Monday, November 14, 2011

Is there room for Patriotism in the Mission of God?

I turned on the tv late Saturday evening (11/12/11) to watch a bit of the Stanford vs. Oregon college football game. Before getting the channel on to ABC, I happened to notice the republican presidential debate on CBS and ended up spending the next 45minutes listening to the candidates spew their republican rhetoric (debates are maddening to me because they are all rhetoric, not real content. Questions are rarely  answered with anything but token party lines. But I digress . . . ). The topic of the night seemed to be national security as the moderators were focusing their questions on Iran, Pakistan, foreign aid, China's cyber attacks on the USA, and the use of torture.

As soon as the debate ended (it was cut short so CBS could air NCIS on time...sigh), two thoughts crossed my mind: (1) the only republican candidates for whom I would even consider voting are Jon Huntsman and Ron Paul and (2) for as much as Republicans try to appeal to Christians, most of what I heard touted during the debate was completely antithetical to the teachings I find in the Bible (or, more honestly, my understandings of those teachings).

For example:
  • many candidates bemoaned all Foreign Aid the united states offers because we need to solely be focused on our own interests.
  • Romney and Gingrich both supported Obama's executive order to have Anwar al-Awlaki (an american citizen) killed without trial or any other process of due dilligence. [At least Romney was booed for this, but probably because he was supporting Obama]
  • Rick Perry said we need to make the next century the American Century. He went on to say we need to ensure China ends up on the "ash heaps of history" just like Regan predicted Russia would end up on the ash heap of history. Apparently the sufferings of other countries are perfectly acceptable if it leads to the benefit of America.
  • Not a single candidate really talked about globalization, the need for cooperation, responsibility for fellow human beings, or care and concern for anyone outside of America.
  • Bachman complained that we don't have any jails overseas where we can hold and interogate terrorists without ever giving them a fair trial.
  • Only Hunstman and Paul spoke against waterboarding and truly opposed torturing human beings as a means of protecting the united states. All other candidates tried to denounce torture while not actually denouncing methods of torture.

Now, I know these are all complex issues and I am not trying to make light of them or to necessarily say I have thought them all thought-out and have clear-cut stances. But what came through loud and clear in the debates was this: "We need to protect and promote American prosperity no matter what the cost is to the rest of the world." If that doesn't cause some discomfort to the Christian, I suggest he or she might actually want to read the Gospels.

So, in light of the rhetoric promoting America's greatness I thought I would simply remind us that Christians in America are not citizens of America who are to look after the needs of America at all costs. Rather, we are citizens of the kingdom of heaven, the realm where God rules and the realm where we work for his purposes at all costs. The following verses remind us of this:
Philippians 3:20 - 21: 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Hebrews 13:14: For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
As we look forward to the kingdom of God, to the time when God's rule and his presence will completely recreate everything as we know it into full perfection, we shape our lives based on the ideals of that kingdom. So even though that kingdom is still out there in the future ahead of us, it is present in the way we live as the church of Jesus Christ. Our present lives are to be shaped by the kingdom. This means that we are more concerned with the rights of the poor, marginalized, and broken than those of the rich and powerful; more concerned with universal justice than the rights of one country; more concerned with human dignity, safety, and opportunity than personal or national security.

The dramatic narrative of the Bible reveals to us a God who is on a mission to renew his creation so that peoples of every tongue and tribe can live eternally in his presence and under his glorious rule. If all peoples belong to the new creation and if the Christian is called to live in the present as a citizen of this new kingdom even though it remains to be fully realized in the future, I ask this simple question without offering a clear cut answer: Is there room for nationalistic patriotism in the mission of God?