Thoughts on Patriotism

This morning I am fresh off the Patriot’s Conference and Ball held here in southwestern Virginia. It was a great event. The speakers did a fabulous job. And, it reminded me concerning some things I have been thinking for a long while – about patriotism that is.

Patriotism seems to have a distinctive meaning. It is difficult to think of a synonym. For instance, ‘loyalty’ does not exactly capture the heart of what patriotism is. Love of country is closer, but, ‘love of country’ is not one word and so cannot be a synonym for anything (Do I have my English correct here? I think I do). Patriotism may be better understood by living among the people of a land, loving what they love and hating what they hate. Nobody believes their country is right all the time but almost everybody thinks themselves patriotic to some measure. Some of us bleed it out on our lapels and bumpers while others are more quiet. Barely anybody wants to burn the flag.

It does seem to me however, that we conservative Christians have gotten our loyalties, and with them our patriotism, more than a little confused. We have forgotten the sweet scent of our native land, who our true King is, and what our citizenship requires. The apostle Peter reminds us, ‘you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a people set at liberty, that you should show forth the virtues of Him that hath called you out of darkness into marvelous light’. This language about a royal priesthood and a holy nation was not original with Peter. He was quoting an Old Testament description of national Israel. So, here we are looking at a nationalistic claim for the church thousands of years old. Yet we, like they, find ourselves pledging loyalties we ought not pledge to entities (God’s really) we ought not worship. And, yes, truth be known, our American patriotism sometimes does find its closest synonym in the word worship.

Many of us, for instance, will drip some tears at the singing of our national anthem. Few of us will leak any tears at the singing of the anthems of the Christian nation. What anthems of the Christian nation? are you asking? Well, there are lots of them. Onward Christian Soldiers comes to mind or The Son of God Goes Forth to War, A Mighty Fortress and plenty of others, maybe all of them if we think about it. We do not believe we have anthems because we do not understand we are a true nation. But, of course, our own Scriptures (what better constitution?) disagrees. We are a nation. Our modern theology has just caused us to forget about it.

To their shame, many of our churches display their idolatrous patriotism boldly. I see them as I roll down the roads here. There, in their front lawns, will stand two flag poles. The tallest carries an American flag while the shorter displays the Christian flag. The amazing thing about this symbolism is that the church thinks nothing of it. We all understand the better kingdom should fly its flag higher. And so the very church of Christ acknowledges to the watching world, that the civil government here is to be respected above the eternal nation of Christ. So, why exactly do we believe those Old Testament idol worshippers were so foolish?

For Christian Culture,

Don Schanzenbach