Is it OK for Christians to Be Patriotic?

Rev. Dr. Christopher Carlson

Well, this morning I want to talk to you about “Is it OK for Christians to be Patriotic?”  Now, you might be sitting there thinking, “Well, he’s in his uniform, I guess he thinks it’s probably O.K.”  And, you would be right.  I do think it is O.K.  In fact, I think it is our duty to be patriotic.  Now I’ve been your pastor for about three and a half years now; and I haven’t worn my uniform in this service yet, in any of our services, and part of that is out of shyness, I would think.  You see when you are a preacher you don’t want to draw attention to yourself; and yet when you are standing in front of people, you do it anyway.  The goal is to point toward something else; and I have thought, sometimes, that if I would wear my uniform I would be drawing attention to myself.  But I thought today, or at least sometime, and today’s the day, that I would like to have you see my other half, my other life.  I am in the reserves; and it is a part time job.  And most of all, what I would like to do today is thank you.  A lot of people thank me for my service; and I am very appreciative of it when people come up to me in an airport when I have my uniform on, or whatever, and people shake my hand, especially right now.  It’s just great.  It really is.  But I want to thank you, because there’s a sense in which I am your missionary; I am your representative, and I think of it that way.  When I go out and serve in the military, I think of you.  You’re giving me the opportunity to serve this country as a chaplain.  There are some sacrifices in that.  You sacrifice my time that I might give to you, to use that time.  Now we have it worked out that I take vacation time and other time for that, but it is a bit of a sacrifice for you. I appreciate your prayers and your thoughts for the people that I serve.  Particularly now in the last two or three years, it has been very busy because we minister to people going and coming to our armed conflicts.  I want to thank you.  What I’d like to do today is address an issue; and, that is, patriotism.  Because as Christians, I do believe it is our duty to be patriotic; but we must always remember that our first loyalty is to God, first and foremost.  What I like about the Army Chaplaincy is that our crest has on it the phrase “Pro Deo et Patria” which means ‘for God and Country.’  God is first, and I like that.

I have chosen, among many scriptures which I think speak to this issue, one that is pretty well known.  It is Isaiah, Chapter 40; and, if you haven’t read that before, you certainly have heard the phrase “mount up like eagles wings.”  Well that’s the last verse of Chapter 40 of Isaiah.  But before that, Isaiah is speaking to a context in which Israel is about to be invaded by foreign kings.  It is a dangerous time.  Isaiah addresses the people’s fear directly and basically says, “God is in control.  God raises up nations and He disposes of them.  Human beings are raised up and they die.  God is in control.”  This is God speaking through the prophet, Isaiah, from selected verses of Isaiah 40.

(Isaiah 40:6-31, selected verses) (1 Peter 2:13-17)

A voice says, “Cry out.”  And I said, “What shall I cry?”

“All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. 

The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them.

Surely the people are grass.

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.”

Surely the nations are like a drop in the bucket;

            they are regarded as dust on the scales;

            he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.

Before him, all the nations are as nothing;

            they are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing.

Do you not know?

            Have you not heard?

Has it not been told you from the beginning?

            Have you not understood since the earth was founded?

He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,

            and its people are like grasshoppers.

He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,

            and spreads them out like a tent to live in.

He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.

No sooner are they planted,

            no sooner are they sown,

            no sooner do they take root in the ground,

than he blows on them and they wither,

            and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.

“To whom will you compare me?

Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.

Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:

            Who created all these?

He who brings out the starry host one by one,

            and calls them each by name.

Because of his great power and mighty strength,

not one of them is missing.

From the New Testament, a short passage from 1 Peter, Chapter 2, one of several.  The apostles interpret Jesus’ words and tell us that as Christians we are to submit to the local government.  That doesn’t mean that we can’t seek change in government; that doesn’t mean that we can’t sometimes revolt.  In general, Christians are to support authorities because they keep the peace.  Peter says this:

            Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.  For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.  Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.  Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God!

Would you pray with me?

Oh Father, we thank you for our land and we ask that your word would speak to our hearts.  May we serve you first Lord; and yet also may we be good citizens, seeking to right wrongs and to do justice; and to make this place where we are, the best that it can be.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

D. James Kennedy writes these things about America.  He says:

- Only in America can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance.

He says:

- Only in America do drug stores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes out in the front.

- Only in America do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries and a diet Coke.

- Only in America do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our junk in the garage.

- Only in America do we use answering machines to screen calls and have call-waiting so we won’t miss a call from someone we don’t want to talk to in the first place.

- Only in America do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.

And from another man named Lewis Grizzard, he says:

- Ours is the only country in the world where people pay $200,000 for a house and then leave it for two weeks every summer to sleep in a tent.

From another person, last but not least, “Only in America do we use the word ‘politics’ to describe the process so well; ‘poly’-, in Latin, meaning many; and ‘ticks’ meaning blood sucking creatures.”  My apologies to politicians.  On a more positive note, Erma Bombeck said something like this.  She said, “America is the only place where the celebration of our country’s birth is not so much military things, though today we are represented by military folks and all the services are here in one way or another; only in America do we celebrate the birth of our country through hot dogs and apple pie, picnics, parades and fireworks, and basically having a nice party.  It’s a great country.”  And indeed it is.  It is a great country, and as Christians we ought to be patriotic.  As I said earlier, we ought to be patriotic with the caveat that we know that we have a higher authority and a higher loyalty.  We as Christians are called to be patriotic in the best sense of the word.  St. Augustine, one of the greatest theologians of the church, living in about the fifth century, lived in a time when Rome was in power.  He put it this way.  He said, “God calls Christians to be patriots in the best sense of the word.  They are to love their nations, not because they have to, nor out of allegiance to a particular politician or ruler; but precisely because they love their king in his kingdom more than their own nation; and because our king, Jesus himself, commands us to love our neighbors and promote justice and compassion in the land.  Therefore, we are to be patriotic about the land in the best sense.”  That’s not to deny that we have problems.  We have myriad of problems.  If you put a bunch of people together, you’re going to have problems.  It’s kind of like being a member of a family.  One doesn’t love one’s family only when they’re good, but when things are not so good; and when things are not right, we are to love our family and our country enough to put it right.

Secondly, our highest loyalty, as I said before, must always be to God and His kingdom.  You know, I have thought it before, many times, I’m sure I got it from someone else, that many of the issues of life boil down to the first commandment.  “You shall have no other gods before me.”  Even as individuals, we should ask ourselves from time to time about anything that we do, “Who is our God?  Is God our God, or is our money our god?  Is God our God, or our jobs?  Is God our God, or our family?”  It all boils down to that.  And even with nations, is God our God?  In the last few years there has been a great debate about the Pledge of Allegiance.  People who are kind of opposed to it or have questions about it, often point out the phrase “under God” was not in the original.  It wasn’t.  It was added in 1954 or in the administration of Eisenhower.  President Eisenhower was the first one to say the Pledge “under God”.  And my view is, so what?  If it isn’t there, it ought to be there, at least implied.  It is not so much a declaration of faith, as it is kind of a warning.  Remember again the words of Isaiah, “Nations are like a drop in the bucket.”  Did you hear that language?  In God’s sight, in God’s scheme of things, nations rise and nations fall. They may last hundreds of years but they’re always temporary.  The nation that serves God in one way or another will persist. 

Our highest loyalty is to God and then to our nation.  In doing this, in being patriotic, we should avoid two extremes.  The first extreme is to sort of make America to be the be-all end-all of things.  It’s as though America and even some Christians seem to talk this way, as like it is the new Israel, the new chosen nation, like the Messiah, the savior of the world.  I was amused at reading some questions that were asked of some young people about what they thought about the United States.  One said, Jackie, age 9, “We’ve got more stuff and things in America than anywhere else in the world.  We have pizza as well and it doesn’t grow any other place on earth except but maybe Italy.”  I’m not sure about that one. I’m not sure where that came from.  “Everybody wants to live in America because we own the moon” says Elliot, age 9.  “The president bought the moon from God for a million dollars and I saw him send up space men on T.V.”  Tina, age 6, says “America is great because you get the best friends here.  The last time I counted I had a thousand friends and I don’t know anyone who has as many friends as me.”  Another said, “America is great because it has bigger and better supermarkets.”  Last but not least, Sean, age 9, said “America is great because it has the most plumbers in the world; that’s because we have the most tubs.  I want to be a plumber like my uncle.”  Amusing, and yet, we do tend to think of America sometimes as being like a Messiah.  We’re not; but God has done some marvelous things to our country.  I don’t believe that America is a chosen nation; but I believe that God raises up all nations.  God is in control of how that happens and when it happens.  God raises up nations for His purposes.  By God’s grace we can look at our history and see that God has done some really great things through us.

I say often, and you may have heard me say it, that when it comes to the civil war, I thank God that the south lost.  Now some of my southern buddies would shoot me.  There are still a few who are still waving the Confederate battle flag.  Not as many as there used to be, but there are some.  I thank God that the south lost, not the least of which is because of slavery. Slavery needed to be eradicated.  But I thank God the south lost, because looking back in hindsight, what would the twentieth century have been like with a divided United States?  Would we have been able to stop Hitler?  Would we have been able to stand against communism, an institution which killed hundreds of millions of people, literally?  Would we have been able to do that?  I don’t know.  God has used us and I hope that God will continue to use us.  By the way, I do want to say, that what I am saying today about patriotism should apply to anyone in any country; now I am addressing American things because we are in America.  But it doesn’t matter what nationality you are, we all have the same duty toward the country that we live in.  Yet, we still must remember to keep things in perspective, because how many times have we seen people using religion to gain power, to lift up a certain nation into some god-like status; and so, suddenly, you’re worshipping the nation instead of God himself?  Hitler did it.  The communist did it in a funny sort of way; you just worshipped the state and denied God.

The other extreme we need to avoid is what you might call “America always wrong”.  You know, we have come from America right or wrong to America always wrong.  There are groups of people who want to blame America first about everything, accusing us of all kinds of things and blowing things out of proportion in a way that’s just not right.  The New York Times once carried a thought-provoking essay from a woman who immigrated from Poland.  Her name was Janina Atkins and she arrived in the United States with a few possessions and $2.60 cents in her pocket.  Over the next few years she and her husband had created a stable life for themselves.  In her essay she says, “I love this country because when I want to move from one place to another I don’t have to ask for permission.  I love it; even with inflation, I do not have to pay a day’s earnings with a small chicken.  I love America because America trusts me.  I love it because my mail is not censored; my phone is not tapped; my conversation with friends is not reported to the secret police.  I love America.”  We also need to remember where we come from.  By that I mean, all the sacrifices that have been made for us to be here right now.  You know, over the last thirty years we witnessed a change in the hymn books that we have.  If you look at the Presbyterian hymn book, you won’t find hymns like ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’ anymore because someone felt like it was too militaristic or violent.  It is almost as though we feel like if we just deny violence long enough it will go away.  But even in some of the other hymn books, we don’t have the Presbyterian hymn book, we have another one, and if you notice one of the hymns, the ‘Battle hymn of the Republic’, it too has been changed.  In the last verse it goes something like this.  “As he died, as Jesus died to make men holy, so let us ‘die’ to make men free.”  But that’s been changed, to ‘live’.  Now who can argue with that; we ought to ‘live’ to make people free.  We really should.  But it is almost as though in our generation we’ve gotten away from the idea that there are things worth dying for.  An older generation knew this, and we seem to forget it.  Somehow it just isn’t correct enough to talk about dying for something.  Freedom isn’t free, and are we willing to sacrifice?  I’m not just talking about military people.  You know, it is amazing to me, I just did a funeral over at Fort Snelling and I just sat and gazed just for a couple of minutes at row upon row upon row of tombstones.  That doesn’t count all the ones around in our country and the quite a few abroad as well.  Each of us here stands, or sits, or who we are because someone sacrificed for us whether in a war or just a parent or a grand-parent.  Part of the values of being a Christian is being a servant and we need to serve our country.  “Rather than asking what the country can give to us,” Kennedy said, “we need to be asking what we can give to our country.”  Peter Marshall said “The choice before us is plain, Christ or chaos, conviction or compromise, discipline or disintegration.  I am rather tired of hearing about our rights and privileges as American citizens.  The time has come and it is now that we ought to hear about the duties and responsibilities of our citizenship.  America’s future depends upon her accepting and demonstrating God’s government.” 

So we need to remember where we came from and we need to remember what we as Christians stand for.  You know, I am amazed at some of the logic that goes on. We hear often “Oh, we shouldn’t impose our religion on others.”  Did you ever think about that for a minute?  Just turn on the T.V.  You will immediately find someone trying to impose their ideas upon you.  “Buy this car.”  “Buy this diet drink.”  “Go take this vacation.”  “Think this way.”  That’s the way the world works.  We put our ideas out their in the marketplace and see who buys them.   I’m not talking about going up to people and saying “Do you know Jesus?”  Sometimes a quiet question would do just as well.  We aren’t to impose our religion on anyone.  Imposed religion just doesn’t work.  You might make someone make a confession, but did they really confess?  That’s not the idea.  Someone’s trying to impose their idea of a secular religion on us.  As Christians we are called to proclaim our ideas from the scriptures.  You know, I believe one of the strongest principles we have in our country is freedom of religion.  Part of my job as a chaplain in the Army is to preserve the free exercise of religion; that’s one of the things in our constitution.  That doesn’t mean I have to do other people’s services; but it is part of my job, and I do it with joy, to accommodate other religious practices.  I may not agree with them at all.  In fact, I’m a Christian.  I want others to become Christians because Jesus is “the way and the truth and the life.”  He said that, I didn’t.  But I think we need to preserve the freedom of others that worship in the way they choose; then later we can go out for coffee and we talk about it.  I’ll be glad to tell them about Jesus.

We are in fact, friends, leaven.  You know what leaven is, it is like yeast.  You know we used to make up bread by our hands but now we put it in machines.  So speaking as a person who only knows how to make bread with a machine, you take open the box; then you put it in the machine; then you take a little package of leaven, or yeast; and it mixes up by itself.  But the yeast goes through the dough and makes it rise.  That’s what we are.  We are a preservative:  We are salt.  We are light.  We are leaven in this society.  In that sense we are called to be the most patriotic people on earth, wherever we are.  We happen to be here in America.  We’re called to remember future generations.  Someone once said that “patriotism is not so much protecting the land of our fathers as preserving the land of our children.”  I like that a lot.  We’re not simply to worship the past.  We don’t do that.  We remember it.  But we’re thinking about our children.  We must preserve what we have now for our children.  Edward Gibbon, author of the ‘Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’, said this about the fall of the Roman Empire; and you might see some things which look the same for our own country:

Number 1.  The rapid increase of divorce, the undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home which is the basis of human society. 

Number 2.  Higher and higher taxes and the spending of public monies for free bread and the circuses for the populous. 

Number 3.  The mad craze for pleasure, sports becoming every year more exciting and more brutal.  Number 4.  The building of gigantic armaments with the real enemy being within and the decadence of the people. 

Number 5.  The decay of religion, faith fading into mere form, loosing touch with life and becoming impotent to warn and guide people. 

Are we there yet?  I don’t think we are there yet, but we can see some of these things.  Our duty is to stay and stand and help our nation be what it is supposed to be.

In closing, I ran across a quote from a pastor in the country of Nepal, who had been in prison for preaching the gospel which is against the law in that Hindu nation.  He said this, “Of course I must obey my Lord and spread his word; but even though we are persecuted, we who are Christians in Nepal pride ourselves in being the best citizens our king has.  We try to be faithful to the fullest extent we can.  We love our country but we love our God more.  Just so, it is precisely because we love our God more, that we should be the best citizens we can.”  In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.