Rethinking the Pledge

I pledge allegiance to the flag

of the United States of America

And to the republic for which it stands

One nation

Under God

Indivisible

With liberty and justice for all.

Did you know that the Pledge of Allegiance was written by a socialist named Francis Bellamy?

Did you know that the original salute to the flag, called the Bellamy Salute, was not placing the hand over the heart but extending the full arm forward towards the flag?

Did you know that originally Bellamy wanted to say not 'liberty and justice for all', but 'liberty, fraternity, equality' patterned after the ideals of the French Revolution?

Did you know that President Franklin D. Roosevelt suggested a change in salute when he grew uneasy with its similarity to Der Fuhrer's salute?

Did you know that President Dwight D. Eisenhower inserted the words "under God" to differentiate this pledge from similar pledges indoctrinating the citizens of communist countries?

And good people like you and I have grown up, not just saying it in school, but teaching it to our children

and making it a part of important civic ceremonies

and linking it to patriotism.

But I think we err.

I think we err grievously.

What is the difference between patriotism and nationalism?

Well, this blog has always been about pursuing Truth.

So, really, what I mean is what is the difference between patriotism and nationalism to the believer?

I think patriotism is a good thing.

It is loving the land God has put us in.

It's a contented 'bloom where you're planted' kind of civility.

And what does a Christian patriot look like?

I think he is a good citizen.

He does right by his neighbor.

He leads a law-abiding life.

He prays for his leaders.

Christians can be American patriots

and Korean patriots

and Russian patriots

and Saudi patriots

and Iranian patriots.

In fact, I think God requires that of all believers.

I think the principle of 'moral proximity' makes that so.

But what of nationalism?

Nationalism is 'My country, right or wrong.'

Nationalism cheers for the homeland, sings of the homeland, fights and kills for the homeland

in an eerily idolatrous way.

Nationalism responds to attacks on the homeland's soil by shooting first, asking questions later.

Nationalism is not concerned with the other side of the dispute.

Nationalism assumes a moral superiority about the homeland...

an 'exceptionalism.'

Nationalism defends the homeland--no matter what--and let everyone else be damned.

But the worst thing about nationalism is that it distracts the believer from his real citizenship. Nationalism can be the red herring dragged across the patriotic path that diverts the believer to from his one true allegiance--the Kingdom of God--and his one true King--Jesus.

In a sense, every believer has a dual citizenship.

We have our eternal citizenship which transcends national boundaries and languages and cultures.

And we also have our temporal citizenship wherever our sovereign God ordained to plant us.

It is right and good for a Christian to be a patriot.

Our comportment at every level should reflect the glory of the God we serve.

But it is wrong for a Christian to be a nationalist.

It is wrong for us to be unthinking drones of the State.

We are a holy priesthood, a royal nation.

There is no such thing as a "Christian nation"...

except for the invisible Church of Jesus Christ.

So be a good citizen.

Obey the law.

Love your neighbor.

Pray for your leaders.

But save your allegiance for the King.

2011 CC Song of the Year

Are You fire?

Are You fury?

Are You sacred?

Are You beautiful?

I don't know if you've ever 'done business' with the Lord.

But I have.

I grew up in a Christian home and accepted the Lord when I was six years old. I had been one of those hellions as a small child who made my mom cry everyday. And everyday, my dad would come home and send me to the spanking room. And everyday, he would spank me, pray with me, forgive me, and wipe it away. ("Wipe it away" was a practice my folks used after discipline in which they and I would swipe the back of our hands across our foreheads to signify it was not just forgiven; it was forgotten.)

One of those terrible days, God opened my eyes, and my dad prayed with me to accept Jesus.

To hear my parents tell the story, there was an immediate change.

No more daily visits to the spanking room.

No more heels-dug-in rebellion.

Instead, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I was exlporing something new:

Obedience.

I had a great relationship with my parents, and I really did want to do the right thing now.

I didn't run away or run with the wrong crowd.

I was pretty good at submitting and doing what I was told.

But I was still a little spitfire.

Oh I wasn't blatantly rebelling anymore.

But I could out-passive/aggressive anyone on the planet.

And I was opinionated.

And I made my opinions known.

Like they were fact.

Often.

(Just ask my old headmaster, Mr. Smith.)

More years went by. And this little spitfire grew up to be a big spitfire.

(Just ask my husband or my in-laws.)

I had the idea that I knew all there was to know.

And that included God.

I guess I thought that I had figured you out.

I knew all the stories and I learned to talk about

How you were mighty to save.

Let me repeat.

I thought I knew all there was to know about God.

"How could you be so foolish?" you might be asking.

And that would be a good question.

I grew up in the Church.

I was actively discipled by Christian parents.

I waited for a Christian man to marry and got my parents' blessing.

I started having children, whom we dedicated to the Lord.

Yeah. This girl was on the fast track to sainthood.

Then we moved to Texas.

That was an answer to prayer.

God had been growing our family in Florida, and we were bursting at the seams.

I stood in the garage one day and said aloud,
"God, do you see this? Are you going to do something about it?!"

I was indignant.

Certainly, we were doing God's work.

And God's work deserves God's blessings.

So the move to Texas was obviously God's answer to my prayers.

He was going to bless me with a big house

because He's in the blessing business

And I deserved it.

No.

That was not what happened.

I'll spare you the boring details.

Suffice it to say, I did not get my big house.

I got an apartment.

Apartment.

Third floor.

Four kids all under the age of five.

Yeah, this was making a lot of sense.

Not.

And then the fateful day came.

God was not working out for me.

I was doing everything right,

And He was stuffing me in some lousy third floor apartment.

So I threw a shoe.

Not in the way a horse does.

No. I threw a shoe...

Across the room.

I yelled at God, "I'm done with You. I quit! You haven't done anything for me!"

I'd like to tell you I immediately clapped my hand over my mouth in instant repentance.

But that did not happen for a full twenty-four hours.

That's when God stepped in.

That's when I knew that I had done something horrible.

That's when I knew that I was a sinner, a worm,

Standing in the presence of a Holy God.

I had put God in a box.

I had been serving a God of my own creation.

He was sovereign...

when I allowed Him to be.

And I strongly encouraged Him to do what was good for me...

as long as He didn't dare do what was best for me.

I think I made You too small.

I never feared You at all.

Suddenly, though, I was confronted by the holiness of God.

I fell down on my face.

I don't know how long I lay on that apartment floor.

God let me stay there.

And in His mercy, He let me live.

But we did business down there, God and I.

I fell down a know-it-all princess.

I came back on my feet a humbled bondservant.

Where have I even stood but the shore along Your ocean?

The holiness of God.

It is utterly fearsome.

It shut my mouth

and opened my soul

to who God really is.

What do I know of holy?

What do any of us really know of holy?

What can we possibly know of holy this side of heaven?

The 2011 Carmel Conversations Song of the Year:

What Do I Know of Holy by Addison Road

I know the song debuted in 2009, but I only heard it for the first time this year. And it will always remind me of that day when God showed me a glimpse of His holiness.

What do I know of holy?

Not much.

But I want to never stop learning.

Beloved Disrepair

My bedroom threshold. It is the great divide between the acceptable and the forbidden.

Let me explain.

On my side of the threshold stand my bookshelves. They are loaded with fictional classics from Dickens, Bronte, Tolkien, Orczy,and Hugo, as well as non-fiction gems from Piper, Mohler, and DeYoung. Want to borrow a book? Pull up a chair and have at it.

But cross the threshold holding one of my books without my permission, and I become the Balrog.

I love my kids...and I love my books.

When I ask for a book for birthday or Christmas, I mean I want a book that doesn't have the cover ripped off

or the corners bent

or the the dust jacket missing.

I want it to be there when I want to read it

and re-read it.

When I pick up The Hobbit--my Hobbit--and find that the front cover is gone,

I start to rumble.

And it ain't pretty.

When I find that one of my books has mysteriously found its way to a living room end table,

I start to grumble.

And I look around at the downstairs bookshelves packed double deep from floor to ceiling,

and I wonder why the kids can't find something interesting on their bookshelves.

The kids can see the red glow of my indignation coming down the hall.

And just like Gandalf and company, wisely, they run.

Fly, you fools!

I love my books...and I love my kids.

So my indignation subsides.

I turn a blind eye to my curled pages...

("Just where exactly were you when my book and your water were trying to occupy the same space?!?!?!)

and I am thankful that my books are in disrepair.

Beloved disrepair--

for a book that is not worth reading

is simply not worth owning.

--------

Below, you will find my 2011 reading list: 72 books in all.

And I must draw your attention to a couple of them.

As for non-fiction, the most important book I read this year was Elias Chacour's Blood Brothers. It changed me. Told from the viewpoint of a Palestinian Christian during Israel's fight for statehood, this autobiography documents the unacceptable treatment of Palestinians--who were there first--at the hands of , not so much the indigenous Jews, as the European Jews who moved in and staked their claim on already occupied land. I cried. Today, Chacour still fights for peace in this war-torn region.

The Wingfeather Saga, by Andrew Peterson, was a sleeper hit, in my opinion. I had inadvertently stumbled across this little gem while shopping for a good book for my then 10-year-old son. He plowed through the first two books (On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darknessand North or Be Eaten), and then we read them aloud. Don't be fooled by the offbeat humor. This is a powerful tale, and I couldn't finish North or Be Eaten without crying. Jake already finished Monster in the Hollows, which is up next in the Saga, and the rest of us can't wait. It's a beautiful story.

Give Me This Mountain by Dr. Helen Rosaveare

Generous Justice by Tim Keller

The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson

Fire Breathing Christians by Scott Alan Buss

Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce by John Piper

Otto of the Silver Hand by Howard Pyle

Out of the Depths by John Newton

Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe

Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray

Marks of the Messenger by J. Mack Stiles

The Hawk and the Dove by Penelope Wilcock

Apothecary's Daughter by Julie Klassen

Scandalous by D.A. Carson

Hawk That Dare Not Hunt by Day by Scott O'Dell

Five Thousand Year Leap by Cleon Skoussen

Prayer of the Lord by R.C. Sproul

Divorce Dilemma by John MacArthur

Jonathan Edwards: Lover of God by Owen Strachan and Doug Sweeney

Thirty One Days to a Better Understanding of Prophets and Prophecy by Mark Weaver

Magna Carta by James Daugherty

The Great Turkey Walk by Kathleen Karr

Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

The Jesus You Can't Ignore by John MacArthur

Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg

Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God by J.I. Packer

Ink on His Fingers by Louise Vernon

It is Well by Mark Dever

Think by John Piper

Common Sense by Glenn Beck

I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino

Willing to Believe by R.C. Sproul

Priority of Preaching by Christopher Ash

Lord Foulgrin's Letters by Randy Alcorn

Lady Molly of Scotland Yard by Baroness Orczy

Hind's Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard

Mr. Pipes and the Songs of the Reformation by Douglas Bond

The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse

Worship Matters by Bob Kauflin

The Big Three by Dr. Henry Morris

A Palestinian Cry for Reconciliation by Naim Stifan Ateek

Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien

Word-Filled Families by John Barnett

Book of Dragons by E. Nesbitt

The Stone and the Glory by Greg Harris

One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp

Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

The Legend of the Monk and the Merchant by Terry Felber

Appointment in Jerusalem by Lydia Prince

The Chestnut King by N.D. Wilson

Genesis in Time and Space by Francis Schaeffer

Dragons of Lonely Island by Rebecca Rupp

End of the Law by Jason C. Meyer

Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? by Richard Maybury

Blame it on the Brain by Edward Welch

The Ministry of Intercession by Andrew Murray

On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness by Andrew Peterson

Just Jane by Nancy Moser

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Latham

Aunt Dimity: Snowbound by Nancy Atherton

Expository Listening by Ken Ramey

On Wings of Heroes by Richard Peck

North or Be Eaten by Andrew Peterson

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

Lumby Lines by Gail Fraser

Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Give Me Liberty: the Uncompromising Statesmanship of Patrick Henry by David J. Vaughn

Ashamed of the Gospel by John MacArthur

Get Out of Our House: Revolution by Tim Cox

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier