Love Their Country?
I am not aware of too many Christians who do not live in some
country somewhere. Unless they permanently live in a space shuttle,
they are from a country. And even that person is likely to still be a
citizen of some country, and that space station would belong to some
nation.
So unless they are a refugee at the moment, all Christians live in
some defined nation. And this raises a number of questions about how the
Christian should relate to his or her country. Is it proper for a
believer to have a love of country? Can Christians be patriots? Should
Christians be nationalists? Can a believer ever say, “My country, right
or wrong”?
These are important questions indeed. But before proceeding, let me
define two key terms. Assuming that the first online definition I found
for each is reliable, we discover this:
Nationalism
= “identification with one’s own nation and support for its interests,
especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other
nations.”
Patriotism = “the quality of being patriotic; devotion to and vigorous support for one’s country.”
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