Patriotism and the Church - An alternative celebration for Memorial Day - State Violence in the Old Testament

I received an email from a friend (his name will remain anonymous because I do not know if he would want this posted on the internet as coming from him) and he recommended a book to me on the subject of Christian nonviolence. He instructs churches and individuals on nonviolence, but he has not been comfortable with any of the books out there - some are too dense or argumentative while others come across as too abrasive. He says that John Roth's Choosing Against War: A Christian View is a great book for the average person to read on the subject; it rides that fine line between too scholarly and too abrasive. I ordered mine from Amazon and it is on the way. I'll post a review when I get a chance. Right now, you can get a used copy for less than $6.00 after shipping if you want to check it out.

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Personally, I am still very hesitant to broach the subject of nonviolence in the Sunday School class I teach although I do think it will come up when we start to tackle our next book (Irresistible Revolution). I am focusing on being people of love. Eventually, my stance on nonviolence will come up, but I hope that the foundation of Christlike love will be enough to tackle the tough demand of being Christlike in all situations, even when the government wants you to take the life of another. It is a tough subject to broach in the presence of military veterans, of which I have one in my Sunday School class.

The subject of patriotism in the church came up in one of our elders' and deacons' meetings as we were discussing supporting the building of a veteran's memorial in the local park. I mentioned that I would not be comfortable doing that. It progressed into a discussion of why. It did not go well as one of the elders declared that I am at liberty to have my position because of people who have fought for my freedom. I tried to remain peaceful in the situation, and I think only through the grace of God was I able to maintain a peace witness through that conversation. The awkwardness of the situation was exacerbated by the fact that the deacon sitting across from the table from me is a member of the National Guard and has served in Iraq and Afghanistan. We did refrain from supporting the memorial, but it is only a minor victory if even that. I must always remain focused on more than just being nonviolent; I must be a Christlike example of love. We need to be loving to the community, not just refrain from supporting the building of veterans' memorials.

For Memorial Day, we are going to remember and celebrate the saints who have been among us but have since passed on. There will be no nationalistic songs or recognition of our nation, except in praying for our leaders. We will tell the story of the servants from our midst in the hope that it will inspire us to be more faithful disciples today. I am nervous about the service and hope that it does the job of inspiring more Christlike devotion rather than ruffle any one's feathers.

Likewise, I am trying to think of an alternative celebration for Veterans' Day, one in which we will not have the military veterans stand up and applaud them. I am thinking along the lines of celebrating those who have served faithfully in the church for many years. Those veterans of the kingdom deserve proper recognition, not to puff them up but to show them as an example we all would benefit from seeing. We are so quick to celebrate sacrifice for our temporal kingdom, yet, to our detriment, those who spend years sacrificing for our eternal kingdom are not lifted up as examples to follow.

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Another individual sent me links to the following Greg Boyd's review of Peter Craigie's The Problem of War in the Old Testament. I found the posts to be an extremely interesting read.

Part 1 - The Problem of War in the Old Testament
Part 2 - Revealing the Horror of War
Part 3 - A Negative Object Lesson

After reading it, there is a variety of ways in which we can view war in the Old Testament. I have not firmly settled on one yet. For some it is a big hangup that God at times commanded war in the Old Testament; that subject seems to come up with most people who argue for us to take up arms for the state. Boyd lays out the idea that the commands in the Old Testament for warfare were made because God knew they were already set on warfare and he wanted to guide it to the best possible outcome. It is an interesting theory. It deals honestly with the Scriptures and does not cross the line into saying some parts of Scripture are inspired and others are made up propaganda. I like that in the view. I am not sure that I will become a teacher of Boyd's view. I will try to have a variety of views in my head to throw out there to those who have that hang up, but I do not know if I will ever firmly cling to a view of violence in the Old Testament. It just does not seem all that relevant to me and my daily journey as a disciple.

For me, violence, especially for the state, just does not gel with the teachings of Jesus on loving our enemies, turning the other cheek, loving our neighbors, and the teaching that our fellow citizens in the kingdom reside all around the world. My temporal citizenship might be in the United States, but my eternal citizenship is in the kingdom of God. I know we are supposed to submit to the government, but our obedience to the government only occurs when the government does not command us to sin, whether that be by sins of commission (doing what we should not do) or omission (not doing what we should do). If the government tells us to sin, then we gladly submit to the government's punishment but we must remain obedient to modelling the life of Christ. There is a difference between obedience and submission. The Bible tells us to submit to the government, not obey.

Our eternal citizenship always overrides our temporal citizenship. Some people like to think that America is the most Christian nation on earth. This view is also linked to the belief that our nation was created by God in a special way (I am sure he had a role in guiding its birth just like he has had a role in the creation of every temporal nation on earth). This myth that America is God's special nation allows us to blindly follow and obey our government no matter what they say. Obedience like that should be reserved solely for Christ. All other entities, including the church, should be followed discerningly.