The 4th of July, as many Americans celebrate it, is a great holiday. It’s a chance to gather with friends, have some fun, and realize that, despite its many faults, America really is a great country to live in. No doubt.
But, I do have a problem with the 4th of July as some Americans celebrate it. I guess I’ll put it this way: I celebrate the 4th of July in an “Oh, look at the pretty fireworks!” or a John Mellencamp “Little Pink Houses” sort of way, but I’m frightened of those Americans who celebrate the 4th with an unquestioning allegiance–you know, in a NASCAR sort of way.
Years ago, while doing youth ministry, I had a conversation with a high school senior who said to me that he didn’t see a difference between his faith and his patriotism. Instead of angrily jumping on him and assuming he meant what I thought he meant, I asked him to explain what he said.
He said he thought the US was God’s favorite country and when he pledges allegiance to the US flag, he’s worshiping God. I remember thinking to myself “Okay, that’s exactly what I thought he meant.” Sadly, there are a bunch of Americans who have this same blind allegiance to their country that not only do they hold their patriotism as sacred, but they confuse their patriotism with their faith.
H. Richard Niebhur, in his book Radical Monotheism and Western Culture writes about how we humans have a lot of gods. Niebuhr says that anything, whether it’s a person, a thing, or an idea, that we consider to be of ultimate concern to us is a god. Holding one’s country up as an ultimate good–as one’s god–is referred to by theologians as hegemony.
One of the worst but most widespread incarnations of hegemony inside churches themselves is when we see the American flag (or any other flag for that matter) in a church sanctuary. As a guest preacher at different churches, I saw it way too often. I cringe each time I see an American flag or a state flag up in the chancel area of a church.
When churches, synagogues, mosques, whatever, have a nation’s flag being flown in their sanctuary it reinforces to all those worshiping the false theology that their God blesses that nation, always with the implication that the blessing is at the expense of any other nation. This is happening in worship centers across the nation, and it’s horrible theology!
Our God is a God of the cosmos, not the God of any particular nation, not the God of any particular people, and as I see it, not the God of any particular religion.
So let’s wave the little American flags on the 4th of July while the fireworks pound in the foreground, but let’s keep the flags out of our places of worship.
God bless the people of every nation this 4th of July. And let’s hope that one day we see ourselves not as citizens of nations but as proud ambassadors of a global–even cosmic–community.
