by Fr. Tom Zelinski

This year, we are observing our 250th anniversary as a nation. I would guess that words like “patriot” and “patriotism” will be widely used in various contexts.

Patriotism does not necessarily have a religious meaning. But it can take on a kind of religious quality, depending on how a person uses it, or how a person feels about one’s country. To talk about “love of country” or “love of the flag” can carry tones akin to how we think and feel about our religious beliefs. We don’t worship our country as we worship God. But there can be some strong feelings and beliefs that get stirred in people when thinking and speaking about one’s country.

Sometimes in political discourse in this country, there can be a kind of blending of patriotism and religion. We speak of “one nation under God” and in recent years there has been a call, on the part of some, to consider the United States to be a Christian nation. And sometimes that kind of thinking gets blended with a spirit of patriotism. As far as I know, our founders did not intend to found a Christian nation. It seems they wanted to establish a certain freedom of religious practice and so wrote that there should be no establishment of any religion on the part of the national government. That seems to be included in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights: no establishment of a religion and assurance of the free exercise of religion. One can be a patriot and a Christian. But so also can one be an American patriot and a Jew, a Muslim, a Buddhist, and so on.

For the authentic Christian, there may be a time when one’s religion comes into conflict with what the country and its leaders are doing- we are to worship God and not the flag. I thought of this recently when reading one of the weekday Gospel passages, where Jesus proclaims that his brothers and sisters and mothers are those who hear the Word of God and keep it. Listen to the Word of God, and try to keep it, above all other loyalties.

One has heard the saying, “My country, right or wrong: my country”. I would think the authentic Christian could not hold to that. If something is “wrong,” then it needs to be opposed or avoided, no matter if it is the policy of the country. Our country, its government and its people, have done many wrong things in our history. There is the whole sadness of racism and slavery as institutional practices. There is the sad history of our treatment of native peoples. There has been trouble with immigration over many decades of our history. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, there was great prejudice and opposition to the immigration of our Irish, Polish, Italian and various other ancestors. Some of this was in the nature of anti-Catholic feeling.

Patriotism, when practiced well, can be a good virtue. I have sung the National Anthem in public because I wanted to honor the real values that ought to be associated with the flag, such as liberty and justice for all. For all. Also, with this was an honoring of those who have served our country and have suffered in doing so. But, sooner or later, for the Christian, patriotism may not supersede our faith in God and honoring the Word of God.

I hope the current celebration of 250 years keeps moving our country in a good direction, as our bishops have prayed in their recent consecration of the country to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.