holiday weekend

i think i've always been baffled by independence day weekend. part of this is because i was not born in the united states and i could not claim american citizenship until very recently. the other part of this is because, despite the great benefits of being a citizen of this country, there are many things about our government and society that i find so flawed.

i took a sociology of religion course in grad school and one of my biggest take-aways from that was that everyone had a religion (not that i hadn't thought of this before, but the concept was best articulated in this course). richard dawkins said the same thing in his book, "the god delusion." i can't remember the exact quote, but what it was getting to the heart of was that everyone worships at the altar of something, but that "something" differs from person to person. during independence day (as well as other holidays), those who worship at the altar of their country seem to come out of the woodwork. symbols of this so-called religion come out in forms of likenesses of the american flag everywhere.

i get pretty critical of this sense of patriotism sometimes, especially from people of faith, especially those of the Christian faith. i get critical of the sense of patriotism in which one aligns oneself with a particular political party. these two things go hand-in-hand for me, in that they seem to be anti-thetical to what Jesus in the New Testament has called us to do. Jesus criticized the power of the empire in his time (Rome), and as such, we should also be critical of the power of the empire in our time. furthermore, our allegiances should be with God and God's basileia, as opposed to with particular parties and ruling bodies within the empire's government. don't get me wrong, i think alliances with governmental agencies are totally permissible, but i do think it should only be done on a case-by-case basis, with the agency and parties that best reflects the value of God's basiliea at any particular time.

i suppose there's nothing wrong with celebrating the birth of our nation. sometimes, this does make me feel uncomfortable because we know that our country has gained its status on the world stage in ways that have not respected the inherent dignity of every human person around the world. it's hard for me to be proud to be an american when i know that the american ways have not necessarily been God's ways. we still participate in systems that perpetuate oppression and marginalization of people within and beyond our borders. then again, i myself have participated in these systems out of convenience.

i guess we are all works in progress. and much like because the Church isn't perfect because of all the imperfect people in it, the same can be said for any nation and government. indeed, God bless us all. and God bless America.