Can the Christian be a patriot? Is it wrong to have a love of country? Can or should the state be religiously neutral? What does the Bible say about such matters? These are all important questions to carefully and prayerfully consider. Here are some basic truths we can start with:
-God is interested in nations, as he is with individuals.
-God is interested in righteous nations as well as righteous people.
-As with anything else, one can make an idol out of one’s country.
-Wanting to see your nation thrive and excel, especially in righteousness and godliness, is a wholesome and welcome Christian desire.
With all this in mind, a new book on these issues is worth being aware of. I refer to In Defence of Christian Patriotism by Daniel Darling (Broadside Books, 2025). In a carefully argued case, he states that patriotism, rightly considered, is a good thing, and that Christians certainly should be patriotic in a biblical sense.
While it deals primarily with the situation in America, it is applicable to most other Western nations. Indeed, given that the West has been overwhelmingly Christian for so long, but is now well on its way to becoming post-Christian, if not anti-Christian, it is high time to reconsider these matters.
In some 250 pages the details of his case are spelled out. And that case is nicely summarised in his Introduction:
Healthy self-criticism is good for any nation, but can a nation survive that refuses to believe the best parts of her own story? My thesis, then, is a bit counterintuitive to that of many prevailing narratives. A healthy patriotism is not only an acceptable posture for a Christian. I believe it is a necessary posture for a Christian.
In Scripture, God commands a number of loves. We are to love God, love our family, love our neighbors. But what about love of country? It can be easy for a modern Christian to dismiss this love as superfluous to Christian duty. However, a fundamental assumption of the Christian life is that we are to be grateful to God for the things that he gives us. The specifics of our birthplace fall under that category: our family, our home, our community. We are to honor our father in a way that’s distinct from all the other fathers of the world, not because he is superior to them but because he is ours. We’re to love our home as the place where God has planted us, not because it’s the best of all possible homes but because it’s a space we’ve been given to steward.
God must be the center of this. If we love those things without loving God more, it’s easy to make them idols, since, after all, each is in some manner merely a reflection of him. (xi-xii)
Darling deals with all the usual objections that arise here: that Christians should stay out of politics; that a healthy patriotism is incompatible with the gospel; that there is nothing exceptional about America; that having a love of country makes you idolatrous, and so on.
Let me here look at just one of his chapters, with future articles discussing other points that he makes. Chapter 2 deals with the fears many believers have that patriotism is a mere idol, and to love God means that we cannot love our country.
He notes how some believers claim that to love one’s own country means we do not love other countries, and our love is therefore being preferential and exclusive. Darling reminds us that this is the same mindset folks have when they push for things like homosexual marriage: ‘there should be no limits to love’.
But biblical love IS discriminatory and narrow in various ways. Loving your wife means you do NOT love other women equally. Loving your own children will take some priority over all the other children of the world. Loving Christ means you do not have the same reverence for Muhammad or Buddha.
In Defense of Christian Patriotismby Darling, Daniel (Author)
Darling looks at the story of Jonah and how he did not want to go and preach to Ninevah. He writes:
Jonah’s problem was not that his love for his country was too big, it was that his love for God was too small. And his hatred of the Ninevites blinded him to what God wanted to do: see the people of that nation experience God’s love and thus become less bloodthirsty, less antagonistic, and, perhaps, less of an enemy. You can’t obey God and hate your country, but you also can’t love your country more than you do God’s Kingdom. Natural affections are good, but in their proper place. If they abandoned that place, they also lose their nature as affection. They become something else. But in their proper place, such affection shouldn’t need to be at war with each other. (p. 36)
He continues:
In fact, the path God gives us to love the world is to start with the immediate and move forward. The idea is to love everything, so starting with what’s easy to love is pragmatic. But sticking with what’s easy to love makes that love itself the end, which is idolatry.
Genuine love of God, then, enlarges rather than diminishes our capacity for love. Genuine gratitude for what is near – church, family, country – produces a generosity for what is a little farther out. The most missions-minded Christians I’ve known have been motivated by gratitude for their own personal salvation. The biggest-hearted Americans desire to help other nations from a well of pride for the goodness of their country.
Thus, in avoiding Jonah’s mistake, we should not, as is so often the temptation in this age of American self-loathing, view every expression of patriotism as idolatry. (p. 37)
Darling examines 1 Peter 2:17 and says: “Fear God. Honor the king. That’s a hierarchy. That’s an ordering of loves. It’s not God or the king, unless the king is telling you to disobey God. . . . So yes, we can pledge allegiance to the flag, knowing that our fullest allegiance is ‘under God.’ We do this in other areas of our lives without thinking about it. I pledge allegiance to my wife almost a quarter century ago…” (p. 39)
Speaking of flags, he makes this observation:
For the record, Americans embarrassment about displaying flags in church seems to be a uniquely Western neurosis. Miles Smith, writing for the magazine First Things, quoted pastors from around the world. An Indonesian pastor said, “When we display the flag in our church, it is not to express idolatry. We want to honour our national identity. It reminds us of our responsibilities as Christian citizens. It’s also a sign of gratitude for living in Indonesia.” An Egyptian pastor advocated the display of “the flag of my country only and not other countries, as it is a spiritual and not a political orientation.” A Jordanian minister said he displayed the flag “in order to show our loyalty as citizens to the country of Jordan. We believe that by doing so, we are a good example and testimony to others and also following the teachings of the Bible. (pp. 52-53)
Having a love of country means that we ‘seek the welfare of the land’ as Jeremiah exhorted us to do in Jeremiah 29. Seeking the best outcome for your people is one way that we honour and serve God. Love of country and love of God can go together.
Darling closes the book this way:
The truth is, we all have a stake in ensuring that our republic endures. Benjamin Franklin’s timeless words celebrating “a republic, if you can keep it” should be etched on our minds. America will not merely endure on autopilot; it will require investment by every generation to secure freedom and liberty.
The American experiment is rare in human history. The words of Ronald Reagan almost 6 decades ago ring true today: “Freedom is a fragile thing, and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. And those in world history who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again.”
Christians are invested in America’s flourishing, not because we believe this beautiful land is the new Jerusalem but because we love our neighbors as Jesus commands (Mark 12:30-31) and seek the shalom of our communities, cities, and nation (Jeremiah 29). Our patriotism is guided by our ultimate allegiance to Jesus Christ and his kingdom.
For our children, for our neighbors, for the glory of God, let’s love this country. (p. 227)
As mentioned, I will further explore what he has to say in future articles. In sum, this is a quite helpful book, dealing with the myths and realities of what Christian patriotism involves. It is well worth getting a copy and giving it a close perusal.
Some of us have been looking at the massive public meeting in London recently. Exactly how to think about Tommy Robinson I don’t know. I could say I don’t like him or what he represents – until I look at his opponents. He has a good tune though – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SN5Prpnvc4
Some of us have been looking at the massive public meeting in London recently. Exactly how to think about Tommy Robinson I don’t know. I could say I don’t like him or what he represents – until I look at his opponents. He has a good tune though – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SN5Prpnvc4
Thanks John.