The Gospel Is Not Red, White and Blue

If you listen carefully to some of the rhetoric distributed frequently by Christians, you might be led to believe that capitalism, democracy, independence and patriotism are fundamental principles consistent with Biblical, Christian teaching. Especially amongst “conservatives” there are frequent pleas (even demands) that we express our undying, unwavering, unquestionable loyalty to our country. Independence is often applauded and encourage in the spirit of capitalism as if God himself were commanding us to “pick ourselves up” and “make it” on our own and earn our own way. Our constitution is sometimes talked about as if it is held in as high esteem (sometimes it sounds like it is held even higher) as the Bible (although those that do so have probably read as much of the constitution as they have the Bible, which isn’t much) as if that is proof of the absolute rightness of democracy. 

Unfortunately, none of those ideas seem to have any real basis in scripture as far as I can see. Capitalism, which is built on the idea of consumerism, is in direct contradiction to the more important idea in scripture that we be sacrificial givers and live humbly. By the way, our sacrificial giving is often encouraged to be directed towards the poor and disadvantaged (the Bible does not ever discern between those who are deserving of our compassion and those who are not based on their work ethic or independent spirit). Of course we would not expect the Christians of New Testament times to express patriotism to the Roman government, but neither does Jesus teach us to express loyalty to any government. In fact if patriotism were so important, it seems we would have expected Jesus to do the very thing that the Jews so much wanted him to do - establish a new theocracy with the Jews as the ruling class (I don’t remember him doing that). 

As far as independence, the New Testament church and the teaching of Paul never celebrated independence. In fact we are taught that we are completely dependent on our Creator and He wants us to be dependent on one another. That was the model of the church in Acts, which the church in America is nowhere close to. And it was the church that Jesus and the apostles were most concerned with in their teachings, not the government. Any mention of government is almost incidental, general guidelines about being obedient and to pray for our leaders. If you really looked to the Bible for an example of how a government should be run it would be a theocracy, guided by prophets (not a king). I don’t think that would go over very well today. 

So why do we “Christians” continue to promote capitalism, democracy, independence and patriotism as if they are sacred tenants of the Christian faith? It seems that we are often so blinded by our American culture that we can’t even see the truth of scripture. Then again, part of it may simply be ignorance - it is hard to see the truth of scripture if you don’t read it. Many who have the biggest audience and claim Christian faith (especially in world of politics and political commentary) really have no idea what the Bible says on any of this. They know law and loopholes, but they would be hard-pressed to explain the expectations of the One they claim to follow. If they do read the Bible, they have read it through the red, white and blue lenses of American culture and can’t see beyond their self imposed filter. Unfortunately, many others, who listen to the influential politicians and commentators, consume the propaganda with little thought, rather than reading and studying scripture for themselves (take a lesson from the Bereans).

America is not a bad country, but it is not God’s country either. Our life of privilege and wealth does not make us God’s favored nation any more than it did for Egypt or Babylonia in the Old Testament or the Roman Empire in the New Testament. If we fear the demise of our country because of a lack of military power, or economic strength, or patriotism, or the independent, capitalistic spirit, then we are demonstrating our lack of faith - not faith that God will “save” our country, but faith that whatever happens, God will be pleased when we demonstrate our loyalty to Him and Him alone. Even more, if we believe that the survival of our country is more important than the advancement of the Kingdom of God, then we have made our country an idol.