Patriotism in the Worship Service?
by Loren Seibold | 29 May 2023 |
Here in the United States, today is a holiday when we honor those fallen in military battles for our country.
It’s called Memorial Day. And I confess I have mixed feelings about it. Especially when it’s celebrated in church.
I am deeply appreciative of those who died in service to my country, or who even served to protect it. One of my great uncles, a first-generation German-American, died at the attack on Pearl Harbor. World War II seems, at least in history, to have been a necessary war—though it would be interesting to know whether everyone thought so at the time.
But I fear that holidays like this sometimes celebrate sacrifices made in service to the worst impulses of human nature—not of those who fight the wars, but of those who start them.
Patriotism walks a fine line. It justifies to the front-line their sacrifices, and gives them feelings of pride. But patriotism can also be emotional manipulation on the part of political leaders in service of personal greed and personal pride, and national greatness. When we celebrate patriotism, are we feeling pride in our national greatness or (what I believe we should be feeling) regret for all lives lost unnecessarily?
Most wars, I believe, are unnecessary. The men who start them, from their offices in the capitols of the nations, may have statues erected to them. Others make great fortunes off of wars and the things necessary to fight them. Are they unbiased when they send young men and women off to die?
We remember on Memorial Day the soldiers, sailors, and airmen who died. But what about the cost to civilians? Brown University estimated that the civilian deaths from the Iraq invasion alone could be as high as 300,000 people, many of them women and children. Do we talk about that when we celebrate patriotism on the part of our servicemen and women? What do you suppose Jesus would say about the deaths of so many innocents in service of protecting our national pride?
In my lifetime there are wars that my country entered with the flimsiest of excuses, and into which young men and women were sent to suffer and die for conflicts that accomplished nothing. Vietnam and Iraq have both generally been admitted to have been geopolitical mistakes. From both we left without any improvement whatsoever in the country where we fought.
What we offer those dear people who lost loved ones, or go through life permanently handicapped, is pride for having served their countries. It’s better than nothing, I suppose. But if they served an unnecessary war—one that shouldn’t have been fought at all—is a warm feeling of patriotism an honest and just reward?
In worship
In a church I once pastored, a veteran of the Marine Corps would lead a patriotic celebration in the church service on the Sabbath closest to Memorial Day. He’d been doing it for years, long before I arrived. He would dress in his uniform (which, impressively, still fit him six decades after he’d fought) and extol the United States and what a privilege it was to die for your country. This was accompanied by the Pathfinders marching in with the American flag and the singing of the national anthem. (Which, with its “rockets’ red glare” and “bombs bursting in air,” is itself a celebration of war. It sounds to me very out of character with the teachings of Jesus.)
By this time, my church was about a third people not born in the United States. I always wondered if they found this meaningful for worship—or if they even understood the history behind it.
Lately there has been an outbreak of political campaigning in evangelical church services. Preachers preach in favor of right-wing conspiracies, and loudly demand that Christians vote for the conservative candidates. (In the United States, under the Johnson amendment, this technically violates a church’s non-profit tax status, but it is rarely enforced.)
I don’t know how Adventists, having early on been warned of the danger of compromise in this borderline between church and state, can do this with clear consciences.
But some do. An Adventist congregation in Michigan has devoted itself to preaching political conspiracies about vaccinations. They often extol right wing notions of Christian nationalism and openly fuel the culture wars. The mind boggles to think about it—especially when you realize that this congregation is on the edge of one of our largest Adventist universities. I am certain that conference leaders would quickly remove pastors or even shutter churches that denied, say, the investigative judgment, or the inspiration of Ellen White, but there have been no consequences for this pastor and his leaders. Perhaps the conference leaders like the “gospel” they preach—I don’t know.
My preference would be to leave patriotism and its sibling, politics, out of worship. I cannot be convinced that the gospel demands that the wall of separation between church and state should be removed, or even cracked a little. (I am struggling to know how, or whether, churches should address clearly unethical things that governments do, things that clearly hurt people, such as separating children from their parents at the border, or waging wars that kill hundreds of thousands of civilians.)
Personally, I wouldn’t have a flag on the platform, and would restrict Memorial Day remembrance to, perhaps, a mention in the morning prayer. Or perhaps a pastor with many servicemen and women could lead a separate event on Memorial Day itself.
But I’m not sure I have the answers. What is your response to patriotism? And is church the right place for it?
Loren Seibold is the Executive Editor of Adventist Today.
