IDOL Fixation—Nation, Religion, Political Faction, and Kin

“God and King,” “The Sun Never Sets on the British Empire,” “Gott mi tuns” (on every German soldier' belt buckle-“God with us”)
“Holy Mother Russia,”
"the Fatherland,”

“God bless U.S.”
”America First!”
“Make America Great Again,”

“Change We Can Believe In”

"Allahu Akbar!" (“Allah is Greater!”)

“In this Sign, Conquer.”

Etc.

So many idolatrous mottoes by human nations bent upon imposing their particular society on all others, declaring their particular nation is the only numero uno!

And endless subgroups of religion, politics, and ideology

Republican vs. Democrat
Capitalist vs. Marxist
Christian vs. Muslim
Hindu vs. Buddhist....

Notice, they all tend toward egocentric identities!
&
Power, Money, War, and In-Groupness.

According to the American theologian and social critic, Reinhold Niebuhr, all of us humans
have the tendency individually to behave less moral than each of us ought to do.

But more importantly, the central key focus and thesis of his book, Moral Man and Immoral Society
is
that generally every nation-society of humans will act even more immoral than individuals within each nation.
(He later wrote that his book ought to have been, 'immoral men, and even more immoral nations'.)

This tragedy happens because of of all human nations have group-egos.

History does seem to show that any given human society will tend to be more immoral and more unjust than some of its citizens.
The analogy would be like a bit of dye dropped into a glass of water. It quickly stains-discolors the whole glass of water even if only a very tiny bit of dye has been added.

Possibly, a nation could be morally better than its individual citizens, but it’s not likely. And it hasn’t happened in known history.

Here are a few more examples of the tendency toward ethnocentrism in history:
“Nobiscum Deus in Latin, Μεθ᾽ἡμων ὁ Θεός (Meth himon o theos) in Greek, was a battle cry of the late Roman Empire and of the Eastern Roman Empire. It is also a popular hymn of the Eastern Orthodox Church, sung during the service of Great Compline (Μεγα Αποδειπνον). The Church Slavonic translation is Съ Hами Богъ (S Nami Bog).”

“It was used for the first time in Germany by the Teutonic Order. In the 17th century, the phrase Gott mit uns was used as a 'field word', a means of recognition akin to a password,[2] by the army of Gustavus Adolphus at the battles of Breitenfeld (1631), Lützen (1632) and Wittstock (1636) in the Thirty Years' War."

“In 1701, Frederick I of Prussia changed his coat of arms as Prince-Elector of Brandenburg. The electoral scepter had its own shield under the electoral cap. Below, the motto Gott mit uns appeared on the pedestal.”
--Wikipedia

It is shocking that in the 21st century, many nations are now turning back to autocratic, egocentric forms of governments.

Nationalism like what caused the cataclysm of the Great War at the beginning of the 20th century is back!

Let us work to counter this dire change for the worse.

Daniel Wilcox

The Bad of Boasting

Check out Hannity's America where the TV news commentator Sean Hannity claims "the U.S. is the greatest, best country God has ever given man on the face of the Earth.

President Barack Obama claims,
"The entire world is watching. So let's seize this moment to show why the United States of America is still the greatest nation on Earth."

And Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate for president, claims American is “the greatest nation in the history of the earth.”

Huh? What happened to moderation, humility, unselfishness, and focusing on others?

Group egotism is the worst form of pride, the very worst form of boasting, and all too often the most destructive.

Nationalism is rotten to the core.

What about focusing on asking God to bless others, to bless the needy, the impoverished, the persecuted, the lonely?

May God bless everyone!

A cautionary note: There is a huge difference between nationalism--"America is the best, the greatest...God bless US!
versus
genuine patriotism, moderate love of one's country.

Sometimes when a leader claims his country is great, he means 'I love my country in a widened extension of love for my ken, my family and my spouse.'

In its best expression, love of country is like love of one's wife, a husband loves his wife like no other human.

He means he and his sweetheart's love is special, but he isn't claiming that his wife is better than all other women in history! He's not claiming that she is better than other men's sweethearts. Each guy loves his beloved for herself, not because he compares her to others!

See how obnoxious and absurdly arrogant that sounds, if he claimed the latter. No, he is speaking of being a loving couple. When we see such love the result is uplifting and a blessing.

I felt such love for the United States when as a young teen I earned my God and Country Award for Boy Scouts. The award wasn't a negative comparison award where I was vaunting my country over all other countries, but a genuine love of our people and our government.

Our love of our country can be genuine while we are still fully aware that multi-millions of other people elsewhere love their countries, too.

Tragically, most human political speech usually means the opposite--that my country is 'better' than all other people's countries.

Senator Mark Hatfield of Oregon (one of the only two senators to vote at the start against the Vietnam War) warned against such boasting. He wrote two books about his time in American government, and in each one he warned against the insidious temptations of American politics (Crisis and Conscience and Between a Rock and Hard Place).

According to Senator Hatfield it is nigh impossible to escape from the pride which inhabits all political involvement in our government in Washington D.C.

Notice how Hannity, Obama, and many other political and religious leaders are continuing this tendency for human group pride. They claim the United States is better than all other nations, even all other nations in history!

This is an arrogant-spirited American IDOL, in the worst sense of the wor, where only one nation gets to claim its top dog--or is it 'top god?' (sarcasm intended!).

Of course, Americans aren't the only humans to get sucked into this virulent boasting. Try reading a few statements by the British leadership for more than two hundred years when the sun never sat on the British Empire, which was far larger and had a much greater control of the world than the U.S. ever has.

And don't forget the late 19th-early 20th century German belief that their nation, Deutschland, was uniquely called and indwelt by the World Spirit, called to lead the world.

Or consider the vast French claims during the Napoleonic Era, the Russian Empire, the Muslim Conquest, or the Roman Empire, the Persian...blah, blah...

There is seemingly no doubt that pride (boasting) is the worst human evil. What is baffling and tragic is how many modern Christians of a variety of stripes still seem to obsess on this temptation, to exalt THEIR nation as being better than all other people's nations.

And the true historic tragedy is that while individual pride constantly hurts a few humans, national pride and boasting has killed literally millions of people, and is the worst of worst when it comes to human evil.

Nationalistic boasting is the worst part of the ocean of darkness.

Let the OCEAN OF LIGHT overwhelm our tendency to pride.

In the Light

Daniel Wilcox