I Changed My Mind About...

 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.