The Need for “More Truly Christian” Christianity

In a recent interview published by the New York Times, Jonathan Rauch—journalist, author, and fellow of the Brookings Institution—was asked for his thoughts on the impact of Christianity on American democracy (December 18, 2024). Rauch observed that the American founding fathers relied on the religious values of the people—in particular, the values the founders saw in Christianity—to help make the secular American Constitution work. “It turns out that Christianity is a load bearing wall in democracy,” he said, “and the founders told us that. They didn’t specify that you have to be a Christian per se. But they said that our liberal, secular Constitution… relies on virtues, like truthfulness and lawfulness and the equal dignity of every individual.” He further stated that “once Christianity begins caving in, people begin looking other places for their sources of values. They go to wokeness or QAnon or MAGA, and those turn out to be not the kinds of values that you can use to underpin a democracy. And that’s the situation that we seem increasingly stuck in.” These thoughts are poignant because, even as an atheist, Rauch can see the powerful benefit that many biblical values provide to a society that embraces them. As Rauch observed, “what really needs to happen to get our country on a better track is for Christianity not to become more secular or more liberal, but to become more like itself, to become more truly Christian.”

Rauch is right about the need for Christianity to “become more truly Christian.” But neither Rauch nor the Christianity of the world knows what it is to be more truly Christian. The nations that call themselves Christian need to be reeducated to better understand what true Christianity is and is not. God’s word, the Bible, lays out the misunderstood truths about real Christianity with clarity and simplicity. Democracy is a form of government created by men in the hopes of developing a peaceful and productive society. But despite the successes credited to it, democracy is not the governmental structure outlined in the Bible—and Christianity today is not the Christianity of the Bible. You can learn more about what Christianity is missing today by reading or listening to Restoring Original Christianity.