Christians Can’t Be Patriots

Christians can’t be patriots, and certainly can’t be nationalists, because they always have a negotiated relationship with their state, country, and nation. They owe a higher allegiance to the Kingdom of God and the Lordship of Christ. This higher allegiance takes precedence over any other allegiance.

Today, there are States, Countries, and Nations, which are not equivalent, even though we often use the terms interchangeably. The State is the government, the laws, and the systems, structures, and organisations, which perpetuate the totality of that State. A Country is a distinct geographical area that is generally linked directly to the apparatus of a state. However, sometimes multiple countries can be under the control of a single state body, as in the case of an empire. A Nation is a cultural-ethnic group that exists within a country or state.

Context – States, Nations, and Nation-States

Let’s start by making a few points about context. Before the late 1600s, the concept of being a patriot as we understand it today did not exist. The earliest form of the word, as we know it, originates from 16th-century French and refers to the family or lineage to which a person belongs. The word patriot is derived from the word for father or head of household. So, when the understanding of that word is developed, as we will see in a moment, it becomes linked to ideas of fatherland and homeland. Patriotism today means giving undue preference and allegiance to one’s country or state. This can result in chauvinism, jingoism, and the willingness to regard other countries or states as inferior to one’s own. Patriotism often leads to exceptionalism, particularly when bolstered by a religious identity or a sense of divine destiny.

Nationalism, similar to patriotism, emerged in the 17th and 18th centuries but gained recognition through the rhetoric of the American and French revolutions. Before the Early Modern period, there was no clear concept of a nation in the way we use it today, nor was there a distinct idea of a country or state. We often take for granted our Western notions of the nation-state, forgetting that it has not always existed and does not exist universally around the world today. The revolutionary writers in both the American and French revolutions referred to themselves as nationalists as opposed to royalists, because they saw themselves as fighting for the ‘nation’ rather than for a monarch. It was through those revolutions that the concept of a distinct nation emerged. Now, a nationalist is someone who gives excessive allegiance and preference to their own national group, including within the broader context of the country in which they reside. Frequently, nationalists regard their nation and their country as the same thing, and are made angry or fearful when their nation and their country do not align.

It should be obvious why a Christian cannot be a nationalist. Christians are told not to hold their own people above others. The whole point of the new covenant is that the body of Christ, the new humanity being born in the Church, is made up of people from every nation. When Christians are called to be in the world, but not to be conformed to the world, then they equally cannot be involved in the kind of foolish games that pit one nation against another. Xenophobia, racism, and nationalism are all forms of idolatrous sinfulness which must be rejected. If Christ is Lord of every nation and every country, then no one nation can be raised up above another. The accident of our birth does not precondition us to greatness at the expense of another. We cannot and must not favour the nation that we are born into over another. The person from another nation is as much my sibling as someone from my own nation, because all people in every nation have God as their parent and Christ as their Lord.

Further, no nation can ever be Christian. A person can be a Christian. A group cannot. A nation can be based on Christian ethics, rooted in Christian narratives, and even have an official relationship with the Church. However, that does not mean the nation is Christian; it only means it has been influenced by Christianity. Ultimately, a nation cannot be Christian because a nation cannot repent, cannot turn the other cheek, cannot forgive seventy-times-seven times. A nation cannot love its neighbour as itself, nor can the nation make love its highest ideal. A nation, just as with any socio-political body, always places its own survival above the survival of its neighbours. A nation exists precisely by setting a line of exclusion along ethnocultural lines, something which Christianity expressly teaches against. There can be no Christian nations, and Christians cannot be nationalists.

What’s Wrong With Patriotism?

But what about patriots? That perhaps seems more nuanced. However, the answer is the same. Just as a Christian cannot be a nationalist, they also cannot be a patriot. Not in the full sense of the word. A Christian can, to an extent, be proud of their country, although they should be very aware of the sins that their state has perpetrated. A Christian can understand themselves within the broader narrative of their country’s history, and as participants in their country’s culture and political system, but their identity cannot be based solely on those things. Their identity is always and only rooted in Christ. There is a limit to the ability of a Christian to identify with and support their state and country.

The concern of the state is always its continued existence, and this will always necessitate the exercise of power and violence. Whether through policing, warfighting, or the coercive power of legislation, the state is maintained because of coercive control. The state exists to fulfil the purpose of creating order, limiting harm, and protecting the weakest in society, but it will always do so in a flawed fashion. This limits the capacity of a Christian to support the acts of their state, and so also places a limit on their patriotism. A Christian cannot support their country when it acts against the Gospel, when it uses violence, when it harms the poor and the vulnerable, or when it seeks to divide rather than unite.

During times of war, Christians must also know that they are commanded to love their enemies, including the enemies of their country. Regardless of a Christian’s perspective on war and violence, they must understand that the people they are fighting against are their siblings, their neighbours, are people they have been commanded to love, and are children of the living God. Christians are commanded to see everyone in the world as their siblings, for God is the father of all humanity. As Bramwell Booth said, “All lands are my fatherland because all lands are my father’s.” Regardless of your perspective on the ethics of violence, you must always know that Christ is calling you to love your enemy, and Paul told us that our conflict is not with flesh and blood but with the dark spiritual forces which hide in the shadows of this world.

No King But Christ

Christians will always have a higher and more important allegiance to the Kingdom of the Crucified Christ, and as such cannot simply support and believe in the ‘rightness’ or ‘goodness’ of their country. A Christian’s first responsibility is to their neighbour. But their neighbour is not the person who looks like them, who is part of their nation, or who lives in their country. Charity does not begin at home. We cannot put people like us first. Our neighbour is the person in need, the person who needs mercy, the person who is most at risk and most in pain. Our neighbour might be someone from another country, a person of another religion, a criminal, a migrant, or even someone with whom we disagree. Our command to love our neighbour is more important than any loyalty to our country or nation.

A Christian cannot say “my country right or wrong” because they must live according to the Gospel. A Christian must understand that they are citizens of heaven before they are citizens of any transitory earthly nation or state. We can have only one Lord and Master, and that is King Jesus. Jesus is above every prime minister, every president, every monarch, every dictator, every supreme ruler, and every religious leader. When given the choice, we must be willing to obey God and not human laws when the Gospel clashes with human systems of power and control. Our citizenship in a country or state is always secondary to our citizenship in the Kingdom of God.

Ideally, there would be no need for any government or state power. Instead, through the Holy Spirit, everyone would love one another in mutual fellowship and love. We would render mutual aid to one another, support each other, stand in solidarity, and create covenant communities based on love, care, and attention. This is what William Booth believed The Salvation Army was going to help bring about. It was an Army out to usher in the new millennium of the Kingdom of God, when all would be made right and every human would know every other human as their sibling. For the present time, Christians need to understand how they can best live out the values of the Kingdom of the Suffering God in the world as it is, rather than pretending they already live in that idealised future world. That is part of what it means to be in the world. To be a place where the suffering of Christ is realised, where the love of God is manifested, where the liberating power of the Holy Spirit is given free rein to blow where it wills.

When faced with the rise of the sin of nationalism in general, and the idolatry of Christian nationalism in particular, the church needs to push back against it. But not only nationalism, but also patriotism. The contingencies of our birth and the randomness which determines which country we are born into are less important than our allegiance to Christ. Being naturalised as a citizen of any earthly nation is less important than our adoption into the Kingdom of Heaven. Everything is subject to Christ, everything is subordinate to the Kingdom of God, including our state, country, and nation.

Resisting The State

This can look like disestablishing the state church and disentangling our churches from economic and political entanglements which damage our capacity to exercise the ministry of the Gospel. This also means removing national flags from our churches, especially from our platforms and altars. We need to stop making new members of our churches under national flags or hanging national flags from our buildings. We need to refuse to swear allegiance to any flag or any state. Doing so would compromise our allegiance to Christ alone as our only Lord.

At remembrance and veterans day, we should use it as a chance to pray for our country’s enemies, including terrorists, to remember those lost on every side of conflict, to pray for peace, and to stop blessing militaries. We need to hold our governments to account when they fail to live up to the Gospel, to refuse to engage in government schemes or policies when they go against the Gospel, and to employ peaceful but active resistance when we must act on behalf of the oppressed who are the most beloved of God.

Perhaps we should start to see our churches as little embassies of the Kingdom of God. They are foreign ground, separate from the country they are in. If we start to see our church buildings as embassies of the Kingdom of God, places from which God is able to exercise rulership, influence, and diplomacy, then perhaps we will be closer to the call which Christ makes on us as His body in this world. Perhaps we need to take seriously our commitment to be citizens of heaven, and not of this world.

It is not only that we must put the Kingdom of God first, but that we must also make it our most important marker of identity. More than being British, English, American, French, Australian, or any other national, cultural, or state identity, a Christian must be “in Christ.” The only ‘patriotism’ they should feel is for the Kingdom of God, and being a citizen of Heaven is not something we earn so we can boast in it, but is something we receive by grace. We cannot take pride in being a citizen of heaven, but only feel utter gratitude for the undeserved grace of Christ. The Kingdom of God does not expand by war but through love, forgiveness, mercy, and kindness. That is what Christ meant when he said that his kingdom is not like one that grows in this world.

Christians cannot be patriots because their allegiance to a state is always negotiated and secondary to their citizenship in the Kingdom of God, which is subject to the authority of Christ.

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