Independance Day

Patriotic holidays are always difficult for me. It is in these times, perhaps more than any that I feel estranged the most from America at large. In my family, these holidays were times for all my aunts, uncles, and cousins to get together at my grandparent’s farm for a cookout, some football, softball, and volleyball and to just spend time together. For my family, nationalistic pride was not on the menu for Independence Day, or Memorial Day, but instead, they functioned more as a sort of Thanksgiving. That’s not the only reason I feel disunity with most of America, though I’m sure the way I was raised does factor into the equation.

The way in which I understand Christianity, there is not much room for rampant patriotism or nationalism. I’m not saying that one cannot be happy, thankful, and proud of where they come from (though pride is perhaps difficult when one generally has very little choice over their citizenship), but I think it is difficult to give as much allegiance as the country leaders would hope for. It is difficult to give allegiance to a country when we have been baptized into a new, world-wide community and sworn fealty to a King which supercedes governments on Earth.

Nationalism is a very dangerous force, and it is in it’s nature to both draw together and divide. It is the part that divides people which makes me nervous. Nationalism draws together people like “me”, people who live in America, and though there is surely a lot of variation within America, I think we are more similar than different. But that same force causes us to drive others away. Nationalism places people into two different categories; American, and Not American. It is this divisive force which worries and upsets me.

While Nationalism holds its ground based on division, Christianity places all people into one group: God’s beloved. Christianity calls us to love those that are not like us, the tax collector, the prostitute, the Samaritan, the enemy. Jesus says in Matthew that anyone can love people that love them. Anyone can love a friend, but it takes God’s love to love an enemy, yet that is what we are called to do.

What makes me most uneasy is the marrying of nationalism and Christianity to the point where God is seen as America’s God to the exclusion of other peoples. This is often done unknowingly and inadvertently, but the danger still remains. For more thoughts on this topic, presented in a more complete way, read Lee Camp’s “Mere Discipleship”.