4th of July

Another Independence Day has come and gone. This year, I had an interesting conversation concerning patriotism. Someone asked me if I thought that a Christian should be patriotic. Although one might think this question would yield a simple “yes” or “no” response, my answer is a little complicated.

First off, to my knowledge the Bible does not directly speak to having national pride. Jesus once stated, “Render to Cesar what is Cesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” But I not sure a connection could be made here either way. In the old testament, there seemed to be a lot of national pride for the children of Israel, and in the new testament, Paul is able to claim he is a Roman citizen. This was a big deal as we can see from the soldiers response. The Bible also teaches that we are to respect those who are in charge. With this in mind, it is certainly not against scripture to be patriotic (in my opinion).

But in order to understand this better, I went back to the dictionary. The word “patriotism” means devotion, or love for one’s country. It comes from “patriot,” which is one who “loves his country and is devoted to liberty.” The origin is Greek for “fatherland.” The same root word is used for the “Patriarchs” or “fathers” of the Bible, church, etc. So, what then does “liberty” mean?

“Freedom from oppression, tyranny,…state of being free…free from slavery.

Most Christians would make the Biblical connections here (I.e., Jesus came to set us free from the oppression and tyranny and slavery of sin). So is liberty a Godly precept? In my opinion, most definitely! What about love for country? Countries are made up of people, and if we are truly Christians, we will love people. I think this is where we get confused sometimes. I love my country. I would die for my country. However, I don’t necessarily agree with everything my government does. Notice the difference between “government” and “country.” The “country” is the people. The government (in most countries) is the system. What has made the U.S. more successful, is the stronger connection between this system and the people.

Perhaps you are starting to see the difficulty here. C.S. Lewis warned us to look out for “Christianity and _________.” There is a ton of wisdom in that statement. Must one be patriotic to be a Christian? Of course not. But the question is “should” one? Ultimately that is up to the individual to decide. I would argue that it would be much easier to be patriotic in some countries than in others. However, when trying to decide, consider that the United States was born as a Christian nation. Most of our founding fathers were great men of God. Consider the price that was paid for each of us to enjoy the freedom we have today. Consider the evil of Adolf Hitler, and his concentration camps. Where would we be today if it had not have been for the United States. And when we do mess up, make stupid laws, do stupid things, just remember, here it is “We The People.” We have a voice in what goes on. We decide what happens.

In the end, God has given us a handful of years to play our part. I happened to be put on Team USA. It’s a GREAT team to be on. I’m going to root for my team, clap for my team, and swing my hardest when I get to bat. Is it the best team? In my opinion it is, but I understand that there are others out there who think their team is the best. Maybe they should. But then again, there seem to be a lot of people wanting to play for this team. May God (continue to) Bless the U.S.A.!