I rarely repeat posts here, but I think this old one (2011) is worth posting again.<\/p>\n
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I\u2019ve become increasingly concerned that many American Christians (and perhaps especially evangelicals) confuse patriotism with nationalism to the extent that idolatry lurks close by.<\/span><\/p>\n \n<\/p> Patriotism is love for one\u2019s country without blinders about its flaws and defects.\u00a0 Patriotism seeks to actualize the highest and best ideals of one\u2019s country which can sometimes look like disloyalty to nationalists.\u00a0 Nationalists tend to confuse \u201ccountry\u201d with \u201cgovernment\u201d and reject as disloyal all criticism of either.\u00a0 However, criticism of the government can be patriotric.\u00a0 In fact, in America patriotism should be constructively critical toward government.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Nationalism is patriotism on steroids; it is patriotism degenerated into jingoism and chauvinism.\u00a0 It is near idolatry of country and often appears in mixing celebration of nation with worship of God.\u00a0 Patriotism thanks God for the good of one\u2019s country and asks God to \u201cmend its every flaw.\u201d\u00a0 Patriotism is honest about the country\u2019s failures and urges leaders to push on toward better achievements of its founding ideals.\u00a0 Nationalism rejects all criticism of country as almost (if not exactly) treason.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Christians ought carefully to avoid nationalism while embracing true patriotism (unless, as is the case with some Anabaptists, even that violates conscience).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n An example of nationalism is belief in \u201cAmerican exceptionalism.\u201d\u00a0 That is the belief that because America is peculiarly God chosen and called it can, as a national state, do virtually anything with a presumption of innocence.\u00a0 It is not accountable to anyone or anything except God.\u00a0 The problem, of course, is that nobody has a direct line to God\u2013not the president or the judges of the Supreme Court or any elected or appointed official.\u00a0 American exceptionalism can be used to\u00a0justify all kinds of violations of international norms and standards of decent conduct.\u00a0 It is most often used to justify violations of just war theory.\u00a0 Nationalists hold the rest of the world to a different standard than America.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Patriotism regards America as a gift from God and thanks God for it, but it equates \u201cAmerica\u201d with ideals such as freedom of religion, freedom of expression and equal justice for all.\u00a0 It is realistic in knowing that government and society do not always live up to those ideals.\u00a0 When patriots wave the flag they are fully aware that it symbolizes and represents wonderful ideals and not every decision and actions government makes.\u00a0 When nationalists wave the flag they are using it as an idol to sanctify whatever America does.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There may seem to be a fine line between patriotism and nationalism, but actually the line is not so fine at all.\u00a0 There\u2019s a clear litmus test for distinguishing between them.\u00a0 Patriotism looks to the future and hopes for and works toward the country\u2019s achievement of its ideals.\u00a0 Nationalism looks to the past and defends everything the country has ever done as necessarily good and right just because the country did it.\u00a0 Thus, patriotism loves the country for what it can be; nationalism loves the country for what it has done\u2013regardless 0f morality.\u00a0 Nationalism exempts country from moral accountability; patriotism holds country morally accountable because it loves it.<\/span><\/p>\n An example of nationalism was when an influential pastor and founder of a denomination said on national television (to a news reporter) that anyone who criticized America\u2019s invasion of Iraq was a traitor.\u00a0 An example of patriotism is when attorney Joseph Welch asked Senator Joe McCarthy publicly \u201cHave you no sense of decency?\u201d at great risk to himself.<\/span><\/p>\n \n<\/p> Idolatry is such a subtle and seductive force (nobody ever thinks they are engaging in it!) that Christians ought always to be on guard against it.\u00a0 It is best to steer clear and wide of it.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I prefer not to have a national flag in any worship space.\u00a0 While it might not constitute idolatry, it presents that possibility.\u00a0 Too many people even in Christian churches do treat the national flag as an idol.\u00a0 One \u201cgood Christian man\u201d I know threatened violence to anyone who removed the flag from the church\u2019s sanctuary.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I once accidently attended a \u201cGod and Country\u201d church service on the Sunday closest to July 4.\u00a0 This was the largest church in that state and it was widely known as evangelical even though I would classify it as neo-fundamentalist.\u00a0 (At least some of its leaders clearly belonged in that category even if the lead pastor did not.)\u00a0 The entire Sunday morning worship service was given over to militaristic displays of nationalism with color guards marching down the aisles to the orchestra playing the anthems of branches of the military.\u00a0 All the songs sung were \u201cpatriotic hymns.\u201d\u00a0 I sensed that what was really being worshiped that Sunday morning in that place was not God but country.\u00a0 God was barely mentioned and then only to sanction the nation\u2019s special status as most favored among all the nations.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I love a good patriotic parade and concert.\u00a0 I always get a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye when I hear the Star Spangled Banner and see the flag waving in the breeze.\u00a0 I love my country and thank God I was privileged to be born here.\u00a0 But none of that means I must uncritically accept whatever its government decides to do or every aspect of its culture and society.\u00a0 Nor does it mean I must think it is the only God-favored nation on the planet or that it has a unique place in God\u2019s providential plan for history.\u00a0 Like all human societies it is not \u201cthe City of God\u201d but another expression of the \u201cCity of Man.\u201d\u00a0 As a Christian, my primary citizenship is in God\u2019s Kingdom yet to come (but hopefully already being anticipated in the communion of the saints).\u00a0\u00a0 My loyalty to country is subordinate to that.\u00a0 Too many Christians equate the two\u2013country and God\u2019s kingdom.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I rarely repeat posts here, but I think this old one (2011) is worth posting again. I\u2019ve become increasingly concerned that many American Christians (and perhaps especially evangelicals) confuse patriotism with nationalism to the extent that idolatry lurks close by. Patriotism is love for one\u2019s country without blinders about its flaws and defects.\u00a0 Patriotism seeks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n