I realize that my previous posts on nationhood may have been a bit abrasive and snide. I’m sorry. My intent isn’t really just to make people mad or rattle cages. Someone recently asked me “where is the political stuff coming from?” The only answer that came to me is that “This is fire in my bones!” (Jeremiah 20:9 – “But if I say, "I will not mention him or speak any more in his name," his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.) I feel the need to preach.
This time of year, as I see so many churches celebrating our country, anxiety grows in me about two things: First, that we are moving away from our first love and our allegiance to God. As a religion scholar I have visited Hindu temples and while there, I’ve had to risk offending people by declining invitations to participate more in their worship. At times I have felt the same need to decline participation in services at Christian churches because to ME, it was not clear whether God or our country was being worshiped. For those who are familiar with Paul’s admonitions about eating meat sacrificed to idols, you may consider me “the weaker brother” for feeling like what would be idolatry to me is not to you. The second reason for my ranting is my involvement with missions. Maintaining contact with the global body of Christ has led me to feel uncomfortable when churches celebrate something (American identity) that sets them apart from other members of that body. More and more, I want to be in constant remembrance of who the church is globally and celebrate our unity (such as it is) and when churches host national celebrations, I feel that we move away from that.
All that being said, I thought over the next few days I would try to simply offer some texts (nothing I’ve written) about America, Christianity and the Bible. I hope they lend themselves to your consideration as we approach the Fourth. Christians often say that the nation was founded on “Christian principles.” Mind you, principles don't need to be explicitly "Christian" to be good, and if they are not Christian, that doesn't mean I don't like them (whether or not I should is another question). It just means that there may not be a clear connection. We also have to ask whether the Christian scriptures mean the same thing we do when they use certain words. On Sunday, I will consider Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, the foundational principles of the national “creed.”
FYI: The art at top is by Daveion Lashley a conservative Christian artist from Barbados. His website is: www.godartist.com
3 comments:
Good post Matt...like what you had to say and agree with it. Glad you posted your blog on your facebook...I'm a fan...Pounder.
Matt, I really agree with this stuff you've written here about nationalism/patriotism. I've been thinking about this a great deal lately, but haven't had the energy to put it into words. You did a great job. Thanks.
This is great stuff. I often feel this way around this time of year. This morning at the office, the general secretary joked that he would be playing "America, the Beautiful" at church on Sunday. I shouted from my cubicle, "Excuse me?" and one of the assistants responded, "Don't let him get away with that!" Of course, it's much easier to laugh about such things in a strictly Anabaptist office.
I often hear people balk at my objections, saying, "We should celebrate the rights we have as citizens of this country - rights that allow us to worship as we please." Which is true. But I particularly love your point about the GLOBAL body. So often we forget this. I forget this. In the office recently, I've been sensitized to the importance of language, especially when it addresses our deeply seated proclivity toward ethnocentrism. We're not "the Brethren in Christ Church," we're "the Brethren in Christ Church in North America." Just as the hundreds of BIC churches in Zimbabwe aren't "the Brethren in Christ Church" but "the Brethren in Christ Church in Zimbabwe." The need to recognize our ethnocentrism, even when it comes to religious matters, is so important. And yet we must also recognize, celebrate, and respect our unity within the body - we are the Church, capital C. So you're right to point out the problem of recognizing and honoring our national heritage at the expense of our global communion.
Wow. That's quite the novel I just wrote, compared to my terse response on your FB status. Same amount of guile, though. :)
Post a Comment