Patriotism?

G.K. Chesterton wrote, “Only those will permit their patriotism to falsify history whose patriotism depends on history.”

He also wrote, “Love is not blind; that is the last thing that it is. Love is bound; and the more it is bound the less it is blind.”

Those who say they love their country but cannot see the sins of their country do not love their country – for true love, as GKC writes, is not blind. Yet, it can be a dangerous thing to call a duck a duck, a sin a sin, to say that 2 + 2 = 4 when society says that it equals 5.

Self-righteousness in a person usually hurts only the person and those surrounding him; self-righteousness in a nation hardens the soul of that nation and sears its collective conscience, blinding it to justice, equity, mercy, and righteousness. If there is any doubt that our collective conscience is seared we have only to look at what happens to those who live according to their individual conscience when they refuse to acquiesce in the redefinition of humanity, of the image of God – coercion such as would have been unimaginable two generations ago, except to the likes of George Orwell or C.S. Lewis.

When the church marries the state, when it marries patriotism, the church abdicates its prophetic voice and its intercessory ministry. When the church confers sainthood on the state the church joins itself to an idol. The true church can only be married to Jesus Christ; the Kingdom of God is not of this world. To be effective in the world the church must not be of the world.

Where, among professing Christians, is it the most dangerous to love your country enough to see its sins? It is among those Christians who profess a high view of Scripture. How can this be? Where, among professing Christians, is a fellow Christian more likely to endure backlash if he or she calls upon the church to repent on behalf of the nation? Why it is among those Christians who profess a high view of Scripture. Where, among professing Christians, might a visitor be excused for thinking that on a patriotic weekend those gathered on a Sunday morning in a church building worship two gods instead of exclusively the True and Living God? Why, among those who profess a high view of Scripture.

Robert Tracy McKenzie, professor and chair of the Department of History at Wheaton College, wrote in a Chestertonian turn of thought, “Only those will permit their Christian faith to falsify American history whose Christian faith depends on American history.” I will add “and whose Christian faith depends on a particular view of current events.”