This is the final chapter of my forthcoming book, I Changed My Mind About...
The book will be available on Amazon on June 1. The kindle version is there now. It can be found here.
Most people in this country who attend a church never
struggle with the question of what the relation of a Christian to their country
should be. This is a rich area to think
about, and has its own constellation of tributary issues.
For most of
my young life I did not question this either, until I went to seminary. As I learned to think theologically, my
understanding of what is involved in this issue began to profoundly
change. That change has made me an
outlier among even my friends. Even
people who respect me personally and theologically have trouble with my
thinking in this area.
The shift in
my thinking is connected to the change in my thinking about war, as I outlined
in chapter 5 of this book. When I had
the life-changing experience of having my eves opened about Christian
non-violence as I sat in a Mexican restaurant with Professor Wil Cooper, it was
probably a natural development from that experience that my thinking about how
a Christian should relate to his or her nation would also evolve.
To me, the
issue is the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
When Wil Cooper told me our job is not to calculate contingencies of
what may happen if we do or do not use force, but rather our task is to simply
do what Jesus said to do in the Sermon on the Mount, I knew immediately in a
profound way that Wil was right. As I
have written, that shook me like nothing ever had in my life up to that point,
and the vision of that has never waned in the subsequent 42 years. I was tremendously shaken, and 42 years later
I have been completely unable to shake myself
loose from the impact of this imperative.
The issue,
for me, with one’s relationship to one’s country is also one of the
Lordship of Jesus Christ. Jesus said we cannot serve two masters. (Matthew 6:24) Jesus made that comment with regard to those
who try to serve God and money, but I think the principle applies to so much
more than out attitude toward finances.
Something
similar is found in the Ten Commandments.
People take the idea of you shall have no other gods before me to
mean other idols or loyalties are okay, as long as God is on the top of the
totem pole. However, that is not what
this means.
I said on
page 22 of my 2024 book, A Brief Process Response to Christian Nationalism,
with regard to the idea that it is okay to have other loyalties if you do not
put them before God,
But that is not what “you
shall have no other gods before me” means.
The Hebrew for before here is al-panai,
על הפני which literally means
“before my face.” This was millennia before the current iteration of the phrase
“in my face” or “in your face”, but the idea is very similar.
I think when God says, “you shall have no other gods in
my face,” the idea is that there be no competition for devotion at all. God
is saying we are to have a totality of commitment. The picture of when the
Hebrews wandered off into idolatry is not one of divorce, although God did say
at one point, that most husbands would have divorced a spouse who had been as
faithless toward a husband as Israel had been toward God. (Jeremiah 3)
God
describes Israel’s idolatry as adultery in many of the writings of the
prophets. Jeremiah, Amos, and Hosea are notable among them. Not having any
other gods in God’s face means not even having the equivalent of an
extramarital affair. The command to not have other gods in God’s face is a call
to complete and total devotion.
Herein lies the problem with Christian nationalism. It is
the equivalent of being married in name, while having an affair all the
while. It is a profession of Christian
faith (hence the term Christian Nationalism) even as it calls one to
place concern for the nation as more important than devotion to God.
I find it impossible to deny that is what is implicit in
Christian nationalism. If Paul Tillich is correct, that the essence of idolatry
is to take something relative and finite, something which is contingent, and
treat it as if it is ultimate and not contingent, then Christian nationalism is
nothing less than idolatry. Draping it with Christian language and symbols does
not make it any less idolatrous than when the Hebrew people would do their
Temple duties and also make offerings to other deities at the High Places.
In the New Testament, Jesus affirms this first
commandment, although he appeals to it in a different form, the Shema of
Deuteronomy 6:4. This is the command to “love the Lord your God with all your
heart, and all your soul, and all your might.”
The force of this is the same basic commandment of having no other gods al-panai.
It is a call to single-hearted devotion to God.
One of the
things which bothers me—very much—is when I drive by a church and see a
flagpole with an American flag (which alone bothers me because we are to be, as
the hymn says, elect from every nation) and there is a Christian flag
underneath it! To me this says America
comes first and Jesus comes second.
You may say,
“Oh, but you never put anything above an American flag.” I would suggest that proves my point, not
yours. If you have something which you
can never put anything higher than, it is an admission that such an item,
country, or whatever, is what Paul Tillich calls your ultimate concern.
I remember
when I lived in North Carolina, the little town where we lived did have a
McDonald’s. It had a flagpole with the
US flag on top and a McDonald’s flag beneath it. Now, I guess the country is more important
than McDonald’s, but the country is not more important than the cause of Jesus
Christ. To me, putting a Christian flag
beneath an American flag trivializes the Christian faith, as though it is about
as important as McDonalds.
Unfortunately, I believe that is how many American church members think.
But the
answer is not to put them side-by-side either, because that equates them. At that point you have an al-panai
problem.
I remember
when Pope Francis, who I absolutely loved, said patriotism is good but
nationalism is sinful. I do not agree
with the Holy Father here. In the early
church, the Romans tried to get the Christians to offer just a pinch of
incense to Caesar. The Christians
realized they could not do that, because it created an al-panai problem
for them. It tacitly deified the
emperor. My view is nationalism is
full-blown nation worship, but patriotism is offering a pinch of incense, so to
speak. I consider them both to be
idolatrous.
I was
combatting Christian Nationalism in pastoral ministry in North Carolina around
the year 2000. I ended up getting fired
there because I tried to say that in the worship life of the church there
should not be a single hint of national loyalty expressed. I still believed that. One of the men in
that church who was very opposed to my ministry paid me the single highest
compliment anyone has ever paid me in my life.
He said, “This world has absolutely no hold on that guy.” I hope and pray that is true. That is,
in my mind, the Christian ideal.
When Jesus
said we cannot have two masters, he explained why, He said we will, when they make competing
claims on us, cling to one and let go of the other. I am afraid far too many people in the
church, when that moment comes, cling to nation and let go of the kingdom of
God.
I never met
the Christian missionary E. Stanley Jones, but I did know his secretary, Mary
Webster, who told me on more than one occasion I reminded her of Stanley. It was said of him one time, “Stanley Jones
is obsessed with the kingdom of God.” I
hope and pray I am able to carry that same mantle.
Like I said,
this makes me an outlier even among my friends and colleagues. What I am trying to do here is explain my own
thinking and how it has changed over time.
People hear me talk like this and come to the erroneous conclusion that
I hate the country. That is not
true. I neither hate nor love the
country.
Over the
centuries, some of the saintliest persons in the Christian tradition talk about
the interplay of attachment and detachment. They speak of being detached from the
things of the world so we can be attached to Jesus Christ. I believe American Christians are largely so
attached to the country that it hinders their attachment to Jesus. I am not asking people to hate anyone or any
country. I am asking them to love Jesus
so much that they do not have an al-panai problem. Jesus wants so much of my heart that there is
no room for earthly attachments.
This does
not give anyone license to break the law.
The New Testament is very condemning of lawlessness. The only time we should break the law is if
keeping that law, obeying that law, would cause us to disobey Christ. (Acts 5:29)
I have never
tried to get rid of the military, but I have tried to encourage Christians to
refuse to be part of the military because being in a military organization
creates an immediate al-panai problem. Again, what
do you do if you receive orders to do something Jesus tells us in the Gospels
not to do?
We are to
obey the laws, and respect authority. We
are to pay our taxes. I think we should
use our influence wisely in voting for people who will care for the most
vulnerable among us. I am not advocating
for withdrawal from society. I am,
however, advocating for an emotional withdrawal from the attachment
which hinders how much Jesus has of my heart.
I think Jesus wants so much of my heart that there is no room for
national loyalties, under the guise of either nationalism or patriotism. Emotionally, the Christian life is one of
being an exile, an ex-patriate, in this world.
This is not my home.
I do not say
the Pledge of Allegiance for this reason.
The word allegiance bothers me.
I read a definition one time which said allegiance means unconditional
loyalty. I believe if that is so,
because, as Jesus said, we will either cling to one and let go of the other, or
vice versa, that it is really only
possible to have one allegiance at a time.
Most of my friends do not share this view. Judging whether they are right or not is way
above my pay grade. I just know for me, it
sets up an al-panai situation.
I do not want anything even to come close to competing with my Lord for
my affections.
I want the
observation that this world has no hold on me to be true. It may not be, only God knows my heart. My
desire, however, is to be singlehearted in this regard. I pray God’s blessing for all who have taken
the time to read this book, whether or not you agree with me.
Thank you for making this available. I'll share the link as promised.
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