Category Archives: nationalism

Remembering that pesky book edit

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lettersI mentioned in a previous post the one major editorial change that was made in our book “Letters From The Lamb.” It was major to me, though it was slight enough that 21st Century Christian didn’t feel the need to point it out before the book was published. Fact is, we never saw the final copy until the book was in print.

I had written, in my poor grammatical style:

“Tolerance and political correctness warp our doctrine, nationalism and patriotism distract us from our true calling.”

I know, it’s a comma splice. But it’s interesting to me that of all the comma splices in the book (I do tend to use those as a stylistic device), this was the only one corrected. The printed copy of the book reads:

“Tolerance and political correctness warp our doctrine, nationalism and patriotism—and distract us from our true calling.”

Yeah, pretty much the opposite of what I would write.

I’m not a conspiracy theorist nor do I think that 21st Century set out to misrepresent my views. I think the copy editor saw a grammatical mistake and fixed it. The logical assumption was that no one could be saying that nationalism and patriotism are dangerous to Christianity, so THAT can’t be the meaning here.

Most people view patriotism as a Christian virtue, one that Paul accidentally forgot to mention as a fruit of the Spirit and the other New Testament writers overlooked as well. Since it’s not in the New Testament, any reference to submitting to authorities can be taken as hidden code: that actually means you should be a flag-waving, patriotic member of your community. Surely that’s how the early Christians read it.

Next time, I’ll remember the semicolon. If I’m going to speak about about something, I need to use proper grammar.

[Note to all future copy editors of what I write: I consistently use the Oxford comma. I would have put a comma after “nationalism” had I intended that as a list. Thank you for your attention.]

When does patriotism become idolatrous?

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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?

Evangelism and nationalism

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There are some things that would seem to be so obviously wrong that I hate to give them any credibility by addressing them. At the same time, there’s always a danger that the uncontested falsehood will be taken for truth.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that someone had commented on a post I wrote a while back on bilingual ministry. This person expressed concern about the existence of a plot to latinize the United States. (Some extremists call it “La Reconquista”—the reconquest). The implication was that by offering worship in Spanish, we are making it easier for those who scheme to transform this nation.

First off, I know that there are such extremists. I’ve seen them on television. I also know there are white supremacists, anarchists, separationists, etc. The person who wrote urged me to search the Internet; I know that the lunatic fringe is well represented on the Internet. That doesn’t keep them from being the fringe.

Secondly, I have yet to meet anyone in the church with such views. I’m not saying that there aren’t any people like that; the body of Christ is made up of human beings, and you can find just about anything you are looking for. But the typical Hispanic in the United States has no more interest in “latinizing” the U.S. than the average person here has in seeing the United States expand its territory. There are nationalists and tribalists among all groups.

Thirdly, if the people we are reaching out to have such nefarious goals, won’t converting them to Christ help? Especially if we can teach them what so many here in the U.S. seem to miss, the fact that our primary allegiance is to the Kingdom of Heaven and not a nation of this earth. Once they get a grasp on what it means to be a citizen of heaven, any dreams of political coercion of others will fall by the wayside.

All of that fails to mention the biggest and most obvious point: the outreach of the Kingdom of God should never be limited by the interests of a kingdom of this world, neither those of the United States nor any other country.

Of Thee I Sing

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In the comments section yesterday, Rex Butts shared a link to a blog post that contained the following excerpt from a church bulletin:

“That morning’s worship service features: (Our) Color Guard’s flag presentation and the Pledge of Allegiance, patriotic music. patriotic hymn sing, no sermon but a Reading of the Declaration of Independence, and we will join in prayers for our nation. We ask that all our Community First Responders and active and veteran Military please dress in uniform for this service so we can acknowledge all that you have done and do for us. Additionally , everyone is invited to bring a flag to church (mind the size). You will be asked to wave it during singing, the ushers will give out small flags to those present. So invite all your friends, neighbors, and acquaintances to” (church’s name) Celebrates the Flag on The 4th of July.”

Here’s hoping everyone is uncomfortable with this! “Forget that dry sermon and boring hymns. Let’s sing patriotic songs and read the Declaration of Independence.”

Sigh…

Why understanding our citizenship matters

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I shouldn’t be surprised any more at what people write in the comments section on my blog. It’s probably because I don’t get a lot of comments that the few I receive get noticed. I’ve got a few older posts that attract comments now and then, like the ones on bilingual ministry. (A Google search for “bilingual ministry” puts some of my posts near the top, so when people go looking for that, they often arrive on my blog)

One comment yesterday on one of those old posts left me with my mouth open. All of the things I’ve written about the dangers of nationalism were personified in this one person’s writings. (I’m still not sure that it wasn’t just somebody “yanking my chain,” as they say.)

The opening sentence to the comment gives you a clue as to the point of view: “I don’t understand why Americans living in America should assist immigrants to America in NOT assimilating to U.S. culture.” That’s right… four references to this country in the first 19 words of the comment. The gist of the comment was: there is an intentional plan by Hispanics to take over this country; allowing people to worship in Spanish is contributing to the downfall of the United States.

Do you get it now? Do you see why I insist that we need to help our people understand where our true loyalties lie? This person doesn’t necessarily representative of any large group of people. But the danger is real. The Pew Center research showing that Christians in the U.S. tend to identify themselves as Americans first and Christians second reflects a problem in our churches.

I wrote a short reply to this person:

____,

Well spoken as a promoter of the Kingdom of America. I promote the Kingdom of Heaven, so your view is totally foreign to me.

I can only serve one Master.

Grace and peace,
Tim Archer

One commenter has complained that I spend too much time talking about the subject of nationalism and being citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. Comments like that one yesterday convince me that none of us talk about it enough.