Bush's patriotic sin

I would say that the inanities of President Bush's "Farewell Address" have been justly ridiculed. But one truly --- you could almost say "heretical" if that word wasn't so out of favor among us anti-judgmental progressives -- grievous statement has, to my knowledge, gone unmentioned.

His next to last paragraph goes like this: "It has been the privilege of a lifetime to serve as your president. There have been good days and tough days. But every day I have been inspired by the greatness of our country, and uplifted by the goodness of our people. I have been blessed to represent this nation we love. And I will always be honored to carry a title that means more to me than any other — citizen of the United States of America."

That last sentence is gratifyingly humble in its lifting up of the status of "citizen" above that of "president". Such a fine declaration of democratic values.

I find it odd, however, that those who proclaim that ours is a Christian Nation haven't questioned the faith and the priorities of one who ranks the title of "citizen" higher than that of "Christian" or "follower of Jesus".

The slogan is supposed to be "God and country". Why does it so often come out as "Country and God"?

Put not your trust in princes -- nor in the self-proclaimed greatness of your country and the self-proclaimed goodness of your people. We are, after all, sojourners in a strange land, despite the familiarity of its places and routines. That familiarity so easily dulls our prophetic critical capacities, thus clouding our discernment of the Way that we are to go and making it easier to avoid the conflicts that are inherent in the relationship between Jesus and Caesar (or the state/society/the culture/the Zeitgeist or whatever you want to call it).

I have to conclude that there's hypocrisy and sin in a patriotism that puts country first. Loving your home is fine, but it's not the thing of ultimate value. Thinking of it as a fine mansion when it has many of the characteristics of a tenement is delusional. And destructive of faith and the country, too.

Bill