Quotes of the Day

Here's a thought experiment. Let's say an opinion pollster, make it the Pew Research Center, surveys 820 Muslim-Americans and asks the following question: "Do you think of yourself first as American or as Muslim?" If 42% of them answered "Muslim first," how heated would the discussion on talk radio get?

Well, you can relax — that particular controversy isn't about to erupt. Pew did not canvas American Muslims. (Though a Pew pollster did say, "We're very interested in that!" so look out). What Pew actually did over two weeks in May was ask 820 self-identifying American Christians "Do you think of yourself first as American or as Christian?" And in this case, 42% of Christians did actually answer "Christian first." Another 48% answered "American first," while 7% ducked and said they thought of themselves as both.

Not surprisingly, the "Christian first" response emanated disproportionately from self-identified Evangelicals, 62% of whom said "Christian first." By contrast, the figures for other major Christian sectors were nearly reversed, with 62% of Catholics and 65% of Mainline Protestants saying "American first".

To some, the 42% "Christian first" number will seem a shocking bit of data. It certainly seems to be a new one. As far as Pew knows and I have been able to determine, nobody ever asked the "Christian or American?" question before. Perhaps that's because it's divisive on the face of it, almost un-American: why should anyone have to choose between his faith and his nationality? Doesn't the very query assume some sort of nefarious loyalty test, or hint at a fifth-column movement? And what would be the criteria for choosing? Why are you taking us down this road?

Pew actually mulled the offensiveness factor. The question had originated as a measure for Islamic attitudes, in other countries (that was, in fact, the inspiration for my opening fantasia). In that context it seems, if not intuitive, then probably justified by current headlines. The U.S. was, well, another question. Scott Keeter, the organization's Director of Survey Research, remembers, "We were really worried that lot of people would say 'none of your business' or 'this is a terrible question to ask.' But, he reports, "We didn't get any of that." People apparently found it completely legit.

One conclusion you might draw from the apparent willingness to go eeny, meeny with one's sympathies is that the separation of church and state is alive and well. All you liberals who worry that you live in an age when Christianity and patriotism have become inextricably intertwined? You can stop worrying. Most Americans polled could not only distinguish church from state, but were quite comfortable explaining where their primary allegiance lay. On the other hand, depending on how secular you're feeling, you might wonder about the possible implications of that 42%.

Let's look a superficially similar case. As I mentioned, Pew posed the "do you think of yourself first..." question to Muslims in a number of nations. Predictably, the percentage who said "Muslim first" was highest in Pakistan (87%) and high in Jordan (67%). Interestingly, in Turkey, where the state harped for decades on secularization but is now run by moderate Islamists, the "Muslim first" number is 51%, with 19% saying "Turkish first" and the rest taking a bye. Ominously, the country after Pakistan that showed the highest "Muslim first" percentage was Great Britain.

But the country that came closest to the American outcome was France, where 46% of the Muslims polled answered "Muslims first" and 42% chose "French first." Was this a healthy result? You may recall that France experienced weeks of rioting in its majority-Muslim slums last year.

Cross-cultural comparisons are odious, of course. The rioting French Muslims were largely poor, unemployed immigrants or the children of immigrants, familiar with anti-Arab stigma and no doubt aware that the number of fellow-believers in the French Assembly could be counted on one hand — with fingers left over. By contrast, the American Christians who responded "Christian first" are probably employed and ethnically unalienated (to put it politely). Far from being disenfranchised, they are an increasingly powerful voting bloc who — when they wanted to see their views better represented — elected and then re-elected a President.

What I found most curious about the poll was what people in such a relatively enviable position might have been thinking when they responded so naturally to Pew's seemingly impolite question. What scripture or mental scenarios made it so easy to distinguish and choose between their two identifications?

So I called Albert Mohler, president of the 16-million member Southern Baptist Convention's Southern Theological Seminary and thus one of Evangelicalism's most influential theologians. He told me "It's simple."

"Our primary allegiance is to Jesus Christ," he explained, "and we are known... for our citizenship in the Kingdom of God rather than any earthly polity, and that is a clear and unambiguous teaching in the New Testament." Mohler is not a great colloquialist, but, as you might expect, he has an extremely well-developed and internally consistent worldview. The Apostle Paul, he pointed out, at one point refers to Christians as "resident aliens."

Well, that was then... But where, I asked, might a contemporary Christian's interest diverge from an American's? "By God's providence," Mohler said, "we are not to the point where we have to debate the legitimacy of the regime. We are not yet in the position of the confessing church in the Nazi regime." Not yet?!? "There are some tension points," Mohler replied, "... with the structure of law having to do with issues like abortion and marriage. I can foresee the day when Christians would have to constitute an adversary culture."

I wondered whether Mohler meant civil disobedience. "Christians have to think carefully and clearly as to how to be faithful," he said. "It could lead to civil disobedience. It could lead to the acceptance of the [civil] penalty. In the history of Christianity it has led to martyrdom." He laughed. "I'm not jumping there," he said. I told him he had jumped. He replied that martytrdom was not something that currently applied. He also noted that Christians on the more liberal side of the spectrum might feel as he does, but about questions of war and non-violence.

I asked whether secular Americans might not fear (rightly or wrongly) that the 42% favored theocracy. Mohler gently pulled me back from the majority paradigm to the minority paradigm: the caricature would have to be sedition, he explained, or at least "concern about persons in their midst who have a higher allegiance than is understood by the secular Americans to be the basis of the cultural contract."

I thought about that phrase "than is underestood by secular Americans to be the basis of the cultural contract." It reminded me that for a percentage of the population, the Declaration of Independence and Constitution have additional, divine signatories; and that if you take it seriously — and they do — it lends a whole new meaning to the term Original Intent.

Finally, I brought up France. Not the rioting part; just that its "Muslim first" numbers were roughly comparable to America's "Christian first" figures. Mohler picked up the gauntlet.

"This is anecdotal," he said conversationally, "but in recent weeks there have been a number of stories in the British press about British Muslims and youth being more committed to Islam than to Britain. And I looked at all that outrage and thought, 'what in the world does it say about Christians in Great Britain that they appear so perplexed by this? You would certainly have to hope that Christians in Britain would understand that they, too would have a higher allegiance than to Crown and kingdom."

It sounds like tolerance, but it's not — since the allegiances are to two different Gods. It's something else, a common meta-citizenship upholding the primacy of theology, held by theologically opposed parties. A meta-citizenship it turns out I'm not interested in holding.

So I guess I'll go buy myself an "American First" bumper sticker. Who knew I was such a patriot?

• DAVID VAN BIEMA
• When asked to choose, 42% of American Christians polled pulled no punches, which raises all sorts of questions in a country built on the separation of church and state