God bless America....

I was catching up on blog reading when I came across an article over on Think Christian entitled Keep Your Piece? which expounds on the well-meaning idea of a pastor to allow his congregation to bring in their firearms to church in preparation for July 4. As one commenter points out, since the Fourth isn't a religious holiday, its somewhat uncertain what the pastor is actually trying to accomplish.

I can't help but wonder why our faith is so bound up with being patriotic in this country. I went to Christian Book's website (where I do most of my book shopping) and typed in "America" in the search field. It came up with ten pages of books that have that key word.

I then went and found the Bible that I had seen advertised in Discipleship Journal a few weeks ago: The NKJV American Patriot's Bible. Here's what the product description says:

Never has a version of the Bible targeted the spiritual needs of those who love our country more than The American Patriot's Bible. This extremely unique Bible shows how the history of the United States connects the people and events of the Bible to our lives in a modern world. The story of the United States is wonderfully woven into the teachings of the Bible and includes a beautiful full-color family record section, memorable images from our nation's history and hundreds of enlightening articles which complement the New King James Version Bible text.

The spiritual needs of those who love our country? This goes a little beyond the whole argument of whether America was founded by good Christ-loving Christians or secular Deist (sorry, but it was the Deists -- I learned that from my Christ-loving history teachers/professors). Yes, now we're drifting into the realm of biblical interpretation. I'm just not sure what parts of the Bible you can "interweave" with American history. Yes, Paul says to pray for those in authority over us (see Titus 2:1-2) and Peter likewise says to submit to whatever human institution is in power over us (see 1 Peter 2:13-14). There is nothing wrong to be proud of our nation, to pray for our leaders, and to submit to them (I could go into a satisfying rant about those who refuse to do such things just because our current president is not a Republican, but that might just have to wait). And there have been periods of great spiritual revival in our country (i.e. The Great Awakening).

I do love my country, but I am a Christian first, then an American. Philippians 3:20 states "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." It would be nice to hear that preached on July 5th.