The Curious Phenomenon of Ecclesia Americana

From its inception, the church has grown and thrived under persecution. Beginning with the dispersion from Jerusalem following the stoning of Stephen, the spread of the Gospel has been concurrent with the intense persecution of its messengers. From Jerusalem onward, every historic expression of the church has owed its origin, its growth, and its vitality to persecution. "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church," one of the early Fathers observed.

The one glaring exception is the phenomenon I refer to as Ecclesia Americana. The church in America is an historical anomaly, born not out of persecution, but out of the desire to avoid persecution. The New World promised a paradise on earth for the various bands of dissenters who fled the Established Church of their homeland. But with this desire for religious freedom came an accompanying disdain for ecclesiastical authority which took root early on and quickly trickled down to the parish level.

The bitter fruit of this poisonous seed is seen today in the chaotic state of mainline American churches. The autonomy of the individual is an error most often associated with the churches of Anglican descent. However, this contrary spirit appears to have taken hold quite early among churches of Continental origin, as well. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg (1711-1787), a pastor in colonial Pennsylvania who is celebrated as "the Patriarch of American Lutheranism," gives this account in his Journals of his reception by one curious parishioner soon after his arrival in America.

When I preached my first sermon in the country upon my arrival in Pennsylvania, an aged man came up to me and said with amazed wonder on his face, "Dear Pastor, I felt just as though I was listening to the dear God in heaven Himself." In the meantime I learned a little more about his life, and when, after the second service, he again declared to my face that it had been like hearing an angel from heaven, I took him aside and urgently besought him to leave off his sinful, disorderly life and surrender with his whole heart to the Lord Jesus, the true friend of repentant sinners, and thus find peace for his soul. I had hardly given him this advice when he burst out, "Who is this devil's priest to give me advice? This is a free country!"

The seeds of rebellion in Ecclesia Americana were planted early and have sprouted often.