The Idol of Nationalism

'The idol of nationalism...has led industrialists to support militaristic programmes that may have seemed patriotic at the time, but in hindsight ruined their reputation for all time.'

This quotation from Tim Keller's new book 'Every Good Endeavour' made me pause. It is obviously a point that is being made about American industry. However, the more I looked at it the more I thought it could very easily apply to the Church, not just in America but a lot closer to home. Let me re-work the sentence to show you what I mean; 'The idol of nationalism has led church leaders to support political causes that may have seemed patriotic at the time, but in hindsight ruined their reputation (and hindered the cause of the gospel) for some considerable time.'

This could be said to be true of the church in many places and times. It obviously applies to elements of the church in Germany in the 1930s where a desire to be rid of 'godless Bolshevism' and restore national pride led the church to passively stand by and, at times, actively co-operate as the Nazi regime rounded up Jews, homosexuals, gypsies and others and had them systematically murdered. It applies to elements of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa who supported apartheid and came up with a phoney theology to justify it.

But here's the thing. It applies to the churches in Ireland (North and South, Protestant and Catholic) just as much. As a Presbyterian I can only speak to my own church. Others can make the application to theirs. In 1912 many Presbyterians, led by their official church leaders, signed their names to the Ulster Covenant. The issues around the signing of the covenant were complex. Many Protestants genuinely felt that their religious freedoms would be under threat from Home Rule but what it produced (or encouraged) was an identification between Protestantism and political Unionism that exists to this day. This identification has not helped the cause of the gospel in Ireland and, as Presbyterians, we are always to be more committed to the gospel than to any political or ideological cause.

The implications continue to this day. We cannot be more committed to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland than to the kingdom of God. We cannot be more exercised about the flying of a flag than about the advance of the gospel. We cannot give the impression that our British identity means more to us than our identity in Christ. We cannot be or do these things because to be or do these things is, put simply, idolatry.

We are called by the gospel to put away our idols. Unfortunately our hearts are idol factories and so we will be constantly tempted to find new things to worship that are not God. With the the help of the Holy Spirit we must name and resist the idolatries of materialism, success, popularity, career, relationships and, yes, nationalism. It must be able to be said of us that we are people for whom to live is Christ and to die is gain. I would love that to be able to be said of me and of the Presbyterian church that I love. By God's grace I hope that it might be so.