Last Friday, Tina and I are going to an Independence Day concert and fireworks show (they had one on the official day as well). An article in our denominational magazine last week got me to thinking about the concept of Christians and patriotism.
I am glad to be a citizen of the USA. I think, for a lot of reasons, that this is not only the greatest country on the planet right now, but perhaps ever.
But what is patriotism and how is that different than nationalism? A lot of Christians in Nazi Germany supported Hitler's evil regime because of their patriotism (thankfully, many did not).
American Evangelicals have no trouble criticizing our government's policy on abortion, but if a Christian speaks out against the war in Iraq, the same people will accuse him or her of a lack of patriotism. This is obviously inconsistent, but points to a deeper problem.
I think that many in our churches are Americans first and Christians second. Or maybe it's 1 and 1A. Oh, they would vehemently deny this, but their words and actions betray them.
Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world." Rather than encouraging people to be patriotic, perhaps we should spend more effort making sure they are fully-functioning members of the Kingdom of God.
Loving your country is fine, but let's not mix it with our love for God. They are not the same thing.
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