Citizenship

This letter to the editor, from a man in Eagle Rock, was in this morning's LA Times:

"So the new Army Field Manual is going to let detainees be subject to 'humiliating and degrading treatment.' That means that it essentially OKs U.S. personnel taken prisoner by enemy forces to be treated the same way. It abandons the Christian principle of 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' This shows that the United States is definitely not a Christian country."

Further proof, in my mind, that Christians need to abandon the idea of America as "the new Israel." We as a nation are not God's new chosen people, nor have we ever been. The people of God--the Church--are those, regardless of nation, class, or ethnicity, who determine to follow the Way of Christ. They may be from Orange county, Saudi Arabia, or the Amazon River Basin.

The danger in holding God and flag too closely together is that it potentially paralyzes followers of Christ when something so contrary to the Way of Christ (like the allowances in this new Army Field Manual) come to light. If we view our country and its leaders as on par with God then we can never criticize them, question them, or call them to account.

May this letter to the editor remind us anew that our citizenship is not of this earth (regardless of nation) but of heaven. Our allegiance--first and always--is to God and what we know of God revealed to us in and through God's written word and God's living Word, Jesus the Christ.