Patriotism: America’s New Idolatry

After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor. With a mighty voice he shouted: “Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great! . . . For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. The kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries. . . . Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her: death, mourning and famine. She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her. When the kings of the earth who committed adultery with her and shared her luxury see the smoke of her burning, they will weep and mourn over her. Terrified at her torment, they will stand far off and cry: ‘Woe! Woe, O great city, O Babylon, city of power! In one hour your doom has come!’ The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes any more—cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble; cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and bodies and souls of men. . . . All your riches and splendor have vanished, never to be recovered. The merchants who sold these things and gained their wealth from her will stand far off, terrified at her torment. They will weep and mourn and cry out: ‘Woe! Woe, O great city, dressed in fine linen, purple and scarlet, and glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls! In one hour such great wealth has been brought to ruin!’ . . . When they see the smoke of her burning, they will exclaim, ‘Was there ever a city like this great city?’ They will throw dust on their heads, and with weeping and mourning cry out: ‘Woe! Woe, O great city, where all who had ships on the sea became rich through her wealth! In one hour she has been brought to ruin!’ Rejoice over her, O heaven! Rejoice, saints and apostles and prophets! God has judged her for the way she treated you. . . . Your merchants were the world's great men. By your magic spell all the nations were led astray.

 –Revelation 18

Recently I was in Orlando, Florida teaching a week of seminars. During that same week president Bush was in town and was scheduled to speak at the convention center right next door to the hotel where I was conducting my seminars. On the day he was scheduled to speak, I wandered across the street after my seminar session to observe the proceedings at the convention center. Initially under the impression that I needed a ticket to get in, and having resigned myself to the notion that my only chance of catching a glimpse of him was as he was exiting the building, I was surprised to discover that I was allowed into the auditorium while the president was in the middle of his speech. I stood at the back of the auditorium and watched as president Bush fielded questions from the audience.

One of the questions came from a local pastor who told the president that he and his church were praying for him, and that they were going to be conducting a prayer meeting for him at their church within the next few days. His question was, “What else can we as a church do to help our country in its efforts to win the war on terrorism?” The question seemed noble enough. After all, isn’t it our duty as Christians to support our country, to exemplify patriotism, and to help fight this war on terrorism in any way we can? As much as the pastor’s question disturbed me, Bush’s answer disturbed me more. He answered to the effect: “Here’s what you can do. You can invite representatives of other faiths—Christians, Jews and Moslems—to your prayer meeting to help combat the misconceptions that abound about the great Islam faith.” His answer received a rousing applause from the audience. 

I have been uneasy lately with the way the evangelical church has uncritically pledged its allegiance to the United States of America and has waved the American flag, as though America is some new form of the kingdom of God on earth, and as though the flag is the symbol of Christianity itself. I’ll admit, after the tragedy of September 11, I too was caught up in the new patriotism. In fact, I was in Boston teaching seminars when the attack occurred; and because Boston’s Logan airport became the subject of an investigation (that’s the point from which two of the planes departed), I was stranded there and decided (with two other people) to drive home to Colorado (35 hours nonstop!). During that week, I wept everyday at the thought of what had happened to our country. My eyes welled up in tears at the repeated images on the television, at the heroic acts of the rescue workers and of the passengers on the flight that went down in Pennsylvania, and at the resurgence of patriotism that I was seeing everywhere I turned. My heart beamed with pride for my country at the willingness of people to help each other, at the resurgence of true patriotism as Americans bought out the entire supply of flags available, and at the overarching sense of unity Americans were displaying. Tears turned to rage (what I thought, after all, was “righteous indignation”) as the horrors of the tragedy began to sink in. I remember thinking, How dare they do this to America! I waited with baited breath each time president Bush addressed the nation, or released a statement, cheering him on to victory over terrorism. I openly criticized those who even hinted they were not behind our president and our country in this effort. I criticized anything short of full American unity and patriotism behind our leader. Indeed, when I spoke with a friend (who is also a colleague in my business and a Christian brother) about the events of Sept. 11, we both expressed an overwhelming desire (as military veterans) to reenlist in the military and help administer justice. Being over forty years of age, that of course was not an option for me. I am ashamed to admit it, but I was, however briefly, caught up in the new patriotism.

Four days later, when I was safely and soundly back in the comfort of my own home, I began to reflect on the events of the preceding few days, as well as on my own knee-jerk reaction to it. I began to recall a Bible study I had just recently finished teaching my church on the book of Revelation, and my thoughts wandered to chapter 18, which describes in vivid detail the fall of the great city of Babylon. As I reread that chapter, the parallels stunned me. New York, with its World Trade Center and Wall Street, is indisputably the economic capital of the world. Babylon is likewise portrayed as the economic capital of the world. The economic world was shaken like never before at the collapse of the World Trade Center towers, culminating in a several-hundred point drop in the stock market and a marked reluctance on the part of Wall Street traders to buy. The world leaders showed solidarity in their lamentations over the brutal attack on America. The “kings of the earth” who “shared her luxury,” as well as the “merchants of the earth,” will likewise “weep and mourn” over the fall of “Babylon the great” when they “see the smoke of her burning” because “no one buys their cargoes any more.” New York—and consequently, America itself—experienced an exceedingly fast economic downfall. So too Babylon: “Terrified at her torment, they will stand far off and cry: ‘Woe! Woe, O great city, O Babylon, city of power! In one hour your doom has come!’”

Now, I’m not suggesting for a moment that America or September 11 is the fulfillment of Revelation 18. What I am suggesting is that there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of difference in the characteristics of the two. Most significantly, both America and Babylon are centers of the world’s wealth and trade; and both are centers of a worldly solidarity that attempts to erase differences even on a religious level (hence, the ease with which the president can get an audience’s ovation at the suggestion of a multi-faith prayer meeting). The Word of God characterizes such things as “adultery,” and condemns the fact that the “merchants of the earth” (stock market traders?) “grew rich from her excessive luxuries.” God’s judgment comes as a result: “Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her: death, mourning and famine. She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her. . . . Rejoice over her, O heaven! Rejoice, saints and apostles and prophets! God has judged her for the way she treated you. . . . Your merchants were the world’s great men. By your magic spell all the nations were led astray.”

Where are God’s people in all this? In Rev 18:4 a voice calls out: “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues.” God’s people themselves seem to be involved in the Babylonian system that is coming under God’s wrath. Apparently, the city itself is not overtly evil (else, why would Christians have to be told to leave it? Why wouldn’t they already have removed themselves from it?). On the contrary, it may actually appear to be a very good city—one nation under God, and all that. After all, how bad could a nation be that is “founded on Christian principles”? (We won’t go into detail here about how America was actually “founded” on direct disobedience to Romans 13:1-6. But I digress).

More recently, the leaders of our country have encouraged us to buy more, to consume more, to help stimulate economic growth—as though our nation’s pursuit of materialistic greed isn’t already over the top. One wonders just how the remedy for greed, instant gratification, and mass consumption is even more of the same. Yes, such “patriotism” will spur on the economy and help the country to grow—but such actions also consume the “bodies and souls of men” (Rev 18:13).

What concerns me most is that the church is so easily caught up in this same mindset. She sees nothing odd about being among the first to wave the flag, being among the first to align herself with an idolatrous, materialistic nation in a common goal and purpose, being among the first to preach “patriotism” and American nationalism from the pulpit, and being among the first to respond to this attack on our nation by encouraging our children to enlist in the military to fight this evil terrorist movement. But she finds herself in a strange contradiction. She wants to rally around our leaders, support them, and be on the front lines of promoting their cause. Yet the cause of those leaders is to promote materialism (in the form of consumer spending to stimulate the economy), and idolatry (in the form of the new emphasis on religious tolerance and pluralism); the very things the church knows she should oppose. As a result, the evangelical church today is suffering from a case of spiritual schizophrenia. Such a condition is little more than the natural consequence of the church attempting to be of the world rather than merely in the world.

In my opinion, that is wrong-headed. Our struggle is not with flesh and blood. It is not with the earth’s armies or terrorists. Rather, it is with the spiritual forces of darkness (Eph 6:12). In this situation our job as Christians is to pray for our leaders—not that they would win the war or be successful in government, but rather that they would leave us in peace and not hinder us while we continue to spread the gospel (1 Tim 2:1-2). Ours is not to unite with other faiths and stand together with them as one man against a distortion of Islam; rather ours is to denounce and oppose the distortion that is Islam. Ours is not to stand side by side with other Americans in a show of patriotic resolve; rather ours is to hold out the word of truth and continue to be the fragrance of life to those who are receptive to that truth, and the fragrance of death to those who oppose it (2 Cor 2:14-16). Ours is not to become politically active and change the world in a mere external way—for no soldier of Christ can be entangled in the affairs of this world (2 Tim 2:4); rather ours is to proclaim the gospel to those around us in the hopes of waking them from their spiritual slumber.

Eric Svendsen