\u201cHow can this not be a form of idolatry?,\u201d <\/span>asked our friend John Fea<\/span><\/a>, about a Christian worship service last month that included flag-waving, indoor fireworks (!), and patriotic songs that made little or no mention of God. The church was First Baptist of Dallas, Texas, whose pastor, Robert Jeffress, went on to share the Kennedy Center stage with Pres. Trump at last weekend\u2019s <\/span>Celebrate Freedom Rally<\/span><\/a>. \u201cMillions of Americans,\u201d claimed Jeffress, \u201cbelieve that [Trump\u2019s victory] represented God giving us our next chance, perhaps our last chance, to make America great again.\u201d (I wonder if Jeffress has read the most famous sermon by his most famous predecessor in the pulpit of First Baptist. In a 1920 address from the steps of the U.S. Capitol, on \u201cBaptists and Religious Liberty<\/a>,\u201d George W. Truett strongly affirmed the separation of church and state, contrasting it to the \u201cincomparable apostasy\u201d of Constantinian Christianity, \u201cthe most baneful misalliance that ever fettered and cursed a suffering world.\u201d)<\/p>\n As if that wasn\u2019t bad enough, Trump\u2019s\u00a0campaign slogan then became the basis for an anthem<\/a> sung by the First Baptist choir. This is how far we\u2019ve fallen:\u00a0singing songs of Babylon as if they were songs of Zion<\/a>.<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZVBpMC6HxBc&feature=youtu.be&t=2h24m38s<\/p>\n I don\u2019t think idolatry is the wrong word here, nor that it\u2019s an isolated danger. As\u00a0Americans\u00a0went to church this Independence Day weekend, I doubt that many\u00a0of us experienced patriotism that naked. But we probably came closer than usual to conflating love of God and love of country.<\/p>\n In <\/span>a 2016 Lifeway survey<\/span><\/a>, almost nine in ten Protestant pastors said their churches do something different for the Sunday before July 4th. About two in three added patriotic music, and slightly smaller majorities recognized military veterans and military families. A third added some other kind of ceremony. (Indoor fireworks doesn\u2019t seem to have been an option.) Altogether, 61% said it\u2019s important to celebrate America in some such fashion on that Sunday, with the number much higher among Pentecostals (82%), Baptists (67%), and older ministers (78%).<\/span><\/p>\n To an extent, I\u2019m sympathetic. At the Iowa church I was visiting two days ago, I sat next to a National Guard family for whom patriotism is no abstract ideal. I joined them in singing \u201c<\/span>Eternal Father, Strong to Save<\/span><\/a>,\u201d the military hymn that prays for the safety of the soldiers, sailors, and others who risk their lives for our security. For example, when we asked God to \u201chear us when we cry to Thee \/ For those in peril on the sea,\u201d my thoughts turned to my cousins who have served in the Navy. (One did not survive his peril and <\/span>now rests in a military cemetery<\/span><\/a> not far from my home.)<\/span><\/p>\n But praying \u201cYour children shield in danger\u2019s hour\u201d is one thing. I simply couldn\u2019t bring myself to sing one of the preceding songs. For if \u201c<\/span>My Country, \u2018Tis of Thee<\/span><\/a>\u201d belongs <\/span>in Christian worship<\/span><\/a> at all, it\u2019s certainly not while partaking of Communion!<\/span><\/p>\n Among its many layers of meaning, that sacrament reminds us that we belong to the transnational Body of Christ, to the \u201choly catholic [universal] church\u201d that we had just professed in the Apostles\u2019 Creed. That community, and not this or any nation, is \u201cGod\u2019s chosen people\u201d (<\/span>Col 3:12<\/span><\/a> NIV \u2014\u00a0one of our texts for the morning).<\/span><\/p>\n Pastors, if you\u2019re planning a patriotic worship service tomorrow, you still have 24 hours to change your mind.<\/p>\n \u2014 Matt Smethurst (@MattSmethurst) July 1, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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