Pledging Allegiance to Babylon
A Christian’s allegiance to country, to the point of killing fellow Christians who are allied to their own countries, is nowhere more clear than in World War I. With the English cry of “God save the King,” raised up against Germans bearing, “Gott mit uns” (God with us) stamped upon their belt buckle, you wonder if it was confusing for God to know side he was supposed to be on. Of course, the Americans, the Italians, the Russians and many other WWI players that were pitted against each other had their own Christian mottos and slogans to inspire soldiers to ignore the “love your enemy” parts of scripture and embrace the “eye for an eye” parts.
Ever since Constantine, heads of State have co-opted the Christian faith for their own purposes or the purposes of their kingdoms, deposing the Prince of Peace and calling the citizens of Gods kingdom to pledge their allegiance to Babylon – that representation of political, military and economic power which the book of Revelation warns Jesus’ followers to “come out of.” (Rev. 18:4)
Around the 6th century BCE, the Babylonian army conquered the Hebrews living in Judah and carried them off to Babylon. Then, one of Israel’s prophets wrote to the Jews waiting to return to Jerusalem telling them to, “… seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” (Jer 29:7). While this was a temporary injunction lasting only 70 years before their return, it was an order from God all the same. God was, in effect, saying, “Make Babylon a better place and make the Babylonians a better people because you’re there.”
So, I suppose you could argue that there is Biblical precedent to invest in the nation-states where we find ourselves scattered and to seek the welfare of those places. But nowhere does God endorse paying homage the Babylonian gods like Nergal, the god of war or Marduk the great, high god over the kingdom of Babylon. Nor do I get the impression that the Jewish people joined the Babylonian army to fight against Persia. They were simply to put down roots, plant gardens, build homes and serve as a blessing to the communities where they lived.
So, it is surprising when I see the followers of Jesus so enamored with our various “Babylons,” even to the point of killing others made in the image of God – sometimes even fellow brothers and sisters in Christ – for the sake of our Babylon. In America, for instance, 53% of pastors reported that their congregants seemed to love American more than God.
It is good to celebrate the beautiful things in our countries and to lament and seek to change those things that are broken. But, depending on how you define it, to “pledge our allegiance” to the nation-states where Christians around the world are located is dangerous, even heretical, whether that’s America, China, Korea, Ethiopia the UK or 200 other countries. We may find ourselves defending economic policies the concentrate wealth into the hands of a few and damn the poor to a life of hell on earth. Or the State may call us to hate people we are commanded to love, enlisting our support in campaigns of violence or exclusion which assault human dignity. Pledging allegiance to Babylon will sometimes require supporting the State’s lust for power and in the process, we may end up pledging our allegiance to the occasional megalomaniac, in political office to feed their ego.
Let the Church be an example of those who can appreciate the stories of our countries’ acts of justice and mercy without celebrating her militarism. A people who can rejoice in policies that give access to the economically marginalized without becoming complicit in policies that reward the love of money. Let the Church cultivate communities of faith that recount the places in our history where the foreigner was welcomed, without then turning a blind eye to those inciting xenophobia and fear of the “other.”
It’s time for the Church to be IN the State but not OF the State.