God loves you even if you weren't born in America

Once again I have survived the first Sunday in July and now do not have to deal with another patriotic onslaught for an entire year. I really have been thinking about why I start to cringe when the Fourth of July rolls around and why I just can't bring myself to jump on the bandwagon and wave the flag with everybody else. I think that today I managed to clarify some of my thoughts and I think I am starting to understand what bothers me so deeply about the mingling of church and patriotism that we endure each year. I really don't have any problem with the proposition that God helped the American Revolution happen and wanted to set up the United States as a free nation that would allow for the creation of a new religion. I know enough about history to realize that in 1820 there weren't very many spots on Earth that would have provided such fertile ground. But, I really hate it when people still get up and talk about how blessed they are to live in such a free nation out of all the other ones on the earth. Um, hello? Has anyone been paying attention to current events over the last 2 centuries? America no longer has exclusive rights to freedom and democracy and we certainly aren't alone when it comes to freedom of religion. The Church is flourishing outside of the United States, all in countries where people are apparently exercising their rights to choose their own religion and to have free speech. Yeah, I know that the entire earth isn't "free" yet, but I can personally think of a large list of other countries in which I could enjoy a full life with many of the freedoms and opportunities I have here. Besides that, there's just the general feeling of complacency and egoistic back-slapping that seems to pervade patriotic celebrations. I don't like saying that my country is the "best" because it's stupid to compare; it implies that others are the "worst". Yeah, I don't really want to live in North Korea, but are we supposed to sit back and think "I'm glad God chose me and not them"? It seems like in the scriptures God always links being chosen with having greater responsibilities. Our blessings should humble us and encourage us to look for ways to use them. I'm still not sure what our responsibility is, especially since I don't think it involves military force in any way. But I don't like sitting around Church feeling wonderful that I was born into such a fabulous place while doing nothing to help others who weren't as "blessed". I just hope that I'm assuming the worst of people and that they are using this time to figure out how they can use their blessings and opportunities to help other people. And, just as I hope people will be more willing to look around them do more for the world at large, maybe I should suck it up and celebrate our past. I think I need a little more balance in my life.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Okay, I totally agree with you. I hate this meeting. I started laughing during ours because of the great irony when they starte talking about our patriots at the revolution. I wanted to ask, "Why did the British hate freedom? We don't know, but we should bomb the heck out of them because the British were the enemies of freedom." These evildoer British were suppressing the rise of freedom in the world. Their words fit right into the war on terror rhetoric and I don't think they even realized it. It reminded me so much of the Zoramites who would pray to God thanking Him that they had the truth and light and others didn't. The whole meeting was just like that evil prayer. I loved it when one guy got up and basically said that anyone who wanted to travel outside of the US was evil because everything good in the world can be found in America and you're denying your heritage to leave it. No wonder we are considered insular and unknowledgable about the rest of the world.
7/28/2005 10:57 AM
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