I’m going to interrupt my series on Latin America for a few days. I want to talk about something that has surfaced recently in several arenas that I interact with.
In the comments section on something I posted on Facebook, one friend commented that he knew of no “conservative patriots” that approach their patriotism in an idolatrous way. I found that comment intriguing and have spent much time thinking about it.
I should say that there are some that are openly idolatrous in their worship of country. A good example is Mark Stevens’ article “I spell God with stars and stripes.” But I don’t know if idolatry is always as easily seen as in that case.
Think about when Paul said that greed is idolatry. Or when Jesus said that you can love God or love money, but that you can’t serve both, that you can’t serve two masters. Aren’t they addressing a form of false worship in which the idolater doesn’t even recognize his idolatry? Isn’t it possible to fall into the worship of something without realizing it?
Countries beg to be worshipped. They couch things in religious terms. Battlefields became “hallowed ground.” Deaths become “sacrifice.” To mistreat a flag is to “desecrate it.” Patriotic ceremonies are performed with silence and solemnity; placing your hand over your heart is common. All of this ritual is designed to instill feelings of devotion, to create a religious feel to what is done.
It becomes worse where religion and patriotism are easily mingled. “God and country.” Bibles wrapped in flags, or the text of the Bible included in a book called The Patriot’s Bible. It reaches a point to where many well-meaning Christians will assert that patriotism is a duty of the Christian.
In Peter Leithart’s book Between Babel and the Beast, he writes:
America became an agent not of God’s kingdom but an instrument for the spread of American institutions and American culture, and there was a tendency to see America ‘basking in [God’s] permanent favor.’ … Throughout American history, orthodoxy has been strong enough to check the danger of deifying America itself—check, but not eliminate. But the intellectual structure is in place for Americanists to think those who worship America are offering service to God.
Take some time to read Roger Olson’s review of Leithart’s book. And think about the question: when does patriotism become idolatrous?
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Patriotism becomes idolatrous when the little “g” (government) usurps and obscures the big “G” (God” as the ultimate source of one’s hope and of one’s sense of purpose. Genuine patriotism is simply gratitude (not idolarty) for one’s heritage and country. Gratitude does not diminish love for others and it is all too rare today with reference to a healthy heritiage of which too few Americans are even aware anymore. Remember, an idolater can make an idol out of any good (or bad) thing. Some make idols out of their “love” on many other levels and that should not discredit the real thing.
Joel,
What I see is a need to preach vigilance against idolatry. Unqualified patriotism can become idolatrous as quickly as unqualified desire for money can. It’s easy to cross the line without realizing it. It’s my belief that many Christians in America have crossed that line, partly because they’ve never been made aware of the dangers.
Grace and peace,
Tim
It is my opinion that much of the American patriotism I witness has become idolatrous. So much of demands misplaced devotion and allegiance to the nation and her causes (i.e., the love it or leave it mentality) as well as glorifying the nation as that which gives us hope and freedom (through military power too) when not only is it God alone who is to be glorified but also God’s redemptive work in Christ which gives us freedom and hope.
The only way I know to combat against this as a preacher is to go about it subversively through stories, parables, and questions (sort of like Jesus taught) so that people will think about what they are really doing when they get excited about a the cover of a Bible being an American flag.
Grace and Peace,
Rex
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