Rant: Render to Caesar

[Note: Just to make it abundantly clear, this is not a rant against patriotism; it's a rant about where celebrations of patriotism should appropriately take place.]

Then he said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." Matthew 22:21

I have a very, very difficult time with displays of patriotism at church. It began, I think, in my young adult years when my dad (born in the Netherlands) protested the United States flag placed at the front of the church they attended in eastern Washington. "I will not bow down to the flag of a nation when I'm praying," he told the pastor.

Having spent most of our lives in other countries, it seemed strange to see a flag in an honored spot at the front of an American church. We would not have expected to see a Malaysian flag at the front of our home church, or a Thai flag at the front of Thai churches when I was a little child. Thailand is a Buddhist country, and Malaysia is an Islamic country; they don't put flags at the front of their temples or mosques, either, last I looked.

My position is this: church and state should be well and truly separated. A church is God's house. I believe that the kind of pseudo-religious fervor many Americans have for their country doesn't have any place in God's house. Venerating the construct we've created about our country--unity, loyalty, purity, freedom--belongs in a place where it doesn't get mixed in with the worship of the God of the Universe. Furthermore, when patriotism takes over the service, it often ends up focusing on the sacrifices of our soldiers, sometimes for just wars and sometimes for selfish imperialism. Again, what does this have to do with the worship of God?

I've not run into this in really obnoxious ways in churches except in one church--the one I visited this weekend. I used to attend this church regularly, but for a variety of reasons including the one I'm ranting about here, I transferred to our university's church. Every Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Veterans Day is difficult to sit through as the leadership of this church presents a program designed to tug on the emotional strings of your patriotism. You take away the message that "We're telling you that our country is the greatest, and God thinks so, too, so that settles it." After September 11, 2001 there were at least three weeks--including Christmas--when we had to stand and pledge allegiance to the United States flag, and sit through patriotic songs while we watched Powerpoint presentations depicting flags, the twin towers, firemen and artists' paintings of Jesus weeping beside the site of the tragedy.

I try to figure out what makes me so angry as I sit through these services. I feel like someone is trying to manipulate me emotionally, something that always irritates me in religious services where this is the clear intent. But it's more than that. I suppose it's also because I grew up in other countries that are also great in their own unique ways.

While I agree that the freedoms in the United States are stronger than most countries in which I've lived, and while I think this is the most generous country on the face of this earth in coming to the rescue when people face great tragedy, I also have seen the "ugly American" face--the one that is aggressive, demanding and flaunts an air of righteous superiority, denigrating people of other countries. It's not pretty. We Americans are just plain old human beings like anyone else, with a government that possesses its own brand of corruption, like anyone else's government. But the thing that pushes me right over the edge is when this "we are best" worship of our country is mixed with religious worship, giving the impression that we have a divine right, that the things of our country are synonymous with the things of the Christian concept of God. (Consider the implications of that for non-Christians in our country....)

My roommate from our Singapore high school used to call me "Benedict Arnold," joking about my lack of patriotism. I probably deserved it at the time. My patriotism has grown significantly as I've lived in the United States now for over 25 years. I'm glad to be an American. I appreciate the societal agreements that make this a free, comfortable place to live, a place that fosters creativity and generosity, that places high value on individuality. I just don't think that my patriotism should be melded with my religious belief. And I fear that, in the long run, this approach of mixing the two in many of our churches will train our children to be just as fundamentalist and politically violent with their religious beliefs as those who shocked our nation in September of 2001.

God and Caesar get different things from us, Jesus said. I think we must be exceedingly careful to keep it that way. When it comes down to our children's hearts and first loyalties, I know where I want those to be given, without question.