Today's Daily Lesson for Independence Day 2017:
In recent days there has been something of a public debate going on about church and state and the appropriateness of the Flag of the United States of America in the sanctuary of Jesus. Or, maybe I should pluralize that and say flags. Last week First Baptist Dallas, one of the most conservative churches with one of the most conservative pastors in perhaps the most conservative state, hosted a patriotic "Freedom" service, wherein the entire place and all of the people were decked out in red, white, and the blue. Reportedly, fireworks literally went off while the choir sang patriot songs and the congregation waved Old Glory. To me it looked less like true patriotism and more like a good old fashioned sugar stick.
Of course, many of my more liberal friends and even some conservative ones with deep convictions about the wall of separation between church and state were outspokenly critical. Some went so far as to call it plain idolatry. Then yesterday, even Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religion Commission sent out a tweet seeming to comment on the First Baptist Dallas's service or perhaps more generally the theology driving it:
"The church of Jesus Christ will outlast the United States of America. If that doesn't sound like good news to you- reconsider."
That to me, while I believe indeed true, was nevertheless too much. It undercut the place proper patriotism and pride of country have -- especially around Independence Day. The idea that the church of Jesus Christ will outlast the United States of America and all other nations and epochs is good news, but not on the Fourth of July. Saying so is like refusing to sing "Happy Birthday" to grandma because what she should really be celebrating is dying and going to heaven.
Into all of this I add an excellent book I have just read by Philip Gorski titled "American Covenant: A History of Civil Religion from the Puritans to the Present". In the book Gorski, a Yale sociologist, examines the critical role American civil religion has played as a middle ground between radical secularism -- which above all values freedom even above the idea of the common good -- and religious nationalism, which is in fact the idolatry of the state. Gorski says there is indeed a fitting place for civil religion and its religious spirit is what has been the binding force which from John Winthrop to Abraham Lincoln to Martin Luther King, Jr. has made America what it is today and what it still hopes to be tomorrow: "one nation under God with liberty and justice for all."
Gorski dedicates a great deal of his book to perhaps my favorite theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. To Gorski, Niebuhr was the preeminent theologian for America's civil religion insofar as he understood the power of religious language to summon a people to both good or evil and therefore the humility that is required as we think on what it means for humankind to be both "a little higher than the angels" and also less than God.
It is something Niebuhr wrote that I want to share as we reflect on the proper place of patriotism this Independence Day. Writing amidst the rise of Nazi Germany and its deification of the state through religious language symbology, Niebuhr said that there is indeed something like a so-called "Christian nation" and they prove themselves so by submitting to the "prophetic judgments" spoken against them. In other words, a Godly nation is only Godly when it is also humble.
Today is Independence Day. It is indeed a day for celebrating all that America is and aspires to be. Today let's be patriotic about all that we are; and also humble about all that we are not yet.
Indeed, Jesus Christ will outlast the United States of America. Nevertheless, let's still wish her a happy birthday and hope for another full year of life, Liberty, and pursuit of happiness; for her, and for all her many children.
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