Well, I think today is a good time to talk about the relationship between God and country. I think it’s pretty safe to say that no country is perfect: no country has perfect laws or perfect government (the system or the people who run and work the system), or perfect schools or courts, or perfect social justice, wealth distribution, or godly culture. Not one. And certainly not America with its inefficient government, horrible education system, ridiculously skewed wealth, and a cultural mindset revolving around individualism, greed, and comfort. So why do Americans feel like they and their country are something special in God’s eyes? Why do they feel they have been uniquely blessed and tasked with spreading their influence to the whole world? By material standards, America has a lot to be grateful for, or at least the ones who can afford anything, but by spiritual standards and social standards, America seems to lack anything substantial.
I say all of this to make my point that I don’t see any reason for me to be patriotic in any amount that’s anywhere close to my association with Jesus Christ. God and country are not equal to me, and going to war in the name of your country is sad to me. Not that I don’t think it’s noble or courageous for someone (notice I speak of the individual and not the army or country as a whole) to choose to fight for something they believe in, but don’t fight for the country, fight to protect your family, your loved ones, your home, things meaningful to you. The country alone is so big, abstract, and full of ugly and hateful injustices that it would be criminal to fight for. Fight for what you know and love that happen to be in the country.
A country is not alive, it is not a living organism, it has no character of its own. It is made up of living people who are all very different, even opposite and contradictory, and broken systems that benefit the rich and hurt the poor. But the country itself has no morals, no conscience, no soul, and it is such an amalgam that it can’t even really embody any one thing or ideal entirely. It is a dream and a harsh reality. It is both nothing and everything. Is that something worth celebrating? Worth dying for?
And along the same idea, because it has no mind or soul of its own, America is not Christian. Even if the people who had started it were Christian, the country certainly is not. Nothing about America is godly or righteous, let alone Christian, for all the reasons I’ve mentioned before, and lately so many people have been attacking any mention of God in public places that the deluded “godliness” of the country is slowly whittling away. All the more reason, I believe, for me to cling to Jesus more desperately, proudly and openly than ever before, to prove that He can be loved genuinely in this place, this country.
And I don’t mean to say that if a country isn’t worth fighting for then God surely is. Absolutely not. Personally I don’t think anything is worth fighting for, but that’s another story. I’m trying to say that there is no reason to think that America has a divine right to spread its gospel globally, by any means, whether war or peaceful intervention, because the system isn’t working here so why should it work anywhere else? How can we be so arrogant?
And besides, God does not need a mascot. America is not God’s frontman or partner. By now, with the way things are, I can just imagine God cringing at the insinuation that America is His nation, along with all the atheists. “God and Country” just doesn’t work, and it won’t until Jesus comes again as King and unites the world with His authority.
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