American Patriotism = Christianity

Today I opened my e-mail inbox to find the article, "Who Are Americans?
What Christians contribute to the search for a national identity," by Chuck Colson and Catherine Larson. I had to respond. This article epitomizes the deception that American patriotism = Christianity. Please see my brief response below, after the article:

"Who Are Americans?
What Christians contribute to the search for a national identity"

Nations around the world are suffering from identity crises. Perhaps it began two decades ago, when the last European holdouts were dragged in and the European Union was finally established, a move described by one journalist as "the triumph of the Eurocrats over the peoples of Europe." More recently, The New York Times reported on France's efforts to articulate its national identity. Soon thereafter, controversy erupted when Switzerland banned the construction of Muslim minarets. The Times and Forbes have reported on identity crises facing South Korea and China, as immigration makes largely homogenous nations increasingly diverse.

All these reports raise the question, "Who are we?"—which is also the title of scholar Samuel P. Huntington's final and most prophetic book. "The more general causes of these … questionings," wrote Huntington, "include the emergence of a global economy, tremendous improvements in communications and transportation, rising levels of migration, [and] the global expansion of democracy …."

There's also an identity crisis bubbling just under the surface in the United States.

Huntington documents several challenges to a cohesive sense of American identity. First, while early settlers and immigrants were never ethnically homogenous, they largely traded in the same Anglo-Protestant cultural currency. But as 21st-century demographic trends increasingly draw people from other quadrants of the world, shared cultural assumptions erode.

Exacerbating the problem is a rise in dual citizenship and more subnational identities, which have created divided loyalties. Meanwhile, in the business community, an increasingly globalized economy has caused leaders to adopt a more transnational identity, what some call "Davos man." And aside from a temporary resurgence of patriotism after September 11, Huntington documents how academic elites have led the way in devaluing patriotism and American history.

We rightly pride ourselves on our multiethnic, multiracial society. But as our society grows ever more diverse, how will we understand our national identity?

Huntington poses four possible solutions. The first is a creedal community whose identity exists only in a social contract embodied in the Declaration of Independence and other founding documents. This has historically provided cohesion. The next option is a bifurcated America, one that is bilingual and bicultural like Canada or Belgium. The third option is an exclusivist or imperial notion of America. And the last alternative, the one Huntington clearly favored, is a reinvigorated core culture and religion coupled with the earlier solution of a reinvigorated creedal community.

Can a Christian worldview inform us as we wrestle with our national identity?

Any kind of racially or ethnically intolerant society would be incompatible with Christian principles.

Further, we know that the core values of our creeds, which in particular promote the dignity of all people, resonate with Scripture and are worth preserving. American patriotism does not rest on jingoistic nationalism but on a universal creed that says, "All men are … endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights."

Liberty is one of those unalienable rights. And this core value, also emphasized in Scripture, teaches us that we cannot force beliefs on others. Our founders understood, however, that freedom of religion is not synonymous with expunging religion from public life, a problem that I and others addressed last fall in the Manhattan Declaration. So if Huntington is in fact right that the U.S. needs a reinvigorated religious commitment, it won't come from a nation-mandated religion but rather from a reinvigorated populace.
believe, then, that for national identity to be salient in the midst of our changing society, we need to promote a recommitment to our creeds, a respect for American history, and a proper role of patriotism, rooted in love of neighbor. Our founders' Judeo-Christian heritage helped produce a culture in which moral responsibility, transcendent ethical principles, and the dignity of all people could flourish—a culture in which our creedal values made sense. This is why our role as leaven within society is so important, and why we must continue to bring a biblical influence to the public square, reinvigorating society.

As we do so, we must guard against the easy tendency to embrace xenophobic notions or fall into the equally perilous trap of promoting subcultural identities over national identity. People will not live with, let alone die for, a nation that has abandoned its religious moorings and adopted a creed that suggests we simply live together in cosmopolitan bliss. Millions of us, however, have been willing to live and die for beliefs rooted in our deepest convictions about God and man—convictions that were expressed so well in the stirring words of our national creed, the Declaration of Independence.

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http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/june/19.49.html

Anne-Marie's Response #1:
Was not Jesus absolutely clear about our allegiance being to the Kingdom of God and not to any earthly kingdom (in our case, the United States of America)? He was no proponent of His followers having or preserving a "national identity" or of patriotism to any empire, nation, or kingdom other than his Father's. He said his Kingdom was not of this world even though it was and is "now at hand," within this world. Jesus is Lord, Caesar is not. Jesus is Lord, America is not.
That to say, I do not understand why we as Christ’s followers should be interested in maintaining or "reinvigorating" our American, national identity. The author(s) warn of the “perilous trap of promoting subcultural identities over national identity.” Is not this, in fact, EXACTLY what Jesus taught us to do? Jesus charged us to live into our subcultural identity as Children of God, Disciples of Christ—Kingdom People who “promote”/share the Gospel of love and self-sacrifice, not the Gospel of America or any other worldly institution. I encourage readers to open the 4 Gospels again, read them beginning to end, and listen to what Christ says about our allegiance to his Kingdom.

Anne-Marie's Response #2 to God's Lion Posted: June 26, 2010 5:12 PM
God's Lion-- Isn't it God's love, compassion, and forgiveness that has the power to change humans' behavior much more so than the fear of God or the fear of punishment? This has been my experience--my heart and actions have changed way more because of God's love and forgiveness than from God's wrath; from His mercy, not shame. AND where are you getting your Biblical support from to "smash" the heathens as the way to illicit change? Wasn't Jesus always caught dining with them, healing them, forgiving them? Most of the time, it was pious, self-righteous Pharisees or Religious people (possibly like yourself?) whom he was condemning and calling judgment on. It is time we take the plank out of our own eye FIRST.