own exceptionalism, it rarely lingers long on negative thoughts, feelings or experiences. Exceptionalism requires, even demands, celebration. And that is exactly what was happening. And I could not join in. I could not celebrate. My people are still suffering. My country is still in denial. And my brothers and sisters in Christ were closing the lid on the can of worms that is systemic racism in the United States and diverting their attention to persecution enacted by the “real” evil and “non-Christian” nations of the world.

Here’s the thing. If you hold the United States up to a Christian standard you are saying that the United States has a special relationship with God (like Israel’s) which means that the United States is exceptional among all the nations (like Israel). In other words, the celebrators and detractors of America share a similar view that the United States is great or should be. The former thinks it means the standard. The latter conclude the nation has fallen well short.

But if you think of the U.S. as just one nation among the many that have just as many problems with injustice and inequality, you can still criticize the nation’s wrongs. It just won’t keep you from communing with other Christians (preferably in church).

Let’s lower our expectations and think of the U.S. the way we think of Canada.

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