Within the arsenals of our 21st century culture wars are some potent verbal weapons. One of them is the word “patriotism.” In the heat of political campaigns or town-hall meetings, it is a common thing to label one’s opponents as “unpatriotic.” Most invoke this concept rather thoughtlessly without consideration for its historic meaning. It is quite possible to be found in the cross-hairs of those who would homogenize us into one narrow philosophical view of the idea.
Often we are asked to seamlessly connect “God and Country” as though this nation has ever been thoroughly Christian. It has not; nor was it intended to be. Our nation’s founders crafted our civic life in a religiously, politically, and culturally plural way, because they themselves were religiously, politically, and culturally plural. Against that backdrop it is possible to be Islamic and at the same time thoroughly and authentically American. Adherents of Judaism can be true patriots, as can Christians or Buddhists or those who have not yet settled into a single path.
The tendency to equate Christian faith and American “exceptionalism” is a relatively new phenomenon. There are many things that make us distinctively American. One of those better known distinctions is that we have historically preferred to keep our civil and religious matters separate. Would this not make the urge to link them seem unpatriotic? One might think so.
As a Christian I look for ways to follow the example of Christ. As an American I look for ways to live out American ideals. At times they intersect. For example, Jesus’ blessing upon the peacemakers does not preclude the right of dissent. When I read about the purveyors of the Boston Tea Party, it evokes memories of a radical dissenter who stormed into the courts of the temple, yelling, throwing things, and knocking over tables. Those who acted in protest against the Stamp Act were in essence peacemakers themselves, because they exercised their rights of expression and dissent–rights which live in us to this very day.
Pluralism is by nature patriotic, and I am grateful to have been blessed by the Creator to have been born in a land that honors those principles of freedom, principles that have that have made room at the table for every one of us to join regardless of who we are, where we’ve been, or where we might be going.
October 8, 2009 at 4:22 am |
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