Photo by Jamie Wallis (Visit his Instagram here)
A few months ago, I promised to spend more time talking about questions I didn’t have an answer to. The first “official” question I couldn’t answer was about the contradictions between humility and self-promotion, and I knew that I wanted to tackle this one next, but I didn’t know exactly how to handle it. I wasn’t sure where to go with it or exactly how much of the question I could answer.
After attending part of the Pastor’s Conference at this year’s Southern Baptist Convention in Birmingham, AL, I think I’m ready to finally not answer this question.
When I was in college, I used to ask my friends this faux-intellectual question that I thought made me sound very intelligent and wise: Is it better to identify yourself as an American Christian or a Christian American?
I feel like I had a pretty sound logic behind my answer, but the truth is that it doesn’t matter which one you pick. What makes this an “intriguing intellectual question” is that it’s the explanation of your answer that matters.
For me, I always said that it was better to say you were a Christian American because then your nationality is being modified by your faith. My perspective was that if you said you were an American Christian then you were letting your faith be modified by your nationality, that you were letting Patriotism mean more than Christianity.
The contrary argument was that defining yourself as an American Christian meant that you defined yourself first and foremost as a Christian, and then followed it up with your nationality.
Honestly, that was a pretty dumb question to ask. It’s the kind of question intellectual college students ask their friends because it seems brilliant and counter-intuitive. And I mostly did it to feel smart.
“Wait. What do you mean that this isn’t the Christian flag?” (Photo by Andrew Ruiz on Unsplash)
Even though it was a dumb question that really revealed nothing about anyone except that I had the predilection for pretension, we can’t deny that the church in America has dealt with this question perhaps more than any other church in history. (But I’m not a church historian, so that’s also a possible exaggeration.)
There is a push in America to be incredibly, identifiably patriotic. Especially in the Bible Belt.
For many, Patriotism and Christianity are running a three-legged race.
To follow Christ is to follow America. And vice-versa.
There’s a flip side to this question of identity, however.
There are a lot of people who will tell you that America hates Christians. There are people who will tell you that we are facing grave persecution in this country and that America is hostile to Christians.
What really makes it interesting is when the same people tell you both messages.
That’s not to say that a country as large as the United States, with more than 300 million citizens and a similarly large number of civil servants in government positions, can’t occasionally suffer from schizophrenic fits when it comes to religion. Of course some municipalities are more friendly or more hostile than others.
At the Southern Baptist Convention, I was fortunate enough to sit in on a round-table discussion with some people who have faced persecution around the world. There was a man named Andrew Brunson who sat in a Turkish prison for a couple years because he was caught sharing the Gospel. There was Nik and Ruth Ripken, a missionary couple who has spent their life serving in South Africa and Somalia, just to provide a small sample. The Ripkens were actually placed on a kill list by Islamic militants in Somalia, to show you just what kind of persecution they faced for the Gospel.
And then we have Jack Phillips, a man whose life is far less ordinary than his name. Jack Phillips is a baker.
Specifically, he is a baker who ended up in front of the Supreme Court because the state of Colorado wanted to shut him down for refusing to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.
Now I’m not here to say that Phillips didn’t face persecution. I’m not going to say anything about him at all, really, beyond the fact that he exists.
But sitting in there that night and hearing him speak about his life and his story, and how the government of his own state and his own nation was against him because of a willingness to adhere to his faith, that made me think more and more insistently about persecution in America.
No, believers aren’t being put on kill lists by the government in the United States. We aren’t being put in prison because we preach the Gospel. Whether or not you agree that there is religious persecution for believers in this country, we can all agree that any persecution we might face isn’t to the level of what many others face.
What nobody can agree on, however, is the appropriate course of action.
That’s the unanswerable question I bring to you today: What should American Christians (or Christian Americans) do about religious persecution in this nation?
That question is specifically why the dual identity as a believer and a Patriot is so complicated. As a Patriot, and as an American who believes in the ideals of this nation, I believe that we should fiercely root out religious persecution in any form, even with faiths I don’t personally adhere to. While I do not agree with the theological equality of all religions, I do believe that most religions deserve equal protection under the law.
As a Christian, however, I know that Jesus promises persecution.
“If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first.”
John 15:18 (NLT)
I also know that fighting persecution can often rub non-believers the wrong way. Looking at the case of Mr. Phillips as an example, how many members of the gay community think that Christians hate them specifically because of the legal actions surrounding his bakery?
As an American, I believe that people deserve to operate businesses by their own standards of faith. As a Christian, I believe that we have to sometimes yield what we want for the sake of the Gospel.
When I think about patriotism and national duty versus faith and duty to my Lord, there is one key example who comes to mind from scripture. And, because of course, he doesn’t really answer my question very effectively.
In Acts, we see Paul end up dealing with the Roman courts and officials, and he is very quick to announce his Roman citizenship (Acts 16:35-37). And that’s not the only time Paul does this, either (Acts 22:24-29).
Now imagine the rhythmic sounds of that whip against your back. I’d be bringing up my Roman, Greek, or even Icelandic citizenship if it would put a stop to that.
In Acts 22, Paul is about to be beaten for proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but he invokes his Roman citizenship to avoid being beaten. In Acts 16, Paul invokes his Roman citizenship so as to shame the men who illegally imprisoned him.
In the Gospels, though, we see Jesus talking about “turning the other cheek” and “walking two miles instead of one.” Are these ideas not contrary to how Paul reacts when met with persecution?
The issue gets even more baffling, though, when you see how Paul invokes his citizenship to...remain in custody.
See, when Paul is taken before the Sanhedrin, he uses his citizenship to demand council before Caesar (Acts 25:10-12). Had Paul not done this, we read in Acts 26:24-32, that Paul likely would have been set free. There’s a good possibility he would have ultimately been killed by the Jews who accused him once he was out of Roman custody, of course, but he did appeal himself into further custody.
The story of Paul ends with him going to Rome and waiting to have an audience with Caesar which, spoiler, ultimately gets him killed. So in Paul’s life, we see him use his Roman citizenship as a way to avoid persecution and as a way to further his persecution for the sake of the Gospel.
How are we supposed to take that?
I think one lesson we can glean from Paul is that whatever we do, it should be done for the sake of the Gospel. If we believe that we can further the Gospel by fighting for our political rights as believers, then we should do just that. If we believe that we can further the cause of the Gospel by giving in to those who would persecute us, as many Christian martyrs have done in the past, then we should have the courage to do just that.
(Please note, I’m not saying that this would be easy. The thought of it terrifies me, to be sure.)
Here’s the thing, though. I taught a Sunday School lesson about this very idea back in March and had hoped to write about this concept then. However, I was never really comfortable with my conclusions. I couldn’t bring myself to write this piece at the time.
Then, just a couple weeks ago, I came across a passage that really solidified my stance further. I still can’t answer the question of how Christians in America should manage their patriotism or their responses to persecution, but I do believe that the Bible does helps us answer this question a little bit.
Surprise, surprise.
“This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the captives he has exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem: ‘Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce. Marry and have children. Then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren. Multiply! Do not dwindle away! And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.’”
Jeremiah 29:4-7 (NLT)
Look. I know that this message was specifically given to the Jewish captives in Babylon in the middle of their exile about 500 years before Christ. And I know I’ve spoken in the past about people taking a different passage in this chapter out of context. However, is it not reasonable to say that we as believers are exiles living in a foreign land?
If our ultimate hope is in Jesus Christ, then this place is not our home. Our home is with the Lord in Heaven. Not here on Earth, and certainly not in America.
That being said, the Bible reminds us that God has us where we are for a time and purpose. So we should go on and live. We should build homes. We should make a life here. We should work for and pray for the peace and prosperity of our Earthly land of exile.
And if the prosperity of America rests in the hope of religious freedom for all of its citizens, then that is exactly what we should fight for.
As a believer in Jesus Christ, I think Islam is a false religion for people who have been led astray by a false prophet of a false god. As an American, I believe that they deserve the same freedoms to worship that I want for myself.
The same could be said for everyone from Mormons and Hindus and Seventh-Day Adventists to Buddhists and Bahá’í and Scientologists.
“Excuse me! Do you have a moment to talk about our lord, Xenu?” (Photo by Nathan Wright on Unsplash)
Okay, maybe not Scientologists. Those people scare me.
I realize that something like religious freedom can’t be absolute. It wasn’t that long ago that we were debating whether or not animal sacrifices should be protected religious acts or if they should be banned as animal cruelty. And I don’t know the answer to that or a thousand other questions about religious freedom’s minutiae.
But I do believe that Americans should push for freedom when possible. And when it comes to questions of freedom versus questions of authoritarianism, well, that should be an obvious debate. It often isn’t, but it should be.
So what’s more important? My patriotism or my faith? Obviously my faith is what’s most important. And if my patriotism is ever found on the opposite end of my faith, then I know which one I should cling to.
However, when I can follow both and honor America while still honoring my Lord, then I will strive to do just that.
And this Independence Day, I strive to earnestly pray for a God-blessed America.
Don’t forget to buy your very own copy of my book, The Call of the Mountains: And Other Tales of the Bizarre right now on Amazon for just $15! This is the first time this book has ever been available in print and now you can have your very own copy today.
Also, big thanks to Jamie Wallis for letting me use one of his incredible pictures for the header photo on this piece. Go check out his Instagram page to see more of his amazing artwork. You can click on the photo at the top of the page and it will immediately open up his Instagram, or you can just click here..