July 1, 2012:

The Christian and Our Country

I was privileged to call the late William Sloan Coffin, Jr. my friend.  He was both a Christian and a patriot in the true meaning of those words.  Here are some of his thoughts.

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I think we can say that democracy is a form of government that demands more virtue of its citizens than any other form of government, but I do not think we can say that democracy guarantees that the virtue will be exercised. So let us term freedom of choice less a virtue than a necessity, a precondition to real freedom, which is the ability to make choices that are generous, loving, and wise.  Our wills are not free when they will what is bigoted, narrow, ungenerous.  Our wills are only free when they can will the will of a loving God.  “Thy will be done on earth.”

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It is gratifying for Americans to recall that ours is the longest-lived revolution in the world, maybe even the most successful.  But it would be a mistake to forget that our influence as a people was greatest when as a nation we were weakest.  We rallied far more hopes and energies when we had no rockets and no muscle.  The other day I read words of Alexander Hamilton more pertinent perhaps to our time than to his:  “To be more safe the nations at length become willing to run the risk of being less free.”   Today our danger may lie in becoming more concerned with defense than with having things worth defending.

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When there’s doubt, there’s more considered faith.  Likewise, when citizens doubt, patriotism becomes more informed.  For Christians to render everything to Caesar – their minds, their consciences – is to become evangelical nationalists.  That’s not a distortion of the gospel; that’s desertion.

It’s wonderful to love one’s country, but faith is for God.  National unity too is wonderful -- but not in cruelty and folly.

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Love,
Dave