I’ve been reading The Priestly Kingdom by John Howard Yoder, which has gotten me thinking about civil religion in America, which has gotten me thinking about “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”. I’m not sure which of the old hymns of the Church is my favorite, but I know that my least favorite is The Battle Hymn. The hymn, if it can be called that, confuses God’s purposes with America’s purposes in a way that I find troubling at best, idolatrous at worst. Is it a patriotic song cheering on American soldiers as they conquer their enemies, or is it a hymn waging spiritual warfare against sin and celebrating the victory of Christ over sin and death? The hymn seems to confuse the two, as though they were one and the same agenda. It seems to assume that America’s victory over her enemies is the same as Christ’s victory over sin.
Let’s explore this. The nations have an agenda: to make themselves strong at any cost, even if means that they must conquer their enemies in the process. A nation “goes marching on” by getting rid of the obstacles in its path, so that it can make itself stronger. A nation exists for its own self-advancement, for its own self-protection and self-promotion, and for the sake of preserving and promoting its own self-interests, even if it must be at the expense of other nations. A nation’s agenda will normally cause the nation to be at odds with other nations that have opposing agendas. The so-called “truth” that goes marching on is “whatever works for us; whatever helps us to accomplish our national goals”. God has an agenda: To glorify Himself by redeeming a fallen world by sending His Son to die on the cross for our sins, to resurrect from death, to ascend into heaven, and to return to the earth to set up His kingdom. The truth is embodied in the person of Jesus Christ, and ideally is demonstrated to the watching world in the life of the Church. What goes marching on is the proclamation of the Gospel. The truth is that God sent his Son to die for sinners. It is the truth that God has spoken by giving us the written Word, the Bible, and by sending the living Word, His Son, who said “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life”. Truth is the message of the Gospel as found in the Bible and as revealed in Christ and as demonstrated to the watching world by the life the Church, which expresses reality as it really is, as established by God, who is the Definer of reality. To the nations, the "truth" is whatever works to promote the interests of the nation. To God, the truth is whatever actually corresponds with reality, as defined by God and embodied in Christ. What happens when we confuse the two agendas? We not only confuse our purpose for existence as the Church, but we confuse two different definitions of truth. Which definition of truth goes marching on? Which definition of truth are we proclaiming? Which agenda are we promoting? When the Church confuses the two agendas, it becomes less than it was meant to be. Instead of being the proclaimer of truth, the “city that is set on a hill” of which Jesus spoke in Matthew 5:14, it settles for becoming the handmaiden of the State. When we allow this to happen, then the Church sees its role as existing to bless and legitimize the agenda of the State, and loses its ability to speak critically and prophetically to the State. Instead of the Church existing to do the will of God, even if that means opposing the State, the Church exists to support whatever the State has set up as its own agenda. Yoder would say that the church becomes a “chaplain” to the state. The Church blesses whatever the state determines to do, because it is assumed that the Church and the State have one and the same agenda. For example, during World War II, Americans used to encourage each other in the war effort by singing “Praise God and Pass the Ammunition”. It was a way of confusing the two agendas. God was being asked to bless and legitimize the killing of human beings who were created in the image of God, because it was assumed by both the Church and the State that the advancement of the purposes of the nation was equal to the advancement of the purposes of God. Did no one see the folly in this? Chaplains were called in to pray that the soldiers would have success in killing their enemies. Did no one notice the hypocrisy of asking God to bless that which He hates? This is what happens when we confuse a nation’s agenda with God’s agenda. We end up asking God to bless our tanks and bombs and guns and our selfish policies and nationalistic agendas. We end up asking God to bless our sin. In Luke 6, Jesus said “But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who are abusive to you. Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic from him either. Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back. Treat people the same way you want them to treat you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. But love your enemies and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil people. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:27-36 NASB). This is not the way in which the nations operate. If the followers of Jesus are taking the words of Jesus seriously, then the Church becomes a threat to the State, not a legitimizer of its agenda. Nations build power and wealth, but followers of Jesus surrender power and wealth. Nations are quick to take revenge, but followers of Jesus are forbidden to take revenge. Jesus taught his followers to be merciful, to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us. Nations are not merciful, and they don’t go around loving their enemies. They kill them. Followers of Jesus are to do the will of God, even if it means opposing the agenda of their own nation and exposing its sins as evil. The nations have no desire to glorify God and to seek His purposes, but will try to use God and God’s people as tools that will help them to accomplish their own purposes. They expect God and God’s people to bless and legitimize their own self-interests. Unfortunately, Christians who confuse the two agendas are all too happy to oblige. I understand that a nation cannot operate on the same principles upon which followers of Jesus operate, but if we are willing to admit that, then we also have to be willing to admit that there is no such thing as a “Christian nation”. If we take the words of Jesus seriously, then we’ve got to stop giving our hearty approval to pursuing the interests of a strong and powerful America (buttressed by a strong and powerful military that is always ready, willing and eager to pounce upon our enemies) when those interests contradict the revealed will of God through Jesus Christ. Perhaps the nations of this world have no choice but to operate in the ruthless ways that the nations of this world have always operated, but Christians should not be cheering them on. We should be prophets to the nations, not cheerleaders. We exist to show the world a better way, not to bless and buttress the world’s way. By taking our stand for Jesus, at least on some issues we will need to take our stand against our own nation, as the Hebrew prophets stood against Israel. We can’t have it both ways. We can’t be promoting the glory of God if we are promoting the selfish interests of our own nation. God will not bless that of which he does not approve. Christians who confuse the two agendas are unable to see this. When God’s agenda contradicts the nation’s agenda, Christians who confuse the two agendas will be likely to not notice the contradiction. They will filter out the contradiction because it doesn’t make sense within their frame of reference. They will be blind to the truth because they have already decided that God’s agenda and America’s agenda are one and the same. Therefore they will block out any evidence to the contrary. For example, if you have a child and you believe that your child is incapable of doing anything wrong, and you get a call from the police saying that your child has been caught committing a horrendous crime, you will try to find a way to explain to yourself that your child really didn’t do what he or she has been accused of doing. Maybe it was a case of mistaken identity. Maybe the witnesses are lying. You will find some way to rationalize it, to hide yourself from the truth that your child really is capable of committing a horrendous crime, and that he or she has actually committed such a crime. We can’t see what we’ve already decided doesn’t exist. In the same way, if some American Christians believe that God’s agenda and the American agenda are the same, then they will find a way to explain away any contradictions, because they have taught themselves not to consider the possibility that America might actually be opposed to what God is doing, and that God might actually be opposed to what America is doing. They won’t be able to see the contradiction because they’ve already decided that the contradiction can’t exist. The Hebrew prophets were quick to point out the sins of their own nation. Many American Christians seem intent on blessing the sins of the nation, because they are incapable of seeing America as anything other than a promoter of God’s values and purposes, so they go on singing The Battle Hymn, and they go on telling themselves that as the American agenda goes marching on, God’s truth goes marching right alongside. They have been caught in the delusion that says that God’s agenda and America’s agenda are the same agenda. They might as well start singing “Praise God and Pass the Ammunition”, for they have not learned from the sins of the past. The “city that is set on a hill” of which Jesus spoke in Matthew 5:14 is the Church of Jesus Christ, not the United States of America. We can’t be singing the praises of our God if we are so intent on singing the praises of our nation that we do not even notice when our nation’s agenda contradicts God’s agenda. It’s not our role to ask God to bless America’a agenda. It’s our role to stand with God, which at some points will put us on a collision course with self-interests of our own nation. There is a time and a place for a qualified patriotism, but there is a point at which Christianity and patriotism must go their separate ways. There is a point at which it is better to kneel to protest racism than to stand to sing the anthem. There is a point at which we must curse the ammunition if we are to bless God. There is a point at which our pledge of allegiance to the flag contradicts our pledge of allegiance to God through Christ. We’ve got to stop singing “dancers who dance upon injustice” unless we are willing to condemn the injustices and the oppression and the racism of our own nation, not to mention the mass murder of the unborn, that are being perpetuated or tolerated by or within our own nation. Otherwise we will end up blessing what God has cursed, and we will be doing it in the name of God. We will end up dragging the name of God through the mud, which is exactly the opposite of what the Church has been called to be and do. God will not be used as a tool to accomplish a nation’s agenda, and He will not allow His name to be tied to a godless agenda, even if we fail to recognize that it is godless. We cannot give our unyielding allegiance to God if we are also giving our allegiance to the selfish interests of our nation, and then asking God to bless those interests. We’ve got to stop singing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”, for it is idolatry.
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