Patriotism and the Kingdom of God
Mark A. Taylor reflects on the tension between love of country and love for God, urging believers to keep patriotism in perspective. He argues we can honor our nation and participate in civic life without confusing cultural values with biblical precepts. Our deepest hope and future belong to God alone.
- Patriotism is not a Christian principle and must be kept in balance.
- Cultural values can be mistaken for biblical precepts if we lose perspective.
- Christians are ultimately citizens of another nationโthe kingdom of God.
By Mark A. Taylor
“This world is not my home; I’m just a-passin’ through.”
We sang the words with gusto in my youth group in Waukegan, Illinois, about 40 years ago. I’m not sure we understood what we were singing, or even believed it. Like typical teenagers everywhere, we were more about this world than the next.
“We live in the greatest nation on earth.”
British Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke the words in a speech announcing his retirement this spring. I was taken aback by his claim. Oh no, Tony, you’ve got it wrong. I live in the greatest nation on earth. You most certainly do not.
“We need to see ourselves more clearly as . . . strangers in this land, as citizens of another nation, of the kingdom of God.”
Jack Reese wrote the words in his “Reflections” column published last year (October 8). Writing “as a patriotic citizen of the United States,” professor Reese challenged us nevertheless to keep our patriotism in perspective.
“Perspective” is another word for balance. And, as I wrote in that issue, balance is the great essential in any discussion of God and country.
Keeping patriotism in perspective
We need not hate or condemn our country to avoid worshiping it. We can honor veterans, celebrate our freedoms, and advocate democracy without insisting our nation is somehow favored by God. We can participate in politics without believing political solutions speak to the deepest human needs. We can praise America while honoring the feelings of many in other nations who prefer, instead, the land of their birth. We can celebrate the Fourth of July while acknowledging that patriotism is not a Christian principle.
The problem comes when we muddle up biblical precepts with cultural values. Despite what your mother told you, cleanliness (especially 21st-century, suburban, bacteria-phobic cleanliness) is not always next to godliness. Neither is a college education, a retirement fund, inside plumbing, or service with the PTA. These are nice, but not necessarily Christian. Many of our brothers and sisters around the world, thousands with whom we’ll share the streets of Heaven, would not call them important at all.
Nor would they share our feelings for America.
Our hope belongs only to God
Love of country should always be viewed as something separate from love for God. As Jack Reese wrote last year, “Every fatherland is a foreign country”โeven our own, even America. . . . We do not consign to it our hopes or our future. Our future belongs only to God who is the ruler of all nations . . .”
He reminds me of another song we sang in church when I was a teenager: “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.”
Author: Mark A. Taylor
Mark A. Taylor, who served as Christian Standard editor from 2003 to 2017, retired in June 2017 after almost 41 years with Standard Publishing (Christian Standard Media).
