Engage

On September 22, I participated in a joint webinar from Lutheran World Federation (LWF: The Global Lutheran Church) and the ELCA entitled “Ignore, Engage, or Resist? Global responses to religious nationalism”.   It was a valuable learning experience and I want to share some of the insights that were presented.

Over the past decade or two religious nationalism has been creeping its way into American Christianity.  We have reached an inflection point in which we must deliberately make a point of resisting and denouncing the use of our Christian beliefs as nationalism, patriotism, or connected to one political party or another and conflating being Christian with being American.   Considering how the German Lutheran church failed to resist and put itself firmly opposite to Nazism (other than some exceptions like Dietrich Bonhoeffer), Lutherans have a particular responsibility to denounce religious nationalism.

Rev. Dr. Sivin Kit, a pastor of the Lutheran Church in Malaysia, is the program executive for public theology and interreligious relations with the Lutheran World Federation in Geneva, tasked with pursuing strategic theological questions and contributing in areas of religion in the public space, interreligious collaboration, and peacebuilding.  Dr. Kit taught us that religious nationalism is the relationship of nationalism to a particular religious belief, dogma, or affiliation. This relationship can be broken down into two aspects: the politicization of religion and the influence of religion on politics.  Religious nationalism is on the rise most in the United States, but it is also rising in various countries around the world.  Historically religious nationalism has been used to oppress others and to convince normally decent folks to go along with that oppression in the supposed name of their religion. 

Rev. Sathiana, a pastor serving the Lutheran Church in India, shared that in modern times most people associate religious nationalism with Islam and jihad.  Iran would be a perfect example of how religious nationalism can be used to justify oppression and violence.   In almost all cases, religious nationalism is co-opting a religion to get members to accept political ideology that is often in direct contrast to the actual teachings of the original religion.  Contrary to popular propaganda, Muslims, in general, do not believe in or accept the violent rhetoric espoused by Iran or other nationalistic groups.  As Christians, we must absolutely engage and resist religious nationalism in all forms.  Indians throughout history have a special understanding of the damaging effect it can have on a country.  Indians value the separation of church and state because of their past.

Dr. Dicky Sofjan is part of the Core Doctoral Faculty in the Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies, located at the Graduate School of Unviersitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Dr. Sofjan shared that Indonesia is specially equipped to resist religious nationalism because it is a country made up of over 17,000 islands, with over 6,000 different aboriginal peoples.  As these islands joined to become Indonesia, the people were already used to the idea of being from their specific island and being an Indonesian.  Dual identity makes Indonesians able to accept that they can be Muslim or Christian without this being in conflict to being Indonesian or any other identity that is important to them.  Islam has flourished greatly over Christianity in Indonesia because many of the American Christian missionaries espouse a doctrine of conversion.  In fact, some even claim that Jesus said, “Love for one’s country is part of faith.”  The well-educated Indonesians like Dr. Sofjan know better than to believe that Jesus really said this, but the average Indonesian rejects any idea that makes national identity part of faith.

The Rev. Angela Denker is a former sportswriter turned Lutheran pastor, writer, speaker–and wife and mom of two little boys–based in Minneapolis.  Denker is a contributor to various publications, including The Washington Post, Sports Illustrated, Christian Century, and Living Lutheran.  Her book, Red State Christians: Meet the Voters who elected Donald Trump, explores the rise of religious nationalism among American Christians.  Pastor Denker points out the rampant religious nationalism she saw in her research for the book.   She spent much of 2018 visiting and attending various churches throughout the United States and she noticed idolatry in most.  Many churches had American flags on or next to the altar.  Many sang the national anthem and national songs instead of hymns.  Many venerated the military itself, while dehumanizing the individual members who are serving.  Many worshipped the Bible itself, sometimes even enshrining a physical copy, while disregarding and distancing themselves from the Gospel.   Many went entire services without even referencing Jesus once.  This worship of the idol of America and not Jesus is the sin that led to so many to accepting religious nationalism.   This is how, in current times, so many will defend the economy over defending human life. 

Dr. Kit summarized that we as Lutherans can start to engage and resist nationalistic viewpoints by first being empathetic and understanding where and why this is happening.  We need to understand that being a Christian is not tied to being any nationality, race, gender, or identity.  God’s family is all people and we must be deliberate in spreading that truth.  We must not be afraid of preaching in the public square and acknowledge that now the public square is online.  Many church members get their preaching from the internet and not from their own pastor.  We need to be present, engaged, and loving in that space and be absolutely dedicated to spreading the good news of Jesus Christ and not our national identity.  One can be a Christian and anything else simultaneously; indeed, one of Luther’s most important teachings is the doctrine that we are both sinner and saint at the same time.  The church must teach and preach the Gospel according to Jesus and not according to a country.