Patriotism and Christianity: any room for blindness?
written by Julie R. Neidlinger 1 comments link this postI confess to truly disliking excessive patriotism during a church service. I was recently in a church during the Sunday morning service around the Fourth of July mark, and the service was all about patriotic songs, flags, pledge of allegiance to the American flag, honoring the military, and graphics on the overhead screen of waving flags and such.
I don't have a problem with honoring troops, for example, or singing the National Anthem, but I would prefer it to not happen in church. It feels like we are worshipping another god, or some kind of red, white and blue idol that may or may not exist in that pure, sentimental form.
There's an interesting discussion on the subject going on at CRN.info: In God's Country.
What are your thoughts?
Labels: discussion, patriotism, religion
Copyright (c) Julie R. Neidlinger 8/15/2007 02:01:00 AM
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1 Comments:
I completely agree. The latest patriotic, Fourth of July church service I attended was very over the top. I don't have a problem with doing any of the things you listed, but as you said, church is not really the place for it. I attend church with a number of international students, and during the entire service, I couldn't help but wonder what they were thinking about the whole thing. Is the United States of America truly the only nation that God has blessed? I think not. Sometimes I think that the zeal our churches can hurl upon us can become sort of a bitter taste in many peoples' mouths. Jesus was never a political figure, and I honestly believe that He would be a little ashamed of some of the things that we tack up to His name.
Probably the most unfortunate part of that service was the fact that one of the international students I was with had never been to the church before, and was relatively new to Christianity in general. After the service, he turned to me and asked "Is your church always this political?" I just shook my head. As far as I know, he hasn't been back, and honestly, I guess I don't blame him.
