I am a student of history, and especially medieval and Roman history. A few weeks ago I posted a blog about similarities between Britain under the Roman Empire and American Christianity. Today I wanted to take that comparison a bit further and look at comparisons of Rome right before the fall of the empire and America today, especially where it comes to religion. Much of this comes from “How the Irish Saved Civilization” page 29.
The Roman Empire was being pressed by floods of immigrants who were largely staying in their own groups and not being integrated, or welcomed, into Roman society (Mexico?). The Bureaucracy of the government focused on keeping themselves in office and afloat more than helping people. Military service became avoided by the elite (Clinton, Bush, etc) and shunned as a lower job by the rest (if you can’t go to college you can always join the army).
The army became mainly immigrants and not Romans (our army is disproportionately minority) and the standards for acceptance in the army were reduced (we have lowered our standards several times just since invading Iraq). Also, towards the end the army became dominated by hired mercenaries (Blackwater Company in Iraq anyone?). The amount that the government was spending on defense increased dramatically until the government could not sustain the infrastructure and taking care of its people (we spend over 50% of our taxes on defense I believe, and have cut schooling, and infrastructure to do so).
There was a big emphasis on the past instead of the future, they kept claiming old values as being alive today (sounds like the moral stuff we’re dealing with now by calling on what the founding fathers did like we practice it today) and legislating that while living in complete opposition to what they are claiming (think governor Spitzer, chasing prostitution rings but in reality using them).
The population was losing its middle class and 
either being extremely rich or extremely poor (middle class is dying off here too, think inner city). Those rich became the true deciding people in making things happen (Bill Gates recently approached congress with an idea and got it passed basically that day, while most things take months or years to go through). The people passed lots of laws that didn’t really effect anyone but sounded great (think making marriage one man and one woman only).
Order became the thing to keep, not justice (like renovating inner cities without helping those who live there but just kicking them out, CIA interrogation, or ignoring Darfour because it isn’t us). Religiously, the people had been Christian for centuries and it was assumed that people were believers just because they were Roman (ding). Attendance in church diminished, and involvement in church became the role of the pastor only (we are seeing the same thing right now).
The priesthood was raking in money at the expense of their people (prosperity preachers, televangelists, etc). The Church had become a political entity as much or more than a spiritual one (think James Dobson, the Christian Coalition and special interest groups). The Church became linked with the state, with priests preaching about the Roman Empire and preserving its’ glory more than the preaching the gospel (see most Fourth of July services in most churches here, or September Eleventh remembrances. The Church began to rely on the state for its’ support, purpose, and guidance (the big thing right now is making sure we follow the State’s guidelines in order to not have to pay our taxes).
The Church also became very turned inward, looking towards the Christians in its’ country as being the true church and everyone else around the world was a second class Christian (why else would we consider all other places in the world “missionary” work except here if we didn’t honestly consider America the heartland and center of Christianity). Preserving the Church in Rome became more pressing than getting more Christians outside of its’ realm (think about how much more money we spend on “church growth” books and plans for locally sustaining ministry than we spend on people outside of our nation).
There are many more analogies that can be made, and it’s scary. But I don’t have time, and you don’t have patience to read it I’m sure. Suffice to say, Christianity in America is in trouble, America is in trouble, if the analogies hold up in the long haul. I don’t know if there is a simple solution to it, but there is a first step. We are acting like Rome, thinking that Christian and American are the same thing, and being American means we’re a better Christian. We need to get over ourselves. I love my nation, but my God is bigger than any nation. Christianity flourishes where the people live it out, not where it is legislated, or where it is politically powerful, or even where it is allowed. We don’t need our nation to be Christian, and we need to start acting like that, like we are Christian first, American second, not the other way around.
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