Becoming an American citizen in some ways parallels becoming a Christian – renewal, shedding the old, free, pledging allegiance to an idea, commitment to a way of life, and respect for the laws. The citizen and Christian alike must be willing, on a figurative level at least, to die for the ideas to which they pledge.
The first immigrants to form lasting communities on the continent that would become America were Europeans, mostly British. They brought their language, Christian faith, and customs. They brought a shared way of thinking based on British Common Law, Greek and Roman philosophy. They came to stay, to be free of the old – a Europe filled with war, famine, and religious persecution.
The British colonists did not come to conquer. They had economic goals. Early interactions and relationships with the Native Americans were mostly peaceful and friendly. However, things changed when the newcomers began competing for scarce food during droughts and taking up space on land that natives had used for other purposes. Ultimately, as Spaniards, French, Dutch, and more English came, fighting began and then wars. The sheer numbers would overcome the natives along with contagious diseases, like small pox. Africans would come mostly unwillingly as slaves between roughly 1619 and early 1800s.
Beginning with the settling of Jamestown, Virginia in 1607 and the landing of the Mayflower in 1620 at present day Cape Cod, Massachusetts, immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Greece, France as well as other countries across Eastern and Western Europe came to America for the idea she represented.
Immigration through most of American history meant starting a new life, without governmental programs. People may have tended to live in neighborhoods with immigrants from their nation of origin, but they learned the language, pledged allegiance to the flag, and integrated into the idea of America, followed the laws, and helped affirm respectable social mores.
Becoming an American, like becoming a Christian means something. It is costly, but the rewards are great. It does help any one to lower standards for becoming a Christian or an American. When we elevate those who come not to integrate but to undermine our country or faith, we do great harm to the good of the whole.