Challenges to "Christian" Patriotism

These are not attacks so much as they are confusions. There are several parts of “Christian” patriotism that really puzzle me. I’m not trying to beat anyone over the head with attacks. In fact, I have grown misty-eyed over the stars and stripes more times than I can count. I used to highly value our rich Christian heritage. I’ve been adamant to others about the importance of standing up for our American troops. I’ve argued against liberals frequently. I’ve laughed at tree-hugging pacifist hippies on numerous occasions. I was cheering inside during Bush’s “Shock and Awe” campaign. I voted for George Bush in 2004 – without any really notable reservations. I decided to dedicate the last nine years of my education to pursuing a Ph.D. in American Literature because I valued our culture so strongly. And so on…

But over the last few years I have run into several features of American patriotism that have made me more and more uncomfortable with claiming the title of a “Christian” patriot.

There were little things before this, but what may have really got me rethinking Christian Patriotism was that bumper sticker I saw a while back:
“God Bless the whole world. No exceptions.”

Now…I respect our troops. I do. I appreciate them giving me the life I have here in the United States. But it just seems like one of the Christian Patriot’s duties is to weaponize God so that He annihilates anyone who gets in the way of the United States. I’ve prayed the “Lord, protect our troops” prayer many, many times. But recently I’ve wondered why I never pray for the other side. I mean, it may be unpatriotic to think this, but they have fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, friends, and lives they value. It seems like, as a Christian Patriot, I have to believe that our troops are more valuable than their troops, that our families are more important than their families, that our friends are more important than their friends, that our cultural values are more important than their cultural values (including cultural values that don’t interfere with Christianity).

It just tears me apart. It’s like the verse “Love your neighbor as yourself” only applies to fellow patriots and not to the Samaritan on the other side of the world. The Christian Patriot is expected to ignore the second commandment when it gets in the way of being a patriot.

“But,” someone says, “loving your neighbor is spreading democracy around the globe. That’s what the soldiers are doing. That’s not what the people fighting them are doing. That’s why we pray for the soldiers on our side and not for the soldiers on their side.”

Ah! So let’s fight for the sake of democracy. Let’s go through the entire world and slaughter the armies of those who don’t believe in the same government we do, since our government is so wonderful and theirs is so, well, not. Let’s burn villages and bomb cities unless they convert to our form of government. Yes, that is true patriotism! Let’s stand up with tears in our eyes as we sing “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” in the serenity of vaulted cathedrals, and let those tears empower our hands to fill in circles on ballot sheets that will lead to the awe-inspiring arm of the Almighty God of American Democracy laying waste to as many undemocratic countries as possible. Let the screams of women losing their sons and fathers and homes and income and sanity be silenced by the fervency with which we salute the red, white and blue! And let any squeamish Christian in America who dares to timidly raise his hand and ask questions have it cut off by the sword of a million voices as they smother his face in the flag of freedom.

And let us see no contradiction in these attitudes as we dress up in strategically ripped jeans and expensively casual t-shirts and designer sandals made from the blood, sweat, and tears of a Communist country across the sea (who we haven’t Americanized yet, but we really look forward to a day when we can get them to see the light), and sit in booths on gay pride days and apologize profusely for the crusades.

And meanwhile, let's just forget that the first greatest commandment is to love God, not to love our country. Silence anyone who dares assert that “God” and “the United States” are two different things. Don't seek to base your love for your neighbor solely on your love for God – instead, feel free to pick and choose the way you love your neighbor based on your love for your country.

“But I thought you said you weren’t attacking us.”

I don’t want to make an enemy out of you. If you are an American soldier, I want you to know that I appreciate you protecting my right to write this right now. I really, really do. I’m just trying to point out some contrradictions I’m seeing. This is coming from one Christian Patriot rethinking his position after many years of practicing several of the prescribed beliefs, to another Christian Patriot who may have gone with the flow more-or-less unquestioningly, as I used to before becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the title.

Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying American soldiers are evil. I’m just wondering why it’s so taboo to say that any enemy of the United States may actually NOT be an enemy of the almighty God himself. I’m just wondering why a God whose Son said “My kingdom is not of this world” is seen as the God of America and the God of Democracy.

I’M ALSO NOT ENDORSING COMMUNISM. I know enough about it to know that its viewpoint is dangerous to Christianity (although I often wonder whether capitalism is dangerous to Christianity, too. I think Jesus comes across as more of a socialist -- not a governmentalized socialist, but a servant-attitude socialist). And I freely admit that militant Islam is dangerous.

It just seems that, in the United States, Christianity has become weaponized…almost as if the Crusades aren’t over yet. I mean, the Crusades were meant to squelch militant Islam and protect the Holy Land, too…although they did get some power and, at times, money on the side...

Two thousand years ago, Christ said, “You cannot serve both God and Money.”

Maybe he was talking about the Crusades.

Maybe he was talking about the United States.

What do you think? Can we pursue the title of “God’s country” and “World’s Richest Superpower” at the same time?

Now, there are difficult questions. For example, if you don’t protect your country, people in it will die and lose their freedom. That’s a fact for the United States. But the "protect the country" rationale has been used for everything from spreading democracy to spreading Nazism.

It just seems that freedom isn’t free – there are always limits, and the freedom you do have often depends on taking away those same freedoms from other people who constantly threaten to take it away, whether they are Jews, Asians, Russians, or Arabs. I mean – Aryans who loved Hitler were fairly free in Nazi Germany. There were Christian Patriots there, too.

Which is why this question keeps bothering me: where do we draw the line between protecting the fatherland and seeing that God’s love isn’t restricted to the fatherland and those who closely resemble it?

And if you don’t think that is an important question…
2,726 people died in the World Trade Center bombings. 4,400 US soldiers have died in Iraq, up to date. 1,000,000 people have died in Iraq since the war began up to 2007, although there are widespread claims of undercounting.

How many tears and prayers have we shed and prayed for our dead American soldiers?

How many tears and prayers have we shed and prayed for the dead Iraqis?

"Love your neighbor as yourself..."

My vote and your vote (and, if you don’t vote, the opinions we shared or didn’t share with our friends and family) contributed a major role in killing those people. We helped pull the trigger – whether it was right or wrong. I could give other statistics from other wars, but you get the point. IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT IRAQ. It’s about our overall attitude as Christians, and the importance of questioning whether our patriotism is getting in the way of our picture of God.

But if this still uninterests you…hmmm… maybe you have a point. Maybe it’s not important. We shouldn’t think about it. From now on, when the anguished ghosts of a million corpses (along with the millions more who mourn their loss) beg us to rethink our application of the second greatest commandment, we’ll give an irritated shrug and say, “I really don’t feel like thinking about that right now. Shut up and die so I can close my eyes, raise holy hands, and sing praises to my God in peace.”