America is not the new Israel.

I was bored Sunday night so I went to College Group with a friend. It was fun, and not too college-y. It definitely was a younger crowd than I'm used to, though.

At the end of the night, I had a lovely just-behind-the-eyes headache and I just wanted to go home and go to bed. So, I told my friend and she said, "Sure, let's go." I got my stuff and went to find her. She was in the kitchen, talking to one of the young guys that attends (young=18). She was asking him what church he was attending. He answered vaguely and then mumbled something about "many churches". So my friend asked, "Which ones?" and he hung his head. Here it was-- we'd come down to it. "Do you want to know the truth?" he asked.

The three of us in earshot nodded.

"I'm afraid to tell you because you'll judge me."

We rolled our eyes and told him to just tell us.

"I haven't been to church in eight years."

Now, none of us leapt on him. None of us lashed out in "righteous" anger. We simply asked, "Why?"

At first he said it was because he works on Sundays. Then it was because his dad stopped going. And then because of the hypocrisy in the church. As we asked more questions, his reasons got deeper and angrier.

We spoke to him of scriptural mandates, of fellowship, of ordinances, of service. All the reasons why he needs to be in a church and not just getting his spiritual meals from College Group. But he kept asking silly questions, side-tracking us, creating hypothetical situations for us to address, and putting up straw men that he could knock down.

Finally I said to him, "Look, the bottom line is that if you don't want to go to church, you're going to find reasons not to go. So the ultimate question is: what don't you like about church?"

He couldn't answer. Or wouldn't.
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Yesterday, one of our coaches was giving a little morning devotional and he was talking about how we need to get this country "back to its Christian roots". He used the verse that everyone uses, 2 Chronicles 7:14, "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." He used it to say that we as Americans can get back our status as a Christian nation if we just follow these simple steps.

Now, I don't care what you say about the Founding Fathers, this is NOT and never was a "Christian Nation". Sure, we were founded on "Judeo-Christian principles", but that doesn't make us a Christian nation anymore than putting Bible verses on my desserts make them Christian cupcakes. A nation can't be Christian. Sorry. And when we equate Christianity with American patriotism, we do the Gospel a disservice. We imply that the verses we quote apply to America. But they don't. They apply to the church. And the church is universal.

But there's a bigger problem with this mindset, and it's one that relates back to the young man not going to church. It's the idea that if we can just get people to behave a certain way, we can "reattain" status as a Christian nation, and then we'll be on the right track.  But let me clear something up for you: this world, the United States of America included, is under the dominion of Satan.

Regardless of how ethically we can get people to behave with our gun rights campaigns and our laws banning gay marriage, all we're doing in those cases is sending people to Hell feeling good about themselves.

Because behavior modification will never change anyone's heart. And if we focus on good behavior, we miss the point of the Gospel.

If we're concerned about getting people into our churches, or preventing the gay agenda from entering our public schools, or allowing students to wear an American flag t-shirt at school, then we're forgetting that what these people really need is Jesus.

Now, I'm not saying that we shouldn't stand up for what's right. Absolutely we should. But expecting the world to act like Christians is ridiculous. Because they're not.

Maybe we should start acting like Christians and then people would, "see your good works and glorify our Father in Heaven."