Mixing Religion With Nationalism

The other night I caught a special independence day “celebration” series being broadcast on a prominent christian television station. As the program aired, the choir was singing “God Bless America” as a digital picture of the American flag waved proudly in the background. Following the singing, brief interviews of US soliders in Iraq would give their take on America and what it meant to them.

Now this is all well and good except for one tiny detail. I kept asking myself why this message of American nationalism was being broadcasted all around the world on one of the largest Christian satellite broadcasting companies? What does all of this have to do with God and why is the United States sending a message to the
world that “Americanized” belief systems are somehow in perfect alignment with
God’s true will? Would they do the same thing for a national Canada Day? My gut tells me no.

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against patriotism. My beef is that when people
start mixing political viewpoints, both conservative or liberal, and tie them up into the Bible to support their positions its diluting the message of Jesus, bigtime. If a Christian wants to pledge allegiance to the flag and launch off hundreds of dollars of fireworks into the sky thinking they are with the most “Christian” nation on earth, that’s fine. But don’t for one second think that the gospel of Jesus should be pronounced to the world on behalf of a man made nation that operates under its own worldly systems that is opposite of what Jesus taught.

Jesus’s message embraced a revolution through peace. The “freedom” He preached
about was a spiritual freedom and a restoration of man and earth from the systems
of empire. Can America claim God as its own to justify its involvement overseas to
protect its economic interest in oil? Can America claim God as its own when we
intentionally murder millions of babies every day? Can America claim God as its
own when we assist our allies with violence in persuit of political interests?

As soon as nationalism gets mixed into the “Christian” religion we can be sure that
the original, raw gospel message is going to be misrepresented in some way. So
keep the American flags in the garden, but be very careful not to place them inside
your Bibles.