December 14 2003

David wrote: Let’s push beyond my earlier definition of Patriotism in terms of vigorous support and suppose that it even means loving one’s country. Well, surely it is possible to love someone or something other than God without that necessarily taking the place of God. For example, I can be a Christian Husband and love my wife with a passion, but still worship God and be faithful to him as my Master. I would regard my wife as my beloved rather than someone exercising supreme authority over me. The same could be said of being a Christian Parent. So why can’t someone love their country and support its way of life (democracy, freedom, etc.) and still be a faithful Christian?

Nathan responded:

I’m sure if we water down the definition far enough, we can make it look okay, but that’s not really the point here, is it? We are talking specifically about George W Bush style patriotism, and asking whether that style of patriotism is compatible with the command to love others as you love yourself and your own.

I suspect that “love of country” would generally be regarded as an inadequate definition of patriotism anyway, because it is probably too mild a description to qualify as an “ism”.

But in answer to your question, yes, I do believe you can love your country and be a faithful Christian. I love Australia. I don’t wish to live anywhere else. I love the land and I love many of the characteristics which distinguish us from other places and peoples. However, I can neither love nor vigorously support some of what my country is currently making itself known for. The xenophbia, refusal of hospitiality to strangers, and readiness to “walk by on the other side” in the face of the needs of the world’s poor and outcast, are exactly the sort of issues that force us to choose between alligning ourselves with our country and alligning ourselves with the kingdom of God.

So, yes, one can be faithful to God and love one’s country. But, faithfulness to Jesus Christ requires a willingness to love others as fully as we love ourselves and love our own. Therefore, for Christians, our love of our country is compatible with faith only in so far as it is matched by our love for others: the people of other countries, other races, other cultures.

So when we come back to your criticisms of the Juan Stam article, I still can’t see how, as one who has a passion for the honour of God and the authority of God’s word, you can so lightly dismiss President Bush’s behaviour as mere immaturity of faith and not deserving of strident critique and calls for repentance from the Church.

He regularly ascribes to America attributes which can only be rightly ascribed to God, and thereby commits idolatry, violating the first commandment. He regularly invokes the name of God as the source and patron of his policies, and thereby commits blasphemy, violating the second commandment. He regularly appeals to a love of country which seems unmatched by a love of others, and thereby violates the second of Jesus’s summary commandments.

If the Church fails to speak out on such issues, we are not only failing President Bush by failing to provide him with the guidance and discipline of the community that every Christian needs, especially the immature, but we are also failing to educate the rest of our people about what it means to give uncompromising allegiance to God.