God and Country

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord (Psalm 33:12).

Long ago, in a galaxy far away, I was a Boy Scout. When Troop 106 gathered on Monday nights, we began our meetings by standing, raising our right hands in the Scout salute, and repeating the Scout Oath: “On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country….”. In those days, duty to country and duty to God were treated as if they were inseparable. Of the different badges I earned, the highest honor was the God and Country Award. I do not remember the specific requirements, but I do remember being taught that patriotism and faith go hand in hand. Back then, everyone seemed to take this for granted. So when the pastor pinned the medal on my uniform during a Sunday morning service, it seemed obvious that I was doing something noble and good.   

My, how times have changed! The Boy Scouts, after years of turmoil created by sex abuse scandals and bankruptcy, have rebranded themselves as Scouting America. They now promote inclusivity and welcome girls, gays, and transsexuals into their program. But there has been a mega shift in the culture and in the church as well. Just try putting the words “God” and “country” in the same sentence in a public setting and you will discover what I mean. Two groups will suddenly emerge and express hostility for one another. One will passionately proclaim that God and country must be kept together. These people believe that America was founded as a Christian nation and should remain so. They think that government should promote laws and policies that are rooted in a Judeo-Christian worldview. The other group, with equal intensity, will insist that God and country must be kept apart. These people believe not just in the separation of church and state, but in the separation of God and state. Government must be secular, they say. It must remain values-neutral and uncommitted to any specific worldview.

Dear brothers and sisters, can we talk about these things? Dare I ask, can we pray about them? Whether you think that President Trump is the Messiah or a demon from hell, can we turn off our social media feeds long enough to humbly ask the Spirit of God to help us find our way together? I confess that I am struggling to see clearly on this one. There is much I don’t yet fully understand. However, some things are becoming more and more clear. Could I share with you some of what I believe the Spirit and the Word are teaching me? 

The gospel is political – profoundly so!  

Politics, put simply, is the art of living together. It is the set of activities that are involved in making group decisions. Because humans are social beings with moral consciences, they will be, by definition, political.  A Christian who is uninvolved in the social realities of his or her community is a Christian who has no understanding of what it means to be salt and light in the world. We dare not forget that Jesus was crucified for political reasons (see Jn. 18:33-19:16, etc.) and the apostles were often accused of meddling in government affairs (see Ac. 17:6-7, etc.). Today, many of the issues being debated in the public square are profoundly moral (gender issues, the definition of marriage, abortion, racism, the treatment of aliens, etc.). The fact that these issues are also “political” must never cause us to fail to speak out. If our position on a certain moral issue causes others to think we are getting too involved in politics, so be it.  

The gospel is political – but it is not partisan.

Once we discern the truth on a given moral issue, however, we must be very careful, lest we seek to do the work of the Spirit in the power of the flesh. When we do the right thing in the wrong way we are no longer doing the right thing. The means must be in sync with the end. Jesus and his followers, living in the first century, had basically four political options: the Pharisees (conservatives), the Sadducees (liberals), the Zealots (revolutionaries), and the Essenes (isolationists). Each of these groups sought to influence public life in some way. Each group had some positive and some negative aspects. But the early church refused to align themselves with any partisan political movement. They knew that the ways and the methods of these groups were ill-suited to their Kingdom agenda. They were committed to doing God’s work, God’s way, and they knew that politics was not how the Kingdom of God was going to come.

The love of one’s country is a good thing – but only in its proper place.  

The Great Commandment makes it clear that our first and primary duty as a follower of Jesus is to love God with all our being (see Matt. 22:34-40). This means that every other affection we may have (family, career, sports, etc.) must be secondary to our primary love for God. Life works as it should only when our loves are rightly ordered. The Bible has a special term to describe what happens when something other than God occupies first place in one’s heart: idolatry. When love for country usurps love for God, the idolatrous reality becomes a damnable sin. And God has only one posture toward idols: they must be destroyed! In other words, those who make an idol of their country are assuring her destruction. But when one’s love for country is properly ordered, it becomes a beautiful thing. Such patriotic love does not make us blind to our country’s flaws nor does it make us want to whitewash her sins.  

Loving one’s enemies is a non-negotiable element of Christian discipleship.

Today, on both the left and the right of the political spectrum, we see ugly examples of how language has been weaponized to belittle, humiliate, and cancel those with whom we disagree. Christians stand strongly against such dehumanizing tendencies and look for ways to express respect and courtesy for those who hold different views. While we affirm the place for healthy, spirited debate in the political arena, this is never an excuse for showing contempt or calling people names. Christians believe that it is possible to disagree agreeably. 

The “American experiment” brings some unique elements into the equation.

The Declaration of Independence states that our government derives its power “from the consent of the governed.” Prior to 1776, every other government in human history had derived its power from the strength of its army, its ruling class, or some perceived divine-right monarchy. But here, in America, power was given to the people to determine their own government, laws, policies, system of justice, etc. This was a unique and audacious experiment! Christians understood that not only could they be involved in the political process, they should be! This means that Christians like you and me are being encouraged to express their beliefs and vote their conscience. And if they run for office, they will let the people decide whether they want them as leaders or not. The risks of such a system are obviously great, but when it works properly, the blessings are many. Any “exceptionalism” that may come to us because we are Americans should not make us proud. Rather it ought to cause us to be humbly thankful for the amazing nation our founders have bequeathed to us and make us want to work to protect and preserve it.   

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