True Patriotism

Living in a time when issues of war, religious politics, and a host of other moral opinions divide the United States, a call to patriotism seems like an imprudent request. Confronted by the complexities and challenges of our society, it is little wonder that many feel a certain disgust when it comes to showing patriotism.

I was actually asked recently by a man if our church had an American flag in our church sanctuary. He shared that recently the church he attended, chose to remove the flag. George Bernard Shaw felt this way, when he stated, "You'll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race."

I recognize that patriotism can be merely an extension of self-love. I may love my country because it is my country. If it manages to field a winning Olympic team, that enhances my self-image as a citizen. If its borders are secure, my peace and prosperity are as well. If it is a major world power, I can feel a certain superiority over the rest of the world. The patriotism of Hitler's Nazis was certainly of this kind.

But there is a nobler basis for patriotism! Like all other loyalties it can be a good thing. It is my conviction that true patriotism has always had at its core an essential belief in God, and without that belief, patriotism comes up lacking. The documents of the Continental Congress that frames our republic espoused a strong belief in God. Without belief in God, there is no true patriotism!

Psalm 33:12 states, "Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!"

The writer of Hebrews following this same theme as it relates to Abraham. God brought into existence a chosen promised nation through Abraham. The Bible states, "so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises." Hebrews 6:12

Do not be sluggish! If there was ever an apt description of our modern world, this is it. The issue of being sluggish, has been expressed in a word - “acedia.”

Acedia describes a life-robbing dreariness or sadness. St. Gregory the Great (c. 540-604) included this term among the seven deadly sins. Acedia is an internal attitude that is a form of apathy. It results in our being oppressed by weariness and boredom. If faith is the “eye of love” that “sees” and delights in the beauty of God’s love in all things, then acedia is the absence of that love.

William Bennett, states that our problem is what the ancients called acedia, the sin of sloth. As understood by the saints, it is not laziness about life’s affairs, but rather an aversion to and a negation of spiritual things. It reveals itself in an undue concern for external affairs and worldly things. Acedia is spiritual torpor, an absence of zeal for divine things. And it brings with it, according to the ancients, a sadness, a weariness of the world. Acedia, for Bennett, manifests itself in our joyless, ill-tempered, and self-seeking rejection of the nobility of the children of God. The slothful person hates the spiritual, and wants to be free of its demands. It eventually leads to a hatred of the good altogether. And with hatred comes more rejection, more ill temper, sadness, and sorrow.

I am amazed at what makes news in our nation. For instance, a rich spoiled brat drives under the influence of alcohol, is placed on probation, violates that probation, and goes to jail, gets out, goes back. When she is eventually released its front page news. She is immediately the guest on a major prime time news program.

Meanwhile, major issues were being decided in the Congress and the Supreme Court, but Paris got all the coverage. The results are a sort of dumbing down. A new study from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press shows that Americans, on average, are not as sharp when it comes to current events as they were in 1989. Example: Only 69 percent of people surveyed know who the vice president is, compared to 74 percent in 1989.You would think people would be getting smarter with easier access to information through the Internet. Unfortunately, they are more likely to plug into the blogosphere of nothingness that defines Ms. Hilton and other inane subject matter. (Orlando Sentinel Editorial, July 1, 2007)

Several years ago, we thought that our affluence, technology, and leisure would deliver for us a sort of utopian existence. This is not the case.

Scottish author John Buchan was prophetic when he wrote these words, "In such a (nightmare) world everyone would have leisure. But everyone would be restless, for there would be no spiritual disciplines in life. It would be a feverish, bustling world, self-satisfied and yet malcontent, and under the mask of a riotous life there would be death at the heart. In the perpetual hurry of life there would be no chance of quiet for the soul. . . . In such a bagman’s paradise, where life would be rationalized and padded with every material comfort, there would be little satisfaction for the immortal part of man." Buchan was fearful of the effects of WWI upon society.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, in his 1978 Harvard commencement address warned of the West’s “spiritual exhaustion,” when he stated: "In the United States the difficulties are not a Minotaur or a dragon—not imprisonment, hard labor, death, government harassment and censorship—but boredom, sloppiness, indifference. Not the acts of a mighty all-pervading repressive government but the failure of a listless public to make use of the freedom that is its birthright."

Acedia, sluggishness robs us of not only our best patriotism, but the essence of our faith as well… hence the scriptures tell us to "be imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises." (Hebrews 6:12) True patriotism is firmly anchored to the promise of God.

Edith Cavell, the brave British nurse who was killed by the Germans in WWI.

In 1907 she was appointed first matron of the Berkendel Medical Institute at Brussels, Belgium. This became the Red Cross Hospital in Belgium at the outbreak of the conflict in 1914. Nurse Cavell helped to care for wounded French, Belgian, English and German soldiers alike. She ministered faithfully even to those who had fallen while fighting against her own nation. Naturally, her sympathies were with the Allies, and in cooperation with the efforts of Prince Reginald de Croy, she aided many English and French soldiers who had fled from the Germans. These escaped by “underground” methods to the Dutch frontier, where, with the aid of guides, they were conveyed across to Britain.

When some of these fugitives were traced to her house in Brussels, she was immediately arrested and after a court-martial was sentenced to face a firing-squad. All her kindness to the German wounded was forgotten. Her captors considered her a spy and treated her accordingly.
Just before the blindfold was placed over her eyes, as she stood fearlessly facing the solders who were about to take her life, she gave a last message to the world.

“I am glad,” she said, “to die for my country. But as I stand here I realize as never before that patriotism is not enough.” Then she went on to give a clear, definite testimony to her personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and her assurance of salvation, not through laying down her life for others, but because He laid down His life for her. In perfect composure, she submitted to the blindfolding of her eyes and, in a few moments fell, pierced by the bullets.

On July 3, 1776 John Adams sent this note to his wife Abigail. May it be our commitment as Christian patriots of our great United States!

This will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.

Amen!