On November 8th, my school celebrated Veterans Day. Over the fifty years that my school has existed, this program has developed a significant place in the tradition and culture of the school built on historic World War I training grounds. As a historian and someone deeply steeped in context, I understand the motivation. During the past few years, however, I have begun to contemplate the true meaning of patriotism and have come to the conclusion that I hold an unpopular opinion, one almost 180 degrees different than that which I grew up steeped in.
As a child, I loved the fact that I had a birthday on the fourth of July. I proudly sang the National Anthem and pledged allegiance to the flag whenever prompted which may have been every school day but I do not remember distinctly. I drank in the teachings that I lived in the best country in the world and did not doubt that the Founding Fathers founded the country on Judeo-Christian principles, contrary to all other countries in the world, thus reinforcing its preeminent position. I learned that the United States came to the rescue of Europe in both world wars and stood as the light against communism in the war only recently won. (I was seven when the USSR broke apart.) When the Olympics came on TV, I rooted for the Americans and felt a chill down my spine during the televised medal ceremonies when they played the National Anthem for the gold medalist.
The disillusionment began around high school. We had attended North Hills and I had started to thrive on its solid, Biblical teaching. I also had a Bible teacher my freshman and sophomore year who challenged us to read God’s word and hold everything told to us by man, including the vary organization for which he worked, up to God’s word, to look at those teachings in the light of the truth. This truth illuminated weak spots.
Over the next decade, I read every book I could get my hands on as I worked my way through two degrees in history. When I took a class on the Early National Era as a senior in college, I learned of the details of our country’s founding, again challenged by the knowledge of the Deistic beliefs of many of the Founders, a contrast to the simplistic origin story that my teachers once told. I could not reconcile the near idolatry of the Founding Fathers who believed a fallacy about the same God my teachers claimed to proclaim to the original story I once believed. My high school friendship with a girl whose father immigrated from El Salvador opened my eyes to what i means to see a human as created in God’s image regardless of skin color. I could not understand how my grandmother could paint every single Hispanic with the same brush when in my immediate circle stood an obvious exception.
The knowledge I continue to gather forces me to think deeply about what I once believed without question. I see with everything I learn about our American “heroes” that they, just like every human being who has ever walked on this planet, have incredible flaws. Americans, just like a person of any other ethnicity, have flawed and complicated motives for their actions.
What does all of this have to do with a traditional Veterans Day program? Honestly? Discussion of the program served as a platform to launch this post containing my thoughts on the matter.
Throughout the program, an undercurrent of inevitability and unquestioning duty formed the foundation for every aspect of the program, including the ritualistic recitation of the pledge of allegiance. This prompted thoughts of other similar instances of these rote expressions of patriotism from a daily pledge of allegiance to the mistaken, persistent belief amongst many American Christians that to be Christian means whole hearted, unwavering support of America in all its forms above any other country. I chafe against this as I contemplate both the natural rights espoused (in words at least) in our founding documents as well as my fundamental belief that God created every single human being in His image, not just white, Anglo-Saxon Americans.
True patriotism means supporting, defending and upholding those natural rights even when it means acknowledging the inherent fallibility of our human leaders. Speaking up against injustice even inflicted through official government actions and couched in patriotic terminology is the right thing to do, the patriotic, the Christ-like thing to do.
This means that when the traditions come, I follow through and do not mouth the words because I always have but because I believe them. Additionally, my allegiance lies not with an early, incredibly fallible country but with the One who owns and controls everything in the country, the world, and even the universe. In an era when many in the circles in which I reside ascribe degeneracy to those who do not swallow patriotism hook, line, and sinker, to those who dare believe that God’s image includes more than red-blooded, military-supporting, flag-waving Americans. In the end, my citizenship, my allegiance lies not with a specific, earthly country but rather in heaven with my Creator. Thus, my patriotism will reflect this.