Independance Day

A couple years ago, the fourth of July fell close to a Sunday. Adrienne and I went to a church in Tucson we had been told was deficient in preaching and music, but had great fellowship (we went four times and no one even acknowledged our existence). The whole service was geared towards the celebration of the fourth of July. We sang God Bless America, and America the Beautiful...the sermon was about how God has blessed this great country...

At Willow Creek there is an American flag displayed outside the sanctuary. Willow Creek is notorious for, among other things, not allowing any crosses to be put up in the church for fear they might offend new visitors.

Over the last 30 years, the church in the United States has become identified with one particular political party, and has become increasingly vocal in its acts of patriotism. Many church leaders have even been known to advocate war to defend and advance the causes of this particular nation.

If you don't believe me, check this out www.bushfish.org (I don't know how to turn this into a link or I would.) (Also if you have a weak stomach don't go to the site)

In Rome, the state was held together, in part by the cult of the emperor and by faith in and loyalty to the state apparatus. When the new Christian faith began to spread its members were denounced as atheists, as disloyal, as unpatriotic. And they responded by saying, "We have a new emperor now, who demands our allegiance, and we are faithful to him." Paul said to the new believers "Our struggle is against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world," as well as "the spiritual forces for evil." John, exiled for his lack of faith in Domatian, wrote of Rome as the whore, Babylon, and called the church to be faithful unto death, to Christ.

Rome brought peace and prosperity to the lands it conquered (as well as, at least initially a lot of death and despair). It spread the rule of law across a wide swath of territory. Rome defended itself with its powerful army, and it fought preemptive wars to head off potential threats on the fringes of its empire. Rome was a place of great technological advance and innovation, of great buildings, and large cities. Rome was a place the gods had blessed...until it fell collapsed upon itself, crushed by its own weight, its carcass picked clean by barbarian invaders.

If you replaced "Rome" with "United States" in that paragraph it would still be true...well the last bit is still ahead of us. And I think that everything that the New Testament says about Rome is true of the United States. We are not called to be loyal to the government. We are not called to be loyal to a nation.

Don't get me wrong...I'm happy to live in the United States...most of the time. In a lot of ways it is a better place to live than, say, Haiti. In fact very few people would choose Haiti over the United States.

But I think that a lot of the time the church in the United States forgets that even if you live in the best, most comfortable Babylon on Earth...She's still a whoring seductress that we are called to struggle against, to stand up to, to not pledge our allegiance to.

My loyalty is to Christ and to the church. My hope and my faith are found in the redemptive power of the cross. Not the power of the US military. So when the United States decides to go to war, I don't have any responsibility to support that...on the contrary, I have a duty to stand with Christians in Iraq (or anywhere else our government sees fit to attack) and say stop.

When I was younger than I am now, I accepted the idea that war could accomplish good. I accepted the idea that I should be loyal to my country. That supporting one country over another was permissible. I gloried in the history of the United States military. I devoured the history books, watching for examples of American valor and heroism. I looked up and saw a government to be proud of. Now I see a tale of death and destruction. I see a government to be ignored and when necessary resisted. What happened?

So fireworks are fun. So are barbecues. I think I'll try to have both.