“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden” Matthew 5:14

— Gamble, R. M. (2012). In In search of the city on a hill: The making and unmaking of an American myth (pp. 1–7). essay, Continuum.

Christians look to this verse as a reminder that the church as God’s people should live in such a way that the world sees their works in God’s Name. It also reminds us that we unavoidably stand out for the world around us to see. These spiritual truths are important to remember, but American civil religion has attached a separate meaning to this phrase “a city set on a hill”. Richard Gamble begins his book with this verse and spends the remaining page elaborating on how this Biblical phrase came to enamor America.

Gamble went on to say a few pages later. “The city on a hill’s journey from biblical metaphor to nationalist myth, and the rise of the Model of Christian Charity to canonical status with the American Scripture, raises fundamental questions about the American civil religion” (p7). This civil religion refers to the beliefs and values of a nation’s people in regards to their nation’s image. There are certain things expected of those citizens in belonging to that nation.

Ultimately, this phrase carries more weight in influencing our nation’s civil religion and our nation’s behavior than it seems to do for churches. God did not give a promise to America that it would be an inspired nation. Like all nation’s, we have a role to play in bringing about God’s providence, but it is the church that is the true city on a hill. Let us turn back to Biblical application. If we as a nation would do that, we would have our best chance at being a city set on a hill.

“Race is the part of the human experience in which American schoolchildren are most painstakingly instructed. Their studies of literature, of war, of civics, are all subordinated to it”

— Caldwell, C. (2021). In The age of entitlement: America since the sixties (p. 10). essay, Simon Schuster.

Here, Caldwell was building on work by Derrick Bell in which he “described the quarter-century after the Supreme Court’s school desegregation decision Brown v Board of Education of Topeka (1954) as ‘the greatest racial consciousness-raising the country has ever known.'”

Civil rights legislation had ostensibly sought to eradicate racism as it existed in modern society, at least in practice. Racists might carry the feelings in their minds and emotions, but they would not be permitted to express it in their daily life in relation with others in society. This appeared noble and righteous as it addressed actual offenses of one human against another based solely on race. No one can deny the existence of racism in the history of human nor in the present day in which we live. Still, this legislation was mean to level the playing field so that all would be treated equally.

This quote uncovers a dirty little secret however. Rather than eradicating racism and leading all to be color-blind, race has become one of the defining factors of life in society. Children are bathed in the fact of race in all their subjects. Rather than hearing that a person did such and such, they usually get a racial descriptor added. That descriptor may be used to describe why that person chose to do such and such. That descriptor may be used to describe the effects of such and such on another race. Regardless, race becomes a seemingly necessary part of any lesson.

Rather than becoming color-blind to race, children are taught to see everything in full color in order to understand the world. They are now possibly more aware of their differences than their similarities. This seems counterproductive to becoming one people under God. Christians can do better than this.