Is America a Christian Nation?

Examining the Faith of the People Based on Survey Responses

In the Muslim world where I live, there is a widespread perception that “Christians have free sex.” America is perceived as sexually immoral, and America is perceived as the preeminent “Christian” nation; so it follows, from these perceptions, that Christianity is sexually immoral.

Whenever I encounter this viewpoint, I want to object. I want to say that America is neither as immoral, nor as Christian, as it may appear from the outside. I want to protest that the “Hollywood” lifestyle isn’t really representative of America, and that not all Americans are Christians in the first place—so it isn’t fair to tar Christians with that brush!

But whenever I respond this way, I have a nagging doubt. Is it quite true? Am I completely justified in distancing American Christians from the immoral behavior that Middle Easterners see in pop culture? Two-thirds of Americans identify as Christians. And pop culture must be pop culture because it is, well, popular, right?

Of course, in the final verdict, Christians in America, or anywhere else, do not have “free sex” because you cannot live that way and be a faithful Christian. Paul wrote to the Christians in sexually licentious Corinth, “Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”¹ This is clear enough.

How “Christian” is “Christian” America?

The question, then, is really this: what portion of Christians in America are authentically Christian? And what portion are only Christian in name?

I think it is possible to approximate an upper limit on the number of genuine Christians in a society because there are certain necessary (but not sufficient) criteria of being a true believer that are measurable. Perhaps the most measurable one is “just agreeing with the god you claim to believe in”—a Christian should agree with Christ.

Many people would bristle at the idea that they aren’t true Christians because they hold certain views. However, Jesus specially addressed those people. He said that his true followers are not those who call him “Lord,” but those who actually obey him.² Of course, Christianity is about the heart, and I’m not claiming to know any individual’s heart. But Jesus did say that words reveal the heart.³

Survey Data on Christianity, Sex & Morality

I am going to focus, then, on what Americans say about the issue that stands out to people in the Middle East: sexuality. There are two good reasons for using this as a delineator. First, because it provides measurable data. The Christian teachings about sexuality are generally clear, black-and-white directives, and opinion polls and surveys about sexuality are commonly accessible. Second, sexuality is an area where Christian teachings run counter to the culture at the moment. To get a clear picture of what you’re looking at, you have to focus on what makes it stand out from its surroundings, not on what it shares with its surroundings. With that in mind, let’s compare some basic Christian teachings on sexuality with the opinions of the American population.

Nonmarital Sex

Christianity clearly forbids sex outside of marriage. But a 2020 Pew survey indicated that only 33 percent of those who self-identify as Christians believe that casual nonmarital sex is “never” acceptable.⁴ Worse, the question specified clearly that it referred to casual sex, as opposed to sex between partners in a committed, nonmarital relationship. Seventeen percent said it is “rarely” acceptable, 32 percent said “sometimes” acceptable, and 18 percent said “always” acceptable. (I have to admit, I find those middle answers a bit perplexing. Apparently, almost half of professing Christians in the population think there are extenuating circumstances that make casual sex okay. But … such as what? A bad day at work?) Since self-identified Christians make up about two-thirds of the population, this translates to around 20 percent of the general population comprising Christians who agree with this basic teaching.

Lust

Jesus said that anyone who even looks lustfully at a woman has already committed adultery in his heart. That should preclude pornography. In a 2018 Gallup poll, about half of American men and about a third of women said that pornography use is “morally acceptable.”⁵ That’s not as bad as you might expect, right? But the reality looks worse if you look a bit closer. In a 2019 study that broke the answers down in more detail, only nine percent responded “Strongly Agree” to “I believe that pornography use is morally wrong,” compared with 33 percent who chose “Strongly Disagree.” Another 19 percent were neutral. Five percent responded “Agree” and eight percent “Somewhat Agree,” adding up to around 22 percent of the total population actually denouncing porn use.⁶

Divorce

Jesus stated repeatedly and in no unclear terms that divorce is morally unacceptable.⁷ Yet, according to the latest Gallup polls, 78 percent of Americans say that divorce is morally acceptable, leaving at most 22 percent who say it is unacceptable.⁸

The Underlying Worldview

Beliefs about sexuality stem from beliefs about the nature of reality and the meaning of human life. So what do Americans say they believe about that? A Pew survey conducted in 2017 about where Americans find meaning in life revealed that they were more likely to choose “caring for pets” and “listening to music” as sources of meaning than “your religious faith.”⁹ In the open-ended question portion of the survey, respondents were more likely to mention career or money than anything related to faith and spirituality. In my generation, ages 18–29, only 10 percent mentioned faith and spirituality (compared to 30 percent in the 65+ generation).

That’s the American dream, then: get enough money so you can come home from work each day, listen to music with your dog, and forget about the emptiness of life for a while. In fact, only 20 percent chose religion as the most important source of meaning in their lives. Even among self-identified Christians, it was only 29 percent.

C. S. Lewis said, “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” If you agree—and it’s hard to imagine how anyone could disagree, given the claims of Christianity—then that implies that less than a third of self-identified Christians in America actually believe in the whole thing, deep down.

The Verdict

If you review the above surveys, you will see a number emerge. Consistently, about one-fifth of Americans hold the views that a person who accepts Jesus as the ultimate authority on all matters would hold. It looks like roughly 20 percent of Americans—maybe 30 percent in the oldest generations and 10 percent in the youngest—are somewhat serious about being Christians. That is to say, they actually believe the words of Jesus enough to base their stated opinions on what he has said, rather than on what is culturallyin vogue. In other words, they adhere, at least as far as survey data can establish, to the religion of Christianity.

Of these people, some smaller percentage actuallyobey the teachings they affirm, and an unknowable percentage of those are Christians in the spiritual sense of having a mystical relationship with God through Jesus.

So to sum all this up, America is clearly not a nation of Christians. It is, unlike some nations, a nation with laws and a history that have been deeply influenced by the teachings of Christianity. It is, unlike some nations, a nation with a significant and active Christian minority. But it is not primarily a nation populated by Christians.

The Implications

Some people find comfort in the idea of living in a Christian nation. Well, the good thing about giving up false comforts is that it frees you to start learning to rely on true sources of comfort—which tend to provide a deeper and more lasting peace.

For there is a truth that is far more comforting than the idea of living in a Christian nation, if you believe it: If we Christians feel strange and foreign in our own nations, that is because we belong to a different place. There is a heavenly country, and we are all citizens there.

I live in Jordan, where about three to five percent of the population identifies as Christian. Some people worry that America may become that in the future. Maybe it will. But I can share some good news: I don’t think it is any more difficult to be a Christian here than in a “Christian” nation like America.

To be clear, it is sometimes less comfortable to identify as a Christian where I live. But as far as being one—actually living as a disciple of Jesus—I do not think that is more difficult to achieve here. Rather, it is more difficult to drift through life in comfort and complacency, forgetting that “we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one,” forgetting that we have a mission on this earth.¹⁰ And, because it is difficult to forget that, I have found it much easier to find a close-knit and serious Christian community in this country than I ever did in America.

If America became like Jordan, I don’t think that would mean that the Kingdom of God had failed. In fact, it would produce at least one major benefit—the nations of the world would no longer look to America to understand what Christianity is.

Jesus did not promise that our nations would be majority Christian, nor did he command us to try to make them so. On the contrary, he said quite clearly that only a minority of people would “enter through the narrow gate” to salvation.¹¹ Christianity is about giving up your life and your very self, and at the end of the day, most people simply do not want to do that.

What Jesus did promise is that, as we go and make disciples, he will be with us always, to the very end of the age. I think we should focus on that—and not worry about things he never told us to concern ourselves with.

Notes
1. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10.
2. Luke 6:46-49.
3. Matthew 12:34-37.
4. Jeff Diamant, “Half of U.S. Christians say casual sex between consenting adults is sometimes or always acceptable,” Pew Research Center (August 31, 2020).
5. Andrew Dugan, “More Americans Say Pornography Is Morally Acceptable,” Gallup (June 5, 2018).
6. Joshua B. Grubbs, Shane W. Kraus, and Samuel L. Perry, “Self-reported addiction to pornography in a nationally representative sample: The roles of use habits, religiousness, and moral incongruence,” Journal of Behavioral Addictions 8.1 (March 1, 2019).
7. Matthew 5:31-32, 19:3-12; Mark 10:2-12; Luke 16:18.
8. Jeffrey M. Jones, “Fewer in U.S. Say Same-Sex Relations Morally Acceptable,” Gallup (June 16, 2023).
9. “Where Americans Find Meaning in Life,” Pew Research Center (November 20, 2018).
10. 1 John 5:19.
11. Matthew 7:13-14.