How to be a Patriotic Christian (Richard Mouw)

In How to be a Patriotic Christian, Richard Mouw's goal is "to offer counsel to Christian readers about how to be patriotic," but it is not prescriptive: one piece of advice is "keep wrestling with the questions" as we look at "what it means to be citizens in the nation where the Lord has placed us."

Summary

Overall, "the Bible tells us to honor those who are in authority over us, [but] we also know that there come times for Christians when to obey a government is to be unfaithful to the gospel," as "our primary allegiance . . . is to the kingdom of Jesus Christ." "But patriotism is not just about our relationship to specific governmental policies and practices. It is about belonging to a community of citizens . . ." So what does this look like?

Jesus said to give to Caesar what was Caesar's, and to God what was God's (see Mark 12:17), but He never defined what exactly does belong to Caesar- in other words, the exact limits of government. In Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2, Paul and Peter, respectively, state we should be subject to higher powers, "for he is God's servant for your good." But we see many examples in history where the government is obviously evil and deviates from the course that God intended it to serve; in such cases, the patriotic course is in fact to dissent (and in some cases disobey). Ultimately, we expect and need the government to 'do right' and should cooperate with them (and those in our community) "to demonstrate our commitment to the common good." Even if that government may be opposed to Christians- recall the Lord's words to Jeremiah when Israel was in exile: "Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper." (Jeremiah 29:7) We are called to work for the common good wherever we find ourselves, even if we encounter hostility to our beliefs.

Ultimately, "A key governmental duty . . is to encourage good behaviors and discourage the bad. But we have to think about what this means regarding the proper limits of government." "The Bible does not lay out a detailed overview of the just ordering of a society. Instead, the biblical writers focus on groups of people whose legitimate cries for justice are often ignored." In other words, we should work with the government to make sure justice for all is being carried out. "A worthy government is one that cares for the well-being of all its citizens." And we should help/encourage them to do so.

Some other points:

- Some Americans claim to want the government out of their lives, but everyone should recognize the value of common services- things like streets, public safety measures, and other important functions. "Even if we think that there are some things . . . that a government should not do, I would still want to insist that a government is obliged at least to see to it that they are done by other entities."

- We live in a pluralistic society. As we want to worship God without hindrance, we should extend that freedom of religion to others. "We must focus on formulating policies and practices in terms that will be compelling to diverse constituencies." Part of that can be hard, to the extent that "we should cultivate a spirit of toleration regarding the range of permissible behaviors in our society. Not everything that can be judged to be sinful ought to be made illegal." And "we need to open ourselves to people who can remind us of our own prejudices, inconsistencies, and misdeeds." The Lord can and does use non-Christians to communicate truths in the public arena. And "everyone in our nation is created in the divine image, whether or not they share our Christian convictions." 

- Regarding policies, Tim Keller writes "most political positions are not matters of biblical command but of practical wisdom." We need to remember that. Championing the Bible's commands to love our neighbor can be approached in several ways, and we can (and should) disagree and wrestle with how to be faithful in this regard.

Mouw concludes with four guidelines for how to keep wrestling with questions; "guidelines that I think ought to inform all of us, regardless of our differences on political specifics."

- Do the work of contemplation.

- Cultivate compassion.

- Go deep in the quest for rootedness. (your deepest allegiance is to Christ, not country.)

- Trust Jesus.

Review

This is a good, if basic, introduction to the topic of patriotism. I wish there had been more meat and profound insights, but I did learn a few things on top of reinforcing positions I had heard before. This is good for someone with little/no background in the topic.

Rating: B

The Promise of America (David Dark)

An expansion of his earlier work, The Gospel According to America, David Dark's The Promise of America "is an effort in moral orientation, an attempt to make sense of our times . . . it is also a call to confession and a primer in patriotism as I understand it."

Points to Ponder

Truth matters, but in America today, widening divisions are producing two very different versions of reality. We must fight this and be honest with ourselves about the good and bad about our country, past and present. Dark calls for 'attempted truthfulness'- of getting the facts straight and the story right regarding our past and present realities. But 'attempted' highlights the challenge, as we are all finite, fallen, and have limited perspective. Nobody has truly clear vision or understanding. We know what we have personally experienced and witnessed, and coupling that more general beliefs on God and man, we form a view of America: our history, our problems, and what to do about them. But is our view complete and correct? Due to our aforementioned deficiencies, that answer is no. We thus need to wrestle with these topics in what Dark calls "Beloved Community," which is "an enlarged sense of neighborliness that strives to maintain "neighbor" as an ever-widening category, even when the neighbor appears before us as a threat or an enemy. The injunction to love the neighbor in the minute particulars of speech and action has never been an easy one, but it might be the nearest and most immediate form of patriotism available to any of us."

Dark highlights several things repeatedly throughout his work:

- The Bible is not only to be personally believed but a 'devastating social critique' to be lived out and grappled with in community. Jesus tells us to love each other; to champion causes (both personally and in government) that enable mutual thriving and justice. What that looks like can be messy and complicated and vary from community to community.

-  "We are learners, not possessors, of truth." We need to remind ourselves that "our understanding is not . . . a God's-eye view." We need a "living awareness of our fallibility." In short, we need humility and an openness to change our minds. We need patience and an awareness/appreciation of complexity (life isn't always reducible to a meme or sound bite). We need a loving consideration of God and others as we stumble our way through ascertaining the truth and what to do about it to produce a thriving community.

- Don't confuse the reign of God with our specific country. Every nation has horrors in its past and present; things that unsettle us and make us want to minimize or deny them. Yet "A nation that flees any and all unsettledness is a nation that wants to be brainwashed." Truth can hurt. It needs to.

- We all have (and need) a 'pantheon of elders'- those to whom we look for insight, wisdom, and guidance. These can be church members, popular artists, and others. But we need to be open to adding to or adjusting our pantheon constantly- making sure we're not painting ourselves into an echo chamber where the only people we listen to or respect are those who say what we already believe to be true. Again, it comes down to reminding ourselves of our fallibility and tendency towards tribalism, and fighting against that- the Spirit knows no division.

Review

I agree with Dark's overall points. This book is basically a call to humility and community; that's good. But the book is repetitious- the above points are repeated again and again. It also meanders and appears to become more of a list of pop-culture examples* in music, books, and movies where artists wrestle with truths and how to handle them. As I read, I was increasingly confused on the overall point of the book. In short, the title and subtitle are false advertising: the message could be conveyed in a blog post. Or a long sentence: Be humble; consider others; in many counselors there is wisdom; the Bible calls us to pursue mutual thriving and goes well beyond personal beliefs. Agreed on all fronts. But those points could have been conveyed in well under 160 pages, and the book should have been renamed to more accurately reflect the content.

Rating: B-

*I did come away with a list of works to read later; I appreciated that.

The Dragonbone Chair (Tad Williams)

In the land of Osten Ard, humans, Sithi (elf-like creatures), trolls, and other beings live in various states of tense peace. Young Simon, a human orphan, lives a humble life inside the Hayholt's walls, performing odd jobs under the shadow of the Green Angel Tower, a mysterious relic from a bygone age. Life gets better once he is apprenticed to Morgenes, a strange but wise old man, but it is not to last. The King, Prester John, has died, and his son Elias assumes the throne with suspect counselors. Has a long-slumbering evil awoken? Elias soon turns the kingdom against itself with his mad edicts, and forces his brother Josua to oppose him. Caught in the fray, Simon finds himself escaping the castle and making his way north, where strange companions will join him and he embarks on a greater quest: to recover the three lost swords of legend, needed to stave off worldwide disaster. Can he and his companions do so in time?

Highly regarded by many, book one of the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn quadrilogy (technically trilogy, but the final volume is split into two book-length works), failed to grab me. It was neither horrible nor great, pretty much across the board. The characters were okay, the story was okay, the pacing had some problems. I saw some similarities to The Wheel of Time and Celtic stories. Some elements annoyed me due to their prevalence in fantasy literature* or their portrayal in this instance. Ultimately, I feel indifferent towards it, which means I won't be reading the other volumes (though I will look up a summary to see how it all ends). 

Rating: B-

*maybe I'm reading too much of this genre . . .

Washington, DC

our route, with food & parking options circled

We recently took the family to Washington, DC. We don't get down to "the District" often, but the monument area is packed with impressive sights and things to do.

Parking by the tidal basin ("National Mall parking," 1540 Maine Ave SW, Washington, DC 20024), we headed north to the Washington Monument, only to discover that the free tickets to go up it are given out starting at 7am and gone long before we arrived (at 10am). It's impressive from the outside, though, too, so we enjoyed the sight before heading east towards the Capitol. 

We walked down the mall until it became clear the kids couldn't do the planned circuit if we went all the way to that building (and east of it- I wanted to see the Library of Congress and Supreme Court), so we swung back west and enjoyed the architecture of the myriad museums that dot the area. Going by the food truck row (see drawing above) whetted our appetites, so we went north to the restaurant area after 'enjoying' a disappointing view of the White House (you cannot stand as close as they used to let you). 

The food was good, and afterwards, we were pleasantly surprised to stumble across the new (and not yet completed) WWI monument in that area. We snaked back southwest to the WWII monument, reflecting pool, Vietnam memorial, and Lincoln monument. We concluded the day walking past the Korean War monument and MLK, Jr memorial. It was about 6 miles of walking, which was the childrens' limit.

Overall impressions:

- We need to spend more time here. There is much history, beauty, and things to explore. We didn't even get to the museums.

- The architecture is wonderful; even if you don't do the museums, simply walking around is a great time out.

- Finding food can be a problem, which is why I circled the food areas above. Carry some with you or plan your route to take you to a restaurant.

San Antonio

I recently got a chance to visit San Antonio. I had only a brief time . . . after enjoying a very "Texas" car in the parking lot, my first stop was to the official San Antonio Spurs store, where I celebrated my favorite team. I then meandered through the famous Alamo, enjoying the ruins and history. (The church itself is quite small, but was only part of the larger complex where Davy Crockett and others held off Santa Anna for almost two weeks until they were overwhelmed and slaughtered.) Finally, I hit the riverwalk, which was also small but charming. I especially enjoyed how some hotels and buildings fed the river with interesting waterfalls and other paths that (in parts) even went through buildings.

My impressions of Texas:

- everything is bigger there. Our east coast highways seem paltry in comparison to Texas roads. Speaking of . . .

- the Texas highways both impressed and annoyed me. Impressed: they have no problems building roads over roads; places looked like rollercoasters. The construction intrigued me. Annoyed: the feeder road system can be difficult to navigate; I don't know how visitors did it before GPS.

- 'capitalism.' The whole area seemed like strip mall after strip mall. Endless entertainment, little observable zoning . . . there is just so much land, they use it for whatever they like.

- there is a heavy German influence in the area. I did not expect that.

Overall, I enjoyed the time, but am not sure what a tourist would do if they were in town for a few weeks.