I've been helped along in my thinking by Eric Metaxas' mesmerizing biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (aptly titled, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy). The life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, for me at least, epitomizes the proper relationship between patriotism and faith. Briefly, I'll summarize his life:
Bonhoeffer was born in pre World War I Germany to a wealthy family of what can only be called the social "upper crust." Throughout his childhood, his parents emphasized the importance of learning and the importance of conviction - of sticking to what one believes. In his late teens, Bonhoeffer decided to study theology and did so in several places. Following his studies, during the buildup to World War II, Bonhoeffer became deeply embroiled in the kirchenkampf, or church struggle in Hitler's Germany. Eventually, Bonhoeffer's convictions led him to participate in an attempt to assassinate Hitler, for which Bonhoeffer would be executed days before the war's end.
I bring up Bonhoeffer because of that thing called the kirchenkampf. The church struggle was between a group that was known as the "Reich Church" or the "German Christians" and a group that would come to be identified as "The Confessing Church," of which Bonhoeffer was a key part. The German Christians were ones who believed that to be a good Christian necessarily meant being a good German. In other words, they looked the other way as Hitler and his cronies defiled the true faith with their anti-semitism and their worship of Hitler as a god. Bonhoeffer saw that this was happening and fought with everything he had against it, but in the end was unable to stop Hitler's destruction of the church and so he became instrumental in the formation of the Confessing Church.
The author of the biography - Eric Metaxas - identifies one of , if not the chief problem that led the "German Christians" - who were, prior to Hitler, orthodox in their beliefs - down the primrose path of heresy. In short, they were incapable of separating their "German-ness" from their Christianity. They were so caught up in the idea that to be a good Christian meant to be a good German that when being a good German meant going along with Hitler's schemes, they did theological backflips to try and justify the most insane of ideas. Jesus became an Aryan, the New Testament a unified attack on Judaism, and on and on it went. For these "German Christians," faith and patriotism had become so intertwined, so comingled, that they could no longer separate them, even when it was obvious that something was dreadfully wrong.
I don't know about anyone else, but I read things like that and I begin to fear for our country. I fear that we are approaching a similar point or, even worse, that we may have arrived there. I fear that there are many, many Christians in America who have wound their "American-ness" and their Christianity so tightly together that they can no longer tell where one ends and the other begins.
To be sure, we do not have a psychotic dictator attempting to destroy the church breathing down our necks as did the church in Bonhoeffer's time. Yet, if anything, that makes our situation as a church even more precarious, even more critical. Bonhoeffer and the Confessing Church was responding to an obvious and visible crisis and so were able to clearly demonstrate the dangers and could point to the extreme result of such an irrevocable mixing of faith and patriotism. We, on the other hand, are "safe." There is little obvious danger out there to indicate that we have a serious problem, and there are few extreme examples to which we can point.
Let me be clear, though - the absence of obvious evidence does not mean that there is not a problem. The fact that we don't have a Hitler on our heels does not change the fact that there are many Christians for whom faith in God and belief in the American Dream are nearly synonymous. There are groups that will portray our nations wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as holy wars, thus making supporting those wars the only "Christian" thing to do. There are others who will tell you that being a good American and a good Christian come together in the hatred of Muslims, who all want to kill you. I could give more examples, but I think you get the idea.
I'll say it again - this scares me. Don't get me wrong, I love my country. I consider myself privileged to have been born in America and I don't want to live anywhere else. I recognize that I have been blessed. But I cannot combine my faith in God with my love for my country. They simply do not mix. For one thing, my country routinely acts in ways that fail to live up to the truth of faith in Christ. For another, selling out my faith to patriotism demands that I forfeit my ability to speak out against the evils done by my country and, should a situation similar to that faced by the "German Christians" arise, I would have no credibility with which to speak against the heresies.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was not a "German Christian" - he was a Christian who happened to be German. In other words, his faith took absolute and complete priority over his patriotic identity. By his life and through his death, he modeled for the church today what the proper intersection, the right relationship between faith and patriotism should be. This Independence Day, I challenge followers of Christ to follow in his footsteps and to declare that their faith is independent of their patriotism, that the two are not synonymous and that their faith takes absolute priority. I am not an "American Christian." Rather, I am a Christian who was fortunate to be born in America.
