“We need to be the party of nationalism and I’m a Christian, and I say it proudly, we should be Christian nationalists…” Marjorie Taylor Greene, July 23, 2022

I’m a Christian. I’m a flag-waving patriot. Having lived in and traveled to other countries, I’m always glad to get back home. I love my country. I’m also deeply disturbed. The rapidly evolving syncretism of mixing Christianity and nationalism is totally foreign to biblical concepts.

Jesus told us that our challenge is to seek first the kingdom of God. (Matthew 6:33) Paul tells us that we are citizens of heaven. (Philippians 1:27) In addition to these biblical concepts, historically, all the attempts to have the church as the governing body have created disaster. Look at the Holy Roman Empire and the oppression and killing of many Christians who disagreed with the people at the top. Think of the church in Europe and England killing “heretics” who taught a different doctrine or executing people for translating the Bible into the languages of the common people. Or, King Henry VIII creating a ruling church in England with himself as the head. Go learn about the tragic abuses when the Dutch brought their doctrine of a God instituted white supremacy to the black and later the mixed races in what was the forerunner of apartheid in South Africa. (See The Covenant by James Michener). Or in a more modern context consider the blessing of Putin’s war in Ukraine by the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill.

Biblically, Christians are taught by both Peter and Paul to render obedience to and pray even for governments as cruel to Christians as that of Nero. But, nowhere is there an indication countries should be run by churches. Having seen the results of mixing religion and government, it was to prevent such abuses that our founding fathers wrote into our constitution the first amendment which states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

God did not create capitalism or socialism. Actually, you can see aspects of both in the Bible. As much as I appreciate our great experiment with the freedom of democracy, God did not invent democracy nor does he promise to specially bless democratic countries. The apostles took the message of the gospel to all the countries they could reach, including Europe and Africa, and extended as far to the east as India and China. How many different political, economic, social, and religious environments do you suppose they encountered? How often did they take it as their task to correct the governments and set up a certain kind of social structure? John, in the Revelation, exposed the cruelty of the Roman government that was severely attacking Christians and said that in his time and in his way, God would take that government down. But, nowhere did John urge Christians to begin the process.

This is why, many years ago, I was concerned when a church member commented, “We need to put an American flag on the church pulpit.” I was even more concerned recently when I saw a big U.S. flag waving just outside the front door of a church building. God’s kingdom is meant for the entire universe and is for all time. Identifying the church with any political or social system or seeing the church as affiliated with any particular government or country puts limits on who can or should be Christians. It lends itself to once again declaring “Holy War” against those we see as pagans or disbelievers.

Were we seeing a call by some for a holy war on January 6, 2021? District of Columbia police officer, Daniel Hodges, said this in his testimony to a congressional committee on July 27, 2021: “It was clear the terrorists perceived themselves to be Christians…I saw the Christian flag directly to my front. Another read, ‘Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president.’ Another: ‘Jesus is king.’” On January 6, 2021, people were killing police officers, destroying property and looking for the Vice-President of the United States so they could kill him, all in the name of Jesus. Is this what God wants his people to do?

The task God has given to you and me is for us to tell as many as we can about the salvation from sin and eternal life that we find in the gospel. He has never told us to attack people or governments in his name. Hopefully, as we teach people about following Jesus, enough people will begin to live by Christian principles, so that in every nation and type of government, people who live by those principles will rise to the top in those countries. But through it all, my total allegiance must be to King Jesus.