On Religious Patriotism

Don't let the flag touch the ground.

I always took this for granted. When on color guard in my scout troop we were all extremely careful that nary a corner touched the carpeting under our feet. The girls surrounding the flag gently held up every last inch of the colored material.

But, why don't we let the flag touch the ground? A flag, really, is just a fancy piece of fabric. It's a bit of nice, thick, woven strands that have been sewn together. Or just one large swatch of cloth that has been dyed in a specific pattern. It has no inherent magical powers or reason for me to honor it.

But, it stands for a country. Our country. My county. The United States of America.

Here's the thing. Why should I honor my country?
Sacrilege!

That's what my inner brain, the one that has internalized all of the country music songs, scouting guidelines, and Saving Private Ryan type movies shouts at me when I type this. But, really, just because I happened to be born in a wealthy, democratic-republic group of states doesn't guarantee I was born into the "best country in the world". I could just have easily been born in Belgium, Rwanda, or China.

Patriotism isn't all bad. However, I think that as Americans we tend to become too religious about this patriotism. The truth is, America isn't heaven on Earth. The founding fathers weren't divinely illuminated religious/political leaders who knew how to set up a perfect governmental system. In fact, they had to re-write their system about ten years after the birth of the country. And even then, they were testing theories that they came up with from studying ancient cultures, political theorists, and philosophy.

Some of the things we have done as a country are horrendous. We eradicated almost an entire people group from land we didn't own so we could live here, and proceeded to ship over another people group which we enslaved and abused, leading to systematic racism which is still prevalent in our culture. Today, we are a consumeristic, wealthy nation that relies on less-wealthy nations to provide us with cheap goods. And these are just the beginning of our problems.

The danger of religious-type patriotism is that it can, in a stubborn religious-type fervor, cause us to allow unspeakable things for "the good of America" (manifest destiny much?). It blinds us from the issues with our country, and maybe even -- gasp -- the hollowed constitution (let us remember that the constitution allowed states to count their slaves as three-fifths of a person).

This patriotism generates propaganda-type media which snowballs as people internalize the messages they are receiving every day through music and movies which glorify America and create more of the same media. This kind of blind patriotism causes a false sense of supremacy has given rise to such horrors as the Nazis in Germany. (What propaganda-type media, you ask? Watch a movie which involves America dealing with another country. Or just turn on a country station).

The point I am trying to make is that we are not the best nation in the world. We are wealthy. We theoretically have a fair government. The assumption of our superiority is false. The assumption that our problems will be fixed if we "get back to the basics" is false. The basics included slavery. As Americans, we need to build on what we have, improve on what the founding fathers gave us to create something better.

The flag is not Jesus. It's a piece of fabric.