Faith and Patriotism

from Minutes of the Presbyterian Church in the United States

The year 1976 will be a time of national celebration when we think back over two centuries of existence as a nation. It will be an occasion for reaffirming our patriotism and rejoicing in our heritage as Americans. It will also provide an opportunity for taking stock.

We hope that all Americans will use this occasion to examine our common life in light of the national purposes and values expressed in the founding documents of our nation. We feel an obligation as citizens to do this. Moreover, we feel an obligation as Christians to reflect on our common life also in light of our loyalty to God, for we are citizens not only of our nation but also of God’s kingdom, and our loyalty to God qualifies all other loyalties. As the 107th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States put it: “As Americans, we love our country, cherish its traditions, endeavor to support its causes. Yet, as Christians, above everything we love the Lord of all nations. Our loyalty to him thus demands the continual scrutiny of all our lesser loyalties.”

Our scrutiny of national life gives us much for which to thank God. Our scrutiny is also disturbing, for it reveals both distortions of the values on which our nation was founded and violations of the requirements of God. We rejoice in those qualities which have made our nation great, yet we are deeply concerned to see what is happening to them today.

One national value we prize is the opportunity for all citizens to engage in “the pursuit of happiness.” As Christians we celebrate God’s concern for the welfare of all persons and groups, and as Americans we are grateful for the material abundance which our nation enjoys. Yet we note with concern that many of us Americans pursue private happiness at the expense of public responsibilities. Many of us seem more interested in the acquisition of property and the rights of ownership than with the conservation of human resources and the rights of people. And many of us seem unconcerned that our nation uses a disproportionate share of the world’s resources and that we and other developed nations grow richer and richer while many other nations grow poorer and poorer. We remind ourselves and others that our national commitment is to equality of opportunity for all persons, and that God’s requirement is that we show particular concern for the weak, the poor, and the oppressed.

Another national value we prize is commitment to “justice for all.” As Christians we affirm God’s demand for justice in society, and as Americans we are grateful for our nation’s traditional sensitivity to this demand. Yet we are disturbed that many of us Americans now demonstrate more concern for order and stability than for justice and mercy. Preoccupied with getting and spending, we have come to fear anything that would upset the status quo. Many of us have lost the capacity to put ourselves in the place of others and to empathize with them and their needs, even the elementary needs for food, clothing, and shelter. Moreover, in our national concern for order throughout the world, many of us have come to assume that international problems are primarily military problems, soluble by military means; and in seeking to maintain stability, our nation has supported authoritarian regimes who have little sympathy for the rights of their people for justice. We seem to have lost grasp of the fact that any true order and stability throughout the world must be based on a pursuit of justice for all.

A third national value we prize is “liberty.” As Christians we affirm God’s concern for the liberation of all people so that they may be free to act as persons with full responsibility; as Americans we are grateful for our national heritage of liberty and our constitutional guarantees of freedom. Yet we see disturbing evidence that personal freedom is being curtailed. We are alarmed by recent disclosures about the surveillance of citizens—including elected representatives of the people—by the military and intelligence communities; about data banks containing dossiers of persons who disagree with government policy; and about the introduction of methods of international espionage into our domestic political processes. These practices are having a chilling effect on our freedom to express ourselves openly and a corrosive influence on our practice of national debate. Moreover, we are deeply concerned that many Americans, including some elected officials, denounce criticism of and dissent from national policy as “unpatriotic.” Consent and dissent are means by which citizens participate responsibly in the challenge of self-government. We renounce the practice of questioning the loyalty of those citizens who dissent.

We express these concerns as our patriotic duty, for patriotism itself requires us to be self-critical of our national life. Moreover, we express these concerns as our Christian duty, for our loyalty to God alerts us to the danger that we Americans may turn the nation into an end in itself, seek to preserve and protect it by any means, and in the process undermine and even destroy the very values for which we stand as a people. At the same time we reaffirm our faith, our first allegiance to the God of Jesus Christ and his kingdom. Our fear of God is both the beginning of our patriotism and the restraint on it. Whenever this nation of any other group commands that which we believe contrary to our higher loyalty, our obligation is clear today as it has always been in the Christian community: We must obey God rather than men.

Adopted by the 113th General Assembly (1973) of the Presbyterian Church in the United States.