Baptist Pastor: Christianity in America Too Wedded to Patriotism

The pastor may be putting a little bit of “black liberation theology” into the mix as well, but he’s absolutely correct that the church is to wedded to patriotism. It’s long past time to stop saying the Pledge of Allegiance (to the flag? Seriously?), and any church that flies the U.S. flag higher the cross is closer to idolatry than I’d like to go. There are better ways to honor Romans 13 and such than to incorporate civil religion of patriotism into our churches.

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.

I agree, especially having attended American churches where the congregations were multi-national as well as small churches where the pledge was part of SS (and in one worship service) and at least 2 services a year consisted of patriotic songs.

But I wish you good luck in removing the US flag and the praise America hymns from your church.

"Some things are of that nature as to make one's fancy chuckle, while his heart doth ache." John Bunyan

I used to travel around the country with a Southern Gospel group. It was a well known truth that if we were in a dead church concert and wanted to get the crowd engaged and on their feet, just pull out a patriotic tune. God Bless the USA (by Lee Greenwood) would do it every time :)

Greg: did the church sniper pick them off if they raised their hands, or if they clapped out of time?? :^)

Sorry, couldn’t resist, and Greg’s comment reminds me of the dictum “patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.” Apparently there is also some evidence that patriotism serves as a substitute for faith as well. Yikes.

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.

The subject is bigger than the pastor’s discussion, but his bias must be noted: “For them, personal salvation is more important than social justice.”

“Christianity has been separated from being Christ-like, meaning that the concern for the ‘least of these’ the lost and the left-out, the very people Jesus came to save,” said Mapson.

“Many who claim the Christian faith are more patriotic than Christ-like. For them, personal salvation is more important than social justice.”

These statements are a bit nonsensical: The second sentence says basically two contradicting things:

1. People claiming to be Christian are more USA-loving than Christlike.

2. People claiming to be Christian think personal salvation is more important than social justice.

? He doesn’t also believe #2?

I think I’d have to read the entire script to figure out what is going on.

But I just wanted to make a general comment that I think churches being patriotic is not entirely wrong or bad. I think promoting a D or R ticket openly or implicitly is wrong; listening to Dems, they long for a lot of good and even Christian ideas. We all tend to put way too much savior-stuff into politicians. But again, it’s a democracy, so we’re taught to care, be involved, have opinions, and believe that the common person can change things. (very American, perhaps even Christian ideas)

So, after thinking and listening during this ultra-heated political race, I am OK with saying that our politics are pretty much the expression of our moral, religious beliefs. Pretty entirely. And that’s A-OK. Should it be different?

Other things that confuse me about politics is why D’s doing consider being pro-life as advocating for “social justice.” … Aut then, why unborn babies are pretty much all R’s are ready to root for?