Jared Haselbarth

I once attended a large, weekend-long Christian concert series made up of many of today's contemporary Christian artists and attended by thousands of mostly Protestant teens and young adults. The music was great and the concerts were fun.

One night during the weekend, the idea of performance was set aside and an artist led the crowds with worship and prayer through music which allowed the young people for some time to adore God and not the musicians. It worked: the crowds were praying and singing to God with all of their hearts.

But towards the close of our time in worship, the musicians began playing and singing U2's "Pride, In the Name of Love" and swaying a huge American flag across the stage, working the crowd up into a frenzy. The people continued to sing along to the familiar pop lyrics, saluting the American flag through song, and, I suppose, continuing to adore God in heaven at the same time. But for me, the introduction of our great national symbol, the flag, combined with a song written by an Irishman for Martin Luther King, and the subtle transition from worship of God to patriotic salutation of America did not quite work. It seemed we had gone in the wrong direction. We worshiped God, and then reached our spiritual pinnacle with national allegiance - should it not be the other way around? It was difficult to tell if we were still adoring God or if in fact we were now adoring the flag and perhaps even saluting God...either way I was a bit confused.

Our day of Independence will be celebrated in a few days. It would do us very well to celebrate it: with American flags, music, remembrance of our nation's past, and thanksgivings for our liberty. But the culmination, the spiritual pinnacle of that day, at least for Catholics, should be our adoration of the God who transcends nationality.

Hans Urs Von Balthasar reminds us of the catholicity of God when he suggests that any church which breaks from Rome (not Italy, but from Pontifical headship) becomes nationalistic and always tends towards the dangers associated with a State Church. Germany had no choice after the Reformation - the state would now be one with the church and without a center in Rome it would now be centered in Germany, and in Switzerland, and in whatever nation the Christians found themselves. Christianity would no longer be manifested as a catholic reality, but rather manifested in national realities, more and more localized. Henry VIII's break with Rome left the Church there no higher appeal than the King, who became its spiritual head. The Church of England is just that. The power of the Pope has never really been dissolved, but rather transferred to Kings, and eventually pastors - and even in some cases, to individuals, who take it upon themselves to loose and bind whatever they will. In any case, Christianity was no longer universal, but local.

But since the Reformation contributed to the convergence of Church and State, the early Americans and their great democratic project saw the dangers of a nationalistic religion. Our founders desired to canonize the American principle that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" - this ensured that the State could not be the spiritual head of any religion because God was greater than the State. Protestant churches, already nationalistic in origin, could not depend on the State to be their spiritual head.

And so Protestants recognized that the State could not be their pastor, but they knew that without a pastor the church could not endure. Without leaders, the people would not be led. Eventually, then, the Protestant churches in America began to congregate around their great pastors - from Billy Graham to the local 'Pastor John'. But their church's nationalistic tendencies (having only American pastors) caused them to see the world strictly through the American lens. It may have even led them to see God through the American lens, leaving them dangerously close to the idea that God and flag were sometimes interchangeable. They were virtuous in their patriotism, and virtuous in their piety, but the former limited the latter, and as a result, Protestantism in America looks very American.

For Catholic Americans, the proclamation that the State should not have spiritual power did not leave them without a pastor - for, in matters spiritual, habemus papam. The Pope, no matter his national origin, represents no one nation. The lens through which the American Catholic saw the world was often checked by a view that was not tied to any national power - that of the papacy. The Church of Rome has always recognized patriotism and love of country to be a virtue - but country must never usurp God. God's banner is not star-spangled. And this principle to which Catholics are to be bound keeps our allegiances ordered. American Catholicism doesn't look American, but it does look Catholic.

Protestants and Catholics in America nonetheless, can share our founder's great vision that religion is best headed by pastors and not by politicians. We pay allegiance to our star-spangled banner and recognize the greatness of America. We can and should salute that flag under which our fathers died. We can and do worship the God that existed before America did. But there is always a danger of mixing the two. And so: salutation first for our great country, worship last and above all for our God. One of our anthems says it well:

My country, 'tis of thee,

Sweet land of liberty,

Of thee I sing;

Land where my fathers died,

Land of the pilgrims' pride,

From every mountainside

Let freedom ring!

My native country, thee,

Land of the noble free,

Thy name I love;

I love thy rocks and rills,

Thy woods and templed hills;

My heart with rapture thrills,

Like that above.

Let music swell the breeze,

And ring from all the trees

Sweet freedom's song;

Let mortal tongues awake;

Let all that breathe partake;

Let rocks their silence break,

The sound prolong.

Our father's God to Thee,

Author of liberty,

To Thee we sing.

Long may our land be bright,

With freedom's holy light,

Protect us by Thy might,

Great God our King!