Christians and July 4 Week

Baptists in the United States can be very patriotic. That's a good thing, but it can get out of hand.

Baptist patriotism becomes especially evident on the Sunday preceding July 4.

The good. At our church yesterday we did a responsive reading (something I think Baptists do all too rarely, even though our hymnals usually contain a good-sized collection of them). I thought it was great. The reading was made up of Bible passages about loving God, loving one another, honoring the king, and some other stuff that I'm sorry to say has since slipped my mind.

The bad. The Sunday before July 4, 2001, my family visited a Baptist church somewhere in or near Friendswood, Texas. The celebration of America was very enthusiastic. At one point the projector showed an image of Jesus' face superimposed over the American flag. My brother's sarcastic remark: Today in church I learned that Jesus is an American.

And, of course, in between there are any number of other traditions like singing various patriotic songs (usually, but not always, religious ones), and recognizing church members who served in the armed forces.

I don't actually know what, if anything, the churches with established liturgies do differently during Independence week. Nor am I entirely sure what Christians should be doing in church during Independence week. There's no need to let patriotism get out of control, but patriotism itself is a good thing; the chief danger, of course, is that we will let it distract us from the Gospel.

300th Post! - How We Should Appreciate Our Freedom

Fleeing religious persecution, our forefathers came to a new world where they could worship as they pleased. How did they accomplish this? Did they set up the Southern Baptist United States or the Republic of John Calvin? No, they simply allowed religious freedom to all.

I know Christians who think that our country ought to be run as if were a large church where we have an official protestant religion and all decisions are made by the Bible - these are well intentioned ideas but they are misled.

The people of Europe knew all too well the dangers of mixing church and state: persecution and torture. The English protestants had known extreme punishment until Elizabeth I made the Church of England the official church - not following suite was punishable by the state. Mind you, this is not "Christian vs. Muslim" this is "Christian vs. other Christian."

Is that what we want?

Asking the government to regulate religion would create a monster that no one could control. The reason our patriarchal God-fearing church builders established absolute religious freedom in this country was to avoid this problem all together. Asking the government to favor one religion could backfire as soon as Christianity finds itself as a distant minority and new leadership wants to persecute the church. It might sound far-fetched - but no government needs to have that kind of power.

Instead, let's rejoice that our neighbors can build Buddhist temples and mosques. Why? because it means we have the freedom to worhsip as we choose. We do not worship the same God as other religions but we can only hold on to our freedom if they hold on to theirs.

For Independence Day - let's be thankful that we can do with our religion as we please and remember two things:

1 - The first amendment which allows religious freedom to all - it's the best thing that ever happened to Christianity in the world of politics and government.

2 - The brave soldiers who make it possible.


Thank God for them.