By Roland Wrinkle
Where I’m Coming From. I started writing this on the Fourth of July. I’ve wanted to write it for quite some time. That is because some Americans, some of the time, seem to equate their Christian faith with their national patriotism. I am a Christian (defined as a follower of the executed and resurrected Son of God and Messiah of Israel, i.e., one Jesus of Nazareth). And I am also a tax-paying, election-voting, mostly law-abiding, ex-National Guard (during Vietnam), rabid fan of US National sports teams. The later dominated the first half of my life—simply because I was not raised in any Christian tradition. I flew the Stars and Stripes on the flagpole in front of my house. I was the first to stand up, place my hand over my heart and sing the US National Anthem at LA Kings games.
Then This Happened. I started reading, seriously studying and paying a whole lot of attention to the Bible–and became convinced that it was all true. I began to see my Christian faith as the singular greatest calling in (the second half of) my life. I didn’t stop being an American. I just stared seeing my national affiliation as utterly and completely subordinate to my witness to, and following of, Christ. My now 50-year marriage, my nuclear family of 17, my 47-year profession— and everything else in my life—took a collective secondary position to my faith. I started flying a Christ flag and retired my American flag. I stopped singing publicly about the glories of the American Revolution. I stopped wearing patriotic clothing… and started wearing shirts bearing Christian mottos and slogans.
Reordering Priorities. I didn’t stop loving my wife, my family, my friends, my country—I just started loving more the Creator of the Universe, the Savior who gave his life for me, and Holy Spirit that constantly sustains me. Why? Because that was and is my understanding of what is required of me from studying and absorbing the 66 books of the Bible. I started seeing myself more and more as a child of God and a member of the community of God. That God loves and favors Indonesians, Africans, Bolivians, Cambodians, Icelanders, Latvians, Tahitians, Indians, Burmese, Bulgarians, Hungarians, Russians and Ukrainians just as much as He loves and favors Americans.
Why? Let me give you a bit more detailed explanation of why I changed my worldview. The vast proliferation of nations we see today was never a part of God’s original plan. There were no nations in the Garden—just two adams (i.e., human beings). They both (predictive of every subsequent human being who ever lived, including me) turned their backs on the One who created and loved them and started listening to a talking snake (i.e., relying on Satan instead of God). Eventually, “the Lord saw that the wickedness of humans was great in the earth and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually” that God “started over” (i.e., the flood story in Gen 6-9). But where did this get us? We got split into a whole bunch of nations (“These are the families of Noah’s sons, according to their genealogies, in their nations, and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood.” Gen 10.32)
Then comes the Tower of Babel in Gen 11. Just like the original two humans, the folks building the tower sought to be equal to God, just as the two original humans insisted on eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Here’s what God said about the insurrection of the first humans: “See, the humans have become like one of us, knowing good and evil, and now they might reach out their hands and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever.” Gen 3.22 As to the tower builders of Babylonia, God confused their languages and scattered them. From those two points on, we wind up divided into an endless gaggle of nations.
What Did God Do in Response? So, how did God decide to handle things this time? He created and anointed a nation of his own to reverse the curse of sin and evil and return his glorious creation to its original purposes. Here’s what happens in Gen 12.3, where God unconditionally promises that he will restore all of fallen creation through the nation of Israel by promising Abraham this:
“Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Not that only Israel would be blessed, but that through Israel all the nations of the earth would be blessed. In order to fulfill its role in God’s covenant (which it utterly failed to do), it was imperative that Israel develop a special and independent view of itself as a nation blessed and purposed by God. Being set apart from all of the surrounding
nations was a necessary part of its role in God’s plan of salvation.
Israel Failed in Its Calling By Seeing Itself as Exceptional. Naturally, the nation of Israel became swelled with a sense of exceptionalism. However, two things happened: 1) Israel utterly and consistently failed in its mission to be a blessing to all the nations (and not just itself); and 2) Israel’s boastful pride turned toxic, such that their religious leaders had so distorted God’s laws that they saw their own righteousness in their identity as a nation instead of their identity with God. Nationalism had replaced loyalty to the Lord. Israel lost the plot, and started thinking that they were exceptional, special and that they existed as the pinnacle of God’s favor. Israel exceptionalism, if you will. They forgot that God irrevocably promised that all the nations of the earth would be blessed. They strutted around boasting they were “the heirs of Abraham” and, therefore the special nation of God.
God Responds to National Exceptionalism. Here’s how God dealt with Israel exceptionalism: “Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.” Matt 3.9 The prophet Isaiah was quite clear: “The LORD will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.” Is. 52.10. And what happens when Jesus returns and the promised Kingdom of God is fully established here on earth? In the New Creation, “the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.” Rev 21.24 “and the leaves of the tree [of life] are for the healing of the nations.” 22.2. Not Israel. Not the Christendom of Constantine. Not Calvin’s Geneva or Luther’s Germany. Not the Holy Roman Empire. And not the Christian Nation of America.
The “People Of God” Are Considered By God To Be Holy and Favored—Not Any Particular Nation. Here’s what Peter (Jesus’ right-hand man and designated church builder) said to his earliest followers of Jesus:
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people…1 Pet 2.9
The Bible on Nationalism. “To him [the messianic Son of Man which prefigured Christ] was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.” Daniel 7.14 “[To Israel] then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God.” Deut 8.14
Yes, Romans 13 directs us to “be subject to the governing authorities.” but then immediately reminds us that “there is no authority except from God.” When Israel was captive in Babylon, God instructed them to pray for the welfare of Babylon (Jer. 29). God’s unconditional love is for the entire world—not one particular nation or group of nations (“For God so loved the world…” John 3.16)
Jesus explicitly tells us to “first seek the Kingdom of God” (Matt 6.33)—not the kingdom of any favored nation.
And that fully-realized Kingdom of God (upon the return of Jesus) will have citizens
“from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.” Rev 7.9
There will be no national flags waving. There will be no national anthems sung. There will be no “Country, Faith and Family” tee shirts worn.
I love my neighborhood. I love my state. I love my country. I love my family. I love my local congregations (yes, you folks). I have served each of these as best as I can over the years and I will continue to do so. Yet my singular and primary loyalty I owe to the God who created me, the Savior who died for me and the Spirit who sustains me. [I follow up on this theme in my second article].
AMERICA IS A WONDERFUL PLACE TO LIVE WITH MUCH TO ADMIRE–BUT IT IS NEITHER A “CHRISTIAN NATION” NOR “A SHINING CITY ON A HILL”.
by Roland Wrinkle
I just got through watching the US Men’s National Soccer Team pull out a really exciting shootout win over Canada in the quarter finals of the Gold Cup. I went crazy shouting in support of the Red, White and Blue. (Puffy only got sent flying into the air three times.) I always do. America is my place of birth, my lifelong home, the residence of 97% of my friends and family, where I practiced law for 47 years, where my children grew up (mostly) and where my grandchildren will grow up, where my rotting ashes will be returned, to whom I pay (a really really lot of) taxes, where I worked for the Post Office and labored in the military, where I benefit from Medicare and Social Security Retirement, where I vote (usually for the lesser of two feckless nincompoops). I’m an American. But much more importantly, I’m a Christian—a follower of Jesus the Christ. And never the twain shall meet.
My understanding from reading and studying the bible, is that I am required to give my singular loyalty to, and unyieldingly and unquestioningly obey, God the Father, His Son and the Holy Spirit. Accordingly, I must be highly vigilant to never confuse, conflate or confound my Christian Faith with my country. As a lawyer, I have argued before all levels of the state and federal judicial systems. As a voter and follower of what’s going on in the world, I have listened to many presidential candidates. Too many times, I have witnessed the Supreme Court and actual and want-to-be Presidents express the notion that the United States is a “Christian Nation” or a “Shining City on a Hill.” I don’t see things that way.
What Are We Talking about? According to Christianity Today, “Christian nationalism is the belief that the American nation is defined by Christianity, and that the government should take active steps to keep it that way” and a belief that “American identity is inextricable from Christianity.” “Shining City on a Hill” is derived from the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus says, “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid.” Matt 5.14
The Supreme Court Declares America a Christian Nation. On February 29, 1892, the Supreme Court declared, in Holy Trinity v. United States, that “the historical record of America overwhelmingly demonstrated that the United States … is a Christian nation.” Several decades before that, a well-known Supreme Court justice, Joseph Story, penned a letter saying, “One of the beautiful boasts of our municipal jurisprudence is, that Christianity is part of the common law…there never has been a period, in which the common law did not recognize Christianity as lying at its foundations.”
Presidential Candidates Declare America the “City on A Hill” That Jesus was Talking About. “We shall be as a city upon a hill—the eyes of all people are upon us. Today the eyes of all people are truly upon us—and our governments, in every branch, at every level, national, state and local, must be as a city upon a hill.” So sayeth JFK. So too Ronald Reagan: “I believe that Americans in 1980 are every bit as committed to that vision of a shining city on a hill, as were those long ago settlers … They are Americans awed by what has gone before, proud of what for them is still… a shining city on a hill. Also falling in lock step were Barak Obama, Mitt Romney and Ted Cruz. Same words were recited at Biden’s inauguration.
What Does The Bible Say Is Required Of A Christian? Be a great patriot? Fly the national flag? “Put country first”? The Ten Commandments implores us to make God No.1 in all things, not to make an idol of anything, and not to misuse God’s
name. The Shema, found in Deuteronomy 6:4–9, 11:13–21; Numbers 15:37–41, has us praying daily, “The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Jesus adds, “and with all your mind” (Mark 12) and then states that it is the greatest commandment, along with “love your neighbor as yourself.” In Micah (6.8) God clearly says what is required of us: “to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.” In his Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5), Jesus blesses the meek, the merciful and the peacemakers. At Matthew 25, he instructs us in our proper priorities: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick and visit the prisoner.
Are Country And Family Ultimate Biblical Priorities? Jesus (rather startlingly) told his followers, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14.26 Similarly, at Matthew 8.18, one of Jesus’ disciples asked for permission to bury his father, to which Jesus famously replied, “Follow me and let the dead bury the dead.” Jesus was engaging in hyperbole to emphasize the point that following him is the first and foremost priority of what it means to be a Christian. He didn’t literally mean for us to hate mom and dad. At Matt 10.37 he clarifies; “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” Neither God, Jesus, Paul nor any writer of the New or Old Testaments ever said, “God, Family and Country.”
So…How Is The Country I Love Doing In Fulfilling These Requirements Of The Christian Faith?
• The top 10% of Americans hold 70% of all US wealth.
• The 400 richest American billionaires have more total wealth than all 10 million Black households.
• The top 1% own 38.5% of the country’s wealth.
• The richest 1% have captured 63% of new global wealth over the past decade.
• The wealthiest 400 billionaire families in the US paid an average federal individual tax rate of just 8.2
percent.
• America is the wealthiest country in the world, with a Gross Domestic Product which is nearly five times
as great as Nos 3 and 4.
• America has the largest military budget in the world which is three times as great as No 2 and is 10 times
as great as Russia.
• America, despite having the most expensive health care system, ranks last overall compared with six other
industrialized countries—Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom—on measures of quality, efficiency, access to care, equity, and the ability to lead long, healthy, and productive lives.
• 40 million Americans don’t get enough to eat.
• 3 million children die in America each year from hunger.
This is not how the earliest Christ followers did things: “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.” Acts 2.45
Finally. If we are a “Christian Nation” and a “Shining City on a Hill,” we need to do better. The 50 wealthiest American families have net worths ranging from $8 billion to $247 billion. Cut that in half by attempting to partially fulfill our obligations as a “Christian Nation,” and those families will get by on $4 billion to $123 billion. Right now, the combined income tax rate for federal and California income taxes is around 50%. Yet, as noted above, the wealthiest 400 billionaires pay an average tax rate of 8.2 percent. Our tax system is broken. Our health care delivery system is broken. Our wealth distribution system is broken. It is misguided, in my judgment, to set our sights on making America great again. We should strive, instead, to make American priorities align more with what scripture actually requires of us.
I love my country. I truly do. I love the cross more. We all need to do better.