Patriotism

It's becoming more and more apparent that many, if not most, young adults have a serious lack or void of patriotism towards the USA. I totally understand not loving what our country has become or what our country sometimes portrays to the rest of the world. However, patriotism has nothing to do with the current status of our country. It has everything to do with believing in your country's deepest core values and what your country has accomplished. Supporting and loving your country doesn't mean that you have to condone what your country has done or else no one on the whole world would be patriotic towards their country. Every country has it's black marks on history and many bad choices that have caused many hurts. We are privy to know about all of ours since we live here and have news at our fingertips, as well as living experience. Other countries have long lists of things to not be proud of too, and I bet their citizens are well aware of those things.

I've heard a few people express distaste with American flags being in their churches. How? Without what this country was founded on and the freedom that was fought for we wouldn't have church buildings that were publicly known at all, much less put a flag up in them. I get the idea that our faith is not based in America but in Christ. Agree. However, the separation of church and state is misrepresented in our society as being a strict standard that nothing church related whatsoever can be a part of government. If you check your history and the amendment that discusses the matter, you'll see that it's strictly to prevent a theocracy, which is a church run government. We're no where close to that. And groups like the ACLU have misrepresented and manipulated people's ignorance of our constitution in order to take suits against groups who happen to be patriotic and faith based. I heard a great line that says, "Our constitution allows for freedom of religion, not freedom from religion." And somehow some of our officials, who are supposed to be public servants, are more apologetic to religious groups that aren't Christian and hostile towards those that are. How is that fair?

So fewer American Christians who believe in the principles of our great nation only weaken our ability to continue to practice freely. The next generations will become less and less passionate about what our flag and founding documents stand for as young adults today become more apathetic in their conviction to stand up for our being a nation reverent to God in our origins. Not every Christian needs to sing patriotic songs in church in order to be considered patriotic. But the idea of church being a place unfit for our expression of patriotism is ludicrous. It's just a token of appreciation. Allegiance first and foremost to God and then to country.

And then there's the flip side. Many of these unpatriotic young adult Christians that I've met don't allow their moral convictions brought about by their faith in God to bleed over into politics. It seems that while trying to be more loyal to Christ by leaving patriotism out of church they are less loyal to Christ and His teachings when going to vote. Am I the only one who finds this to be an oxymoron? I personally don't see a better way to reflect your faith in God being an American than voting based on your moral convictions in every election. Allegiance first and foremost to God then to country. Sometimes it seems that while having good intentions many young adults who are Christians start seeing things through a social worldview instead of a Godly worldview. Partly to blame is probably ignorance of both the Bible and our founding documents. Another part might be the reaction to our issues with strictly emotion. I can understand getting pretty ticked off and wanting things to change. But many time being ticked off only leads us to staying ticked off without any results.

Due to bringing a child into the world soon, many of these issues have wandered into my mind. I've been thinking about how we'll someday be influencing this child on how to serve God and be the best Christian by serving our community. Having a kid kinda slaps you in the face with self evaluation and criticism. Whew! Okay, I'm done. Hope I made some sort of sense.