When Patriotism Becomes Idolatry

The NFL flag controversy shows that we need moderation in patriotism, as in all things.

This is the follow-up to my previous post about the NFL protest, in which I questioned the protesters about their goals and clarity. Now it’s time to turn around and talk to the people who protested the protest. At the same time, I want to look at the bigger picture and ask some deeper questions about the nature of appropriate patriotism. A lot of the outrage that I saw revolved around respect and/or loyalty to the flag, or to America as a whole. It got me wondering: how much respect do you have to give to your country? And when does respect cross the line and become worship?

This is complicated because, as I see it, there are two Americas. One is the ideal of America, expressed in phrases like “all men are created equal,” “liberty and justice for all,” and “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” The other is the real America, the country as it is, with all its flaws and tarnished history. While real America has its good points as well, it is not to be confused with the ideal. So when you ask me to respect the country, which one are you asking me to respect?

Donald Trump: Not The Ideal President

Apologies to certain family members, but I cannot agree with the memes you keep posting about how Donald and Melania Trump are basically the best thing to ever happen to America. I was a Never Trumper before the election, I didn’t vote for him, and I find much of his conduct repulsive. Yes, he is the President; but one of the best things about the American ideal is that we are allowed, even encouraged, to criticize our leaders. They are accountable to us. And yet, the frenzied support and defense of Trump often looks to me more like Lasaraleen’s defense of the Calormene Tisroc (emperor): “It must be right if he’s going to do it!” (The Horse and His Boy, C. S. Lewis; emphasis in original). Calormen is the evil empire of the Narnia books. Their subjects have to agree with the Tisroc, under penalty of death. We’d like to think that we’re not like that because we have a democratic system of government. But the more we treat our president like an emperor, the more we look like an empire. True, some people show inordinate disrespect for President Trump, treating him as less than human, and it’s good to call them out. But let’s not let the pendulum swing too far the other way, allowing no sober criticism of his most outlandish acts. If you want to defend what he says or does, please, give me your arguments. Let’s have an honest conversation about what is or is not acceptable behavior. But no president should get carte blanche just for being the President. That’s one way loyalty to America can cross the line.

The Flag: Ideal or Reality?

Things get even more complicated when we bring up symbols such as the flag. Is the flag a symbol of the American ideal, or of America as it is? I believe it sits uneasily at the junction of both. The symbolism of the colors and shapes in the flag is mostly about our ideals, such as bravery and justice. But it also represents our history (13 stripes for the 13 colonies). Especially outside the USA, the flag is a clear marker of a real American thing (a ship, an army base, an embassy) with real American people in/around it. It also represents very personal history to many people, such as veterans and their families, or immigrants and refugees. Of those real and personal meanings, many are honorable. You are right to point out that the honor of soldiers, for example, is bound up in the honor of the flag. But so is the honor of others who act on behalf of the government, like police officers. That was the original point of the protest: to draw attention to unjust police violence. This was a confusing way to do that, as I explore in my previous post. But it doesn’t help to act as if the flag can never stand for anything bad. And as this article points out, it certainly doesn’t help to demand or force respect. That would not be respect at all, and the demand would go against the very ideals that the flag is meant to represent.

Speaking of Those Ideals…

What are they? Let’s see if we can spell out exactly what is so good, or should be so good, about America.

• Individual liberty: this is probably the most American of American values. Embodied in judicial concepts like freedom of speech and freedom of religion, the right of every person to choose how they will live is held sacred in this country.
• Individual responsibility: the flip side of liberty is that every person must deal with the consequences of their choices. If they get in trouble, it’s up to them (or maybe their family or community) to get them out of it; but it’s not the government’s job to make everyone happy.
• Equality: this is another big one. As opposed to class-based systems of power and privilege (or the Soviet idea of “class guilt”), we assert that each individual is as valuable as any other, with the same basic human rights.
• Industry: this word used to have a slightly different meaning. Tied to the adjective “industrious,” it connotes a hard-working, innovative attitude. Perhaps a more modern version of this value is “entrepreneurship”, still held in high regard.

These are at least what I see as typical American ideals (let me know if I’ve missed anything). Now I’m going out on a limb to try and describe how each of them can turn into a dangerous idol.

• Individual liberty can easily lead to an extreme anti-authoritarianism, bordering on (if not falling into) anarchism. Any limitations on behavior are seen as oppressive. Rights become demands. Selfishness reigns supreme.
• Individual responsibility takes the pendulum too far the other way. Any desire to help others, or any requests for help, are seen as signs of weakness. Any trouble you’re in must be your own fault. You must have done something wrong, or not worked hard enough. You should pull yourself up by your bootstraps and be dependent on nobody else.
• Equality has become a very messy word. The hard truth is that no matter how we try to treat people the same, they will always be different. Innate human dignity may be equally held by all, but it becomes counterproductive to pretend that everyone has the same talents, goals, or opportunities. Our unique histories and contexts, plus our inborn personality traits, are things we have to face and deal with. Ignoring such things in the name of “equality” is dangerous. For one result, see “Screwtape Proposes a Toast” by C. S. Lewis, in which the devil Screwtape expounds upon how he and his colleagues can warp the ideals of democracy and equality in the minds of their human prey:

Presently he suspects every mere difference of being a claim to superiority. No one must be different from himself…the whole tendency of their society is opposed to every sort of excellence…necessarily excluding humility, charity, contentment, and all the pleasures of gratitude or admiration, [this state of mind] turns a human being away from almost every road which might finally lead him to Heaven.

• Industry, or entrepreneurship, is important for a productive society. Taken too far, though, it can lead to a workaholic obsession with status or money. A worship of hard work can also promote the “bootstraps” philosophy mentioned earlier, that if you’re not successful, it must be your own fault for not working hard enough. Even legitimate needs are seen as not only weakness, but laziness. Compassion is not tempered with wisdom, but ignored altogether.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that these ideals are inherently bad, or should be replaced with the ideals of globalism. I’m saying they’re not perfect. Being the ideal American is not the highest goal.

The Anthem: Pride or Prejudice?

Have you heard or read the other verses of “The Star-spangled Banner” besides the one we always sing? Yes, there are more. I remember because I had one of them as a solo in a patriotic musical. It went like this:

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave;
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Wow. Don’t hold back, Francis Scott Key. Tell us how you really feel about the British (besides being ecstatic that they’re dead). To be fair, this was war — the war of 1812, to be precise; an attempt by Britain to undo the independence of the United States. That’s why Key feared the loss of home and country. Probably some of his friends had already been killed, and others displaced, by the invading forces. And there is a place to be proud of brave soldiers who protect their neighbors. But let’s consider our own context, interacting with our fellow humans in peacetime. Appropriate pride in the good things we’ve done can easily turn into arrogant prejudice; an assumption that everything American is best and everything else is either poorer or evil. (McCarthyism in the ’50s is perhaps the most extreme example, decrying everything “un-American” as a threat.) Dehumanizing rhetoric paints the enemy as a pollution that will only be wiped out with blood. Instead of fighting for home and freedom, we become dragonish, destroying anything that won’t be made like us.

Interestingly, the very next stanza of the anthem points us toward a solution:

Oh! thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation!
Blessed with victory and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

In God is our trust. Not in our president; not in our military, or in our Constitution, or even in democracy. God is the Power that made and preserved us a nation thus far. Rather than assuming anything worthy about ourselves, or assuming that all our causes are automatically just, this truth should motivate us to praise and humility. Otherwise, we start acting like Nebuchadnezzar: “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power…for the glory of my majesty?” (Daniel 4:30, ESV). No, actually. God built that and gave it to you. And He has some ideas as to how you should use it. As Jesus puts it in Luke 12:48, “to whom much was given, of him much will be required” (ESV).

What does God require of us who have been given the USA? Micah 6:8 (ESV):

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

So let us be good citizens without ceasing to be good neighbors. Let us respect without idolizing and criticize without demonizing. And let us call upon our leaders not just to be strong and patriotic, but to be honest and humble.

Let us be an America worth saluting.