Loving Your Country While Hating Your Neighbor

Trading one political idol for another.

Note: After some feedback, I wrote a clarifying post here. I stand by the original content of this article as well.

I’m tired of talking about Christian Nationalism.

It’s not that I think this discussion doesn’t matter. It does. However, I have increasingly observed that these discussions are irrelevant to the people we serve. Furthermore, those who are committed to deconstructing Christian Nationalism often serve the same idols as those they work so hard against.

I want you to use your sanctified imagination to envision an alternate take on the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). Of course, in its original rendition, Jesus used the mercy of the Samaritan to confront both religious and nationalistic pride among the Jewish elite. It is not difficult for the attentive modern audience to see how this parable speaks to the idols and errors expressed in Christian Nationalism.

Imagine now that this parable was told a different way. The man is still attacked by robbers and left for dead. The priest and the Levite still pass this man by as he lies helpless and dying. The Samaritan, however, does not stop for the dying man either. Instead, he passes him right on by to chase down the priest and the Levite, to argue with them about their religious and nationalistic idolatry, and to give them the latest book written by a Samaritan author that discusses the errors of their ways.

In this alternate take, who is a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?

Those who attack Christian Nationalism most vigorously are often those who have themselves come out of an Evangelical religion that tied itself too closely to Republican politics. Feeling betrayed by the faith and leaders of their past, they have now committed themselves to addressing the errors of conservative and nationalistic political idols.

But what if, in the process, many anti-nationalists have fallen into equal and opposite errors that mirror those they fight against?

I fear that many former politically conservative evangelicals have deconstructed their faith so quickly that they cannot see how they have quickly traded one political idol for another. They fail to see how they are still consumed by politics just as much, if not more, than the Christian Nationalists they oppose. As a result, the poor in their midst remain in the ditch of oppression, left to fend for themselves against the haunting violence of death.

Combating Christian Nationalism while ignoring your poor neighbor down the street is a scandal. We can commit ourselves, out of love for country, to defeat Christian Nationalism and “Make America Happy Again.” But if you have no concrete love for your poor neighbor, you have failed to fulfill God’s law (Galatians 5:14). You might join book clubs with like-minded anti-Nationalist believers. Still, if your peers have no love for the poor, then your club is nothing but a clanging cymbal (1 Corinthians 13:1). You might be able to cite Tisby, Whitehead, Perry, Campbell, Giboney, Scheiss, and Wear (all great). Still, if love is not concretized in action for the poor, you are merely puffed up with knowledge (1 Corinthians 8:1).

When Daniel was brought forward to give his interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, he concluded with this judgment:

Therefore, Your Majesty, be pleased to accept my advice: Renounce your sins by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed. It may be that then your prosperity will continue. (Daniel 4:27)

Our God is Lord of the poor and oppressed (Psalm 146:6-9), and he judges the rulers of this world by the same standard (Psalm 72:1-2). Nebuchadnezzar failed to be kind to the oppressed and was severely judged, being sent out to live as a beast among beasts for seven years.

It does not matter who is elected to office if the poor and oppressed among us remain ignored and neglected. They will be judged all the same. Often, those who now reactively attack political idolatry on the right do not see how the idolatry on the left is guilty of the same kinds of injustice. In his incisive critique of progressive ideology, the liberation theologian Gustavo Gutierrez articulated how progressives commit injustices just as his conservative opponents did. He wrote:

The oppressed and marginalized are oppressed and marginalized precisely by the interlocutor of “progressive” theology–the bourgeois class. Oppression is oppression, and we should not allow ourselves to be deceived by either streamlined or camouflaged exteriors.^[1]

In other words, progressive ideology can be just as enslaved to economic power and exploitation as much as any conservative ideology. Progressive ideology often represents the elite class, which the poor and oppressed struggle against. We should not be deceived by politics just because it looks and sounds nicer.

Jesus told the story of a poor man, Lazarus, who begged at the gate of an unnamed rich man.^[2] Lazarus’ cries went ignored, for he was not even allowed to eat the crumbs of the rich man’s table. When the time came for judgment, the rich man was taken to a place of torment. We are given no explanation for the rich man’s judgment other than his lack of mercy for the poor in his neighborhood.

The rich man may have been a very “civically engaged” person. He may have attended community meetings for business leaders. He could have faithfully attended synagogue. He may have even showed up to book studies with friends. But because he had no love for the poor in his midst, he was subject to judgment.

You may be very quick to dismiss such a passage and a literal interpretation that demands concern for the poor. You may think such a passage is meant to illustrate the spiritual poverty needed to follow Jesus. Consider these words of the Reformed theologian Herman Ridderbos:

These “poor” or “poor in spirit”… represent the socially oppressed, those who suffer from the power of injustice and are harassed by those who only consider their own advantage and influence. They are, however, at the same time those who remain faithful to God and expect their salvation from his kingdom alone.^[3]

Only in life with and among the poor can we learn what it means to wait on God and expect deliverance from him and him alone, just as Lazarus did. The middle class may think they have great ideas and theology, but the poor evangelize the rich with what it means to depend on the mercy of the Kingdom of God.

In a recent article, statistician Ryan Burge asked, “Who hasn’t heard about Christian Nationalism?” The results of his study confirm my suspicions: Christian Nationalism is largely a subject for White, educated, wealthy, progressive individuals. Burge concludes with the words of Professor Samuel Perry: “[M]ost of our public sociology on Christian Nationalism has likely been preaching to the choir.”

The reason why the poor have little knowledge of Christian Nationalism is not only because it is irrelevant to their daily struggles but because these champions of anti-nationalism likely have little contact with the poor themselves.

We can argue about Christian Nationalism until our voice is hoarse. We can say that we are doing it out of love of country or even to defend the gospel. We can preach against conservative idolatry and attend all the proper book studies. And yet, all of this can be done with as much pride and idolatry as those we oppose. We can fight power while being wed to the same power structures that produce economic injustice as our ideological opponents.

Uruguayan theologian Julio de Santa Ana once said, “The Church of Christ must renounce any type of accommodation with authoritarian power… The rejection of secular power and its unjust structures, although the institutional Church may be participating in it, brings with it an evangelical perspective of anxious expectation of the Kingdom of God.”^[4]

It is only in love and service to the poor that we can break free from the unjust power structures of this world and witness to a kingdom that is not of this world. Life with the poor and oppressed demonstrates that we do not believe in a King who conquers his enemies out of domineering force but who wins hearts through meekness and service.

If we only talk politics, we will be caught up in the world's power systems. It doesn’t matter which “side” we are on.

If Christians want to make a political difference during this election year, they should focus not first on debates and book studies, but instead, they should renew their ministry to the poor. Within the Church, power ought to conform to the “rule of love” that would instruct us to go “to the end of our resources” for the sake of the poor, the abused, and the oppressed.^[5] This rule of love is the gospel, which is the good news of a King who did not use power to be served but to serve (Matt. 20:28), who for our sake became poor so that we might be rich (2 Cor. 8:9).

The Apostle John compared those who ignore the poor to Cain, who hated and murdered his brother (1 John 3:11-18). It is easy to dress up our actions as a righteous cause and claim that God is on our side. Those who oppose Christian Nationalism can be no less guilty of this idolatry than Nationalists themselves.

So yes, love your country.

Defend the gospel.

Join the book club.

But please don’t do these things while hating your neighbor.  

Note: After some feedback, I wrote a clarifying post here. I stand by the original content of this article as well.

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^[1] Gustavo Gutierrez, The Power of the Poor in History, 92.

^[2] Luke 16:19-31

^[3] Herman Ridderbos, The Coming of the Kingdom, 188.

^[4] Julio de Santa Ana, Good News to the Poor, 91-92.

^[5] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 3.7.7