“What the eye is to the lover – that particular, ordinary eye he or she is born with – language – whatever language history has made his or her mother-tongue – is to the patriot. Through that language encountered at mother’s knee and parted with only at the grave, pasts are restored, fellowships are imagined, and futures dreamed”
Benedict Anderson
Benedict Anderson
Walking around the streets of Rome last week I was struck by the beauty of ancient Roman ruins and the magnificence and opulence of the city’s churches and shrines. Stumbling upon my favorite monument, Il Vittoriano in Piazza Venezia, I was awed by the beauty and magnificence of the building clearly influenced by the fascist architecture style of the early 1900s.
The building is enormous, occupying most of Venice Square. Its walls and pillars are adorned with beautiful sculptures commemorating Italy’s unknown soldiers and her casualties of war. Roman gods and other mythological figures fill the building representing the ideas of the timeless Roman state, the values of hard work and patriotism, and the idea of destiny and Italy’s perpetual horizon of future success and sacrifice. This shrine truly represents the past, present, and future success of the Italian state.
Continuing my trek throughout the building, I stumbled upon a small church attached to the back of the structure. The inside of the church was quiet and dark and inspired in me a sense of awe and tranquility as I walked through its marble halls. The church was empty - Il Vittoriano was not.
The irony of the entire situation hit me as I continued my tour. The enormous building dedicated to the love of the Italian state utterly dwarfed the beautiful church and its representation of religion and spirituality. In these two buildings, the worship of God was utterly subsumed and dominated by the worship of the Italian state. Italians are not alone in their misplaced worship… people worldwide prostrate themselves at the shrine of constitutionalism and democracy (and other –isms) before they worship at the shrine of religion. These two buildings are simply a visible representation of what many of us already know.
Benedict Anderson in his famous book “Imagined Communities” analyzes the creation of nationalism in the last three centuries and argues that it is a constructed idea reflecting the interests of 18th century elites in maintaining their privileged positions within their regions. Through a number of other influences, nationalism gained ground as the most prevalent idea in the following centuries. Regardless of its origins however, it is a created idea, not something tangible or worthy of worship.
In the 21st century, however, the idea of the ‘nation’ in particular ‘our nation’ is dominant, and individuals are educated from birth to believe in the greatness of their nation and the inferiority of all others. In schools and in churches, the nation is often elevated to the level of godliness, and often viewed hand in hand. Why is this so? Why do people the world over worship at the shrine of the nation with more enthusiasm than those worshipping at the shrine of God? Why were so many Christians in the United States practically drooling to go to war with Iraq in 2003? Why are Christians in the United States willing to kill and be killed for the idea of the American nation? Why do we sing patriotic songs in church with tears welling up in our eyes? I know some will argue that this emotion and love of country is an expression of their thanks to God for providing them with a great country, however, I think it is often much more. I think it is idolatry, the worship of the nation, the worship of a fictitious idea created in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Lest you think I am ungrateful, I will offer the disclaimer that I love living in the United States. I appreciate the sacrifices that people have made to maintain our way of living in a beautiful country. Americans are wonderful and kindhearted people who are extremely generous and loving. As a Christian, and as an individual arbitrarily possessing an American nationality due to my birthplace, I cannot sit back and worship the idea of the American nation. Don’t tell me God Bless America, God bless everyone else too. We should not ask for God’s blessing to extend only to our 300 million people encapsulated by fictitious political borders and united by a common language simply because we are “American” or because we think we are a “Christian” nation. We should worship God as humans, undifferentiated by our nationality and unhindered by the political and ethnocentric trappings of our country.
1 comments:
Best post ever. Such challenging questions. Perhaps humanity was created to worship something or someone. Someone I hope. That we people worship different things is interesting to observe. Idolatry is as old as "original sin." That the creation of the nation state is so recent is something to perhaps challenge. Examples of national loyalties can be scene in ancient Greek literature. That a tribe is different than a nation is perhaps of little consequence. Nations can be seen as giant tribes. The larger the tribe the greater the potential for diverse worship practices. The Old Testament is repleat with examples of mankind worshipping the concrete creations of man instead of the creator. Certainly the admonishment to not do this is strongly recorded in almost all Hebrew texts and is carried on in the Greek New Testament. I am reminded of Daniel and his buddies being required to bow down before Nebuchadnezzar's statue. That was a "nation state" idol if ever there was one. It was a way to force loyalty to the King, the State, the leaderships construct of social power. If we Christians are to take God's Word and apply it correctly to our lives and, by the way, thoroughly and honestly, then we will not bow down to the flag, Washington Monument, Supreme Court Building, etc. That would be to bow to Baal all over again. We would have learned nothing. I am thankful that the Supreme Court ruled that flags can be burned. Obviously, some judges of ours have read The Book of Daniel along with the constitution. At the same time Joshua was told to take stones from the center of the Jordan River as the waters were being held back miraculously by God. Those stones were for the expressed purpose of "remembering" God and what He had done for the children of Israel. There is a fine line here, I think, Andrew. Don't you? We must be on our toes intellectually and spiritually to make sure we don't go down slippery slopes when they appear in our lives and they are all around us.
It is also different to agree with a national policy and agressively support it and to idolize the nation's symbols and leaders. We had long debates on the subject of "My Nation Right or Wrong" back in the 60's and 70's and the debate continues to this day. A great challenge is in opposing national policy and doing so out of love for that nation. Often this can cause problems for the one who is the contrarian. There were Germans who lost their lives over their hatred for what the Nazi regime was doing to the Jews.
Back to Joshua, "Chose this day who you will serve. For me and my house we will serve the Lord." We "Followers of Christ" are called to serve the Lord and He is Christ. Anything short of that is misplaced worship and idolatry. Scripture supports our specific aligance to Christ and Him alone. Even Satan and his demons believe in God, but they do not serve him. Often through out history Satan has been set up as God and many of the church buildings, especially those built by states (Roman Catholic), are monuments to monumental error and social manipulation. If ever Christ's Church, His REAL body suffered a black eye it was through that state run government/religious order.
Andrew, you have a real good eye with the camera. Obviously the pictures that you are in were taken by Staci or Eric, but the scenic stuff I assume was taken by you. They are great shots! I have to learn how to put a slide show on my blog. It would be a great tool for me also.
Keep up the great writing. We need to both be cautious of what and who we worship. A Wheaton professor said something to me when Emily was a freshman that has stuck with me ever since I heard him say it. "Learning for the sake of learning is idolatry." I for one want my learning to be offered up in worship to Christ my Lord. Anything short of that would be to offer it up to myself for my glory or the glory of some organization, national state, or culture. I want my learnings, my like to bring honor to Jesus. I don't think I can go wrong here. I can only go wrong when I take my eyes off of His cross.
Loved this post, loved the pictures, keep it up.
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