Patriotism blinded is nationalism.

Nationalism is the preventable outcome of fear-mongering at a national scale, a self-perpetuating tool of authoritarian regimes to establish and maintain their own power against democratic movements. It requires three things:

  1. Fabricated life-or-death stakes that create a false us-versus-them paradigm
  2. Restrictions on the "them" group to deport, detain, or destroy the perceived enemy under the guise of self-defense
  3. A charismatic figurehead for the movement to serve as the savior of the "us" group

Fundamentally, nationalism relies on an oversimplification of reality that crosses into the territory of flat-out lies, "alternate facts" that distort the complexities of objective, observed reality into binary irrealities that inflame our fears and separate us from our communities.

The United States of America was founded on principles intended to prevent these cancerous ideas from taking root within our nation, principles that believed in the goodness of humanity when we gathered around a table and worked through the disagreements in our perspectives.

That intent exemplifies a nation I can be proud of. That commitment inspires patriotism in me, as it should in all Christians, because it closely aligns with the heart of the gospel that Jesus Christ revealed to us.

How? Let's take a look.

Life

At the heart of the gospel is life, not only that more people would have life, but also that each life would flourish. Jesus said this explicitly in John 10, talking about how people could know that his message reflected the heart of God:

So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, ... [t]he thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

For Jesus, this focus on life was not about self-preservation for him and his particular followers, but about self-giving and the pursuit of life for the whole world. He continued his sermon in John 10:

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ... I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

So as Christians who follow the way of Jesus, we ought to be advocates for life (nonviolent resolutions to conflict, opposition to death penalties and practices, access to family planning resources, etc.) and for systems and policies that promote abundant, flourishing lives, not just of people who look and believe the same as we do, but for all people. Some lives are not more valuable, more worthy of life, than others.

That brings us to freedom.

Freedom

What is a life of abundance? Was Jesus talking about a lavish life of wealth and luxury?

He said a lot about the evils of the love of money, so he certainly was not equating abundance with wealth. But he did care deeply about how the respect we pay to people across the boundaries that society drew around people. He spoke to caring for the orphan, the widow, the foreigner. He elevated the roles of children and women. He lifted up the poor at the expense of the wealthy.

For Jesus, an abundant life was one where all people are deserving of the same respect—where all people have the same rights, benefits, and freedoms of being fully human.

As Christians, then, we ought to be seeking those same priorities. Wherever we find people who have been disenfranchised by society, we ought to find ways to lift them up to the same place of privilege we ourselves occupy. That means providing access to resources such as food, housing, and healthcare; it means ensuring representation across legislative and decision-making bodies; it means removing barriers to equity in career potential, cultural and social representation, travel, and family development.

A country that continually pushes into greater freedom for each person is a country that I can be proud of—a country for which I could feel a deep sense of patriotism.

Patriotism

No person will save us, for we do not need a savior. We already have a savior, so anyone besides Jesus who positions themself as one is an anti-Christ charlatan in search of their own glory and power.

As Christians, we follow the Way of Christ—it's not only in the name, it's a choice that we've made to abandon the way of fear, the way of self-serving power, the way of us-versus-them, and to live instead into the way of love, the way of truth, the way of life and freedom.

Though we cannot pledge our allegiance to any earthly kingdom or nation, we can celebrate when those nations align with the principles at the heart of the gospel.

Finding that alignment, though, requires us to take off the blinders of what our nation is—honestly considering its history and listening to the people on its margins to continually draw it closer to those ideals of life and freedom for all.

To me, that sounds a lot like patriotism.

I wish our nation was in a place right now where I could express patriotism.