Christianity and Patriotism - Jacob Kersh
The Fourth of July is coming this weekend and as a worship leader, for the past few years, that has meant having awkward conversations with congregant members twice my age about what “patriotic hymns” we will be singing, or where the flag should be placed. Now, I always work hard to avoid conflict; in ministry, you have to pick your battles wisely. Unfortunately, for my patriotic congregants, I was always willing to say no to patriotism in church. To me, it was important that we didn’t confuse patriotism for piety. The US Government, at least on paper, is a secular representative democracy. The founding fathers were, in fact, not prophets of Yahweh, and the United States Constitution is not a sacred text. Therefore, the founding fathers, the words they wrote, and the political structures they’ve built have no place in the sanctuary Sunday Morning.
Now I should clarify that I don’t believe that Christians who worship with a flag in their sanctuary are necessarily bad Christians. I don’t mean to rain on your parade if “America the Beautiful” and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” are your jams. Being patriotic can bring a lot of joy and provide us with a strong sense of belonging. Having pride in a shared national identity can even be a good thing. As Americans, we have a lot to be proud of. The issue, as I see it, is that if The Lord's Prayer and The Pledge of Allegiance occupy the same reverent space in your head, you might begin to conflate the two, and that can lead to problems since they are fundamentally different things.
You see, as Christians, we are trying to live our lives practicing Christly love as it is demonstrated through the Gospel. When we deconstruct our faith, or study and contextualize scripture, we are trying to understand them better so we can live more perfectly into them. The fundamental nature of Christ's love never changes, even if our understanding of it does, and the elements of the Bible remain the same, even as our own temporal and cultural context changes around them. For example, I am not a fan of 1 Timothy 2:11-15. Not only do I believe that women can and should teach, this whole idea that “Adam was not deceived, but it was woman who was deceived and became a sinner,” contradicts the words of Paul in Galatians 3:28, where he states, quite plainly, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” If women aren’t permitted to speak in church because they bear more responsibility for the fall, then we cannot be “all one in Jesus Christ”. Despite this gross contradiction, 1 Timothy 2 will remain in my bible and I cannot change that. I can still seek out historical context, and perhaps the contradiction will be rectified someday for me, but until then I have to accept I do not have all the answers.
This is not how our constitution or government institutions work. There is no perfect interpretation of the Constitution or perfected government institution. That’s not to say that the Constitution lacks any value, or that our government is completely ineffective; there are a lot of great things about our country's government structures as they were designed by the founding fathers. All I’m saying is that we have the right and the responsibility to change them, through electoral participation and political activism, as citizens. For example, I am not a fan of the electoral college. I believe that the electoral college system disproportionately amplifies the voices of people in rural communities over those in urban communities. My distaste of the electoral college does not equate to a broader disavowal of the Constitution; however, I do think the Constitution should be amended to better represent the will of the people, as difficult of a process as that may be. I would go as far as to say it is my responsibility as a patriot to pressure my representatives, through my voice and my vote, to enact the changes I believe would make my life, and the lives of my fellow Americans, better.
When we apply the same timeless and unchanging framework to our political institutions that we apply to the Word of God, we end up with a stiff and rigid political system that serves no one, and a national culture incapable of making room for change and newness. The Constitution is not vast and mysterious like the Word of God, and must be amended throughout the ages to serve the needs of the people. In a way, applying religious reverence to our country’s system of governance keeps us from performing our patriotic duty of maintaining our institutions so that they meet the needs of the many.
In Closing, happy Fourth of July. Go and be grateful we worship a vast, mysterious, and timeless God; and enjoy your freedom and responsibility to enact change for the better on our country's flexible political institutions.
-Jacob Kersh