Daniel Darling has written a wise and important book. In Defense of Christian Patriotism argues that Christianity has been a profound influence on the United States and that it is OK for Christians to feel patriotic. To do so is not worshipping a false god or calling for that liberal boogeyman, Christian nationalism. 

Darling, a pastor and the director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and assistant professor of faith and culture at Texas Baptist College, cites thinkers such as C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, and Richard John Neuhaus. His argument boils down to a couple of basic concepts. 

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First, human beings are hard-wired to be moral creatures who seek transcendent meaning. We make decisions every day about our personal behavior and the larger meaning of our lives. We like to think, to quote Carl Jung, that we have a “cosmic destiny” that gives our lives meaning. That means we are going to serve something or somebody. If Christianity were outlawed tomorrow, Darling writes, something would “rush in to fill the void.” 

That something is usually politics, which becomes a false idol.

Indeed, Darling argues that secularists are already pushing their own religion in America. “Consider how the rituals and practices of the LGBT movement have adopted the rites and rituals of civic religion,” he writes, “with high holy days, sacred symbols, and rigid norms enforced by both the state and corporate power. Or the way scientism became a righteous creed during covid.”

Human beings “are inescapably moral creatures,” Darling goes on. “All political actors operate with a vision for the flourishing of the human race founded on moral assertions. What’s unusual in a secular society is that only the religious are disallowed from promoting their view of human flourishing. The result of this decision is not to create a neutral public square but to allow the moral terms of public life to be set by irreligious people’s priorities that are just as much an assertion of faith as any religious claim can be.”

The second concept Darling introduces is the idea that it’s possible to have a “hierarchy of loves.” If we have God at the top of that hierarchy, it is not idolatry to love one’s country, or another person, or the natural beauty of the world.

“For fear of slipping into idolatry (a healthy fear),” Darling notes, “many retreat from the public square, and many feel sheepish about expressing love for the nation where God has called them.” This is “a binary choice between loving God and loving country.”

Citing the words of C.S. Lewis, Chesterton, Abraham Lincoln, and Augustine, “who all borrow from Jesus,” Darling believes that “we don’t face a binary choice, but a matter of how we order our loves. If we love Christ, it will necessarily follow that we love our country in a healthy way.” Chesterton wrote that loving what is near (the country) can help us love what is far (the kingdom of Heaven).

Darling believes that there is a natural law that, as Lincoln said, “God wrote on our bosom.” Lewis called it a “telos” that makes us want to discern between right and wrong, and seek out the former. If your country shows such a telos to be expressed in its founding documents, it is a place worth loving. No government should be mistaken for God. Yet the Founding Fathers created a system in which the government would encourage spiritual flourishing and expression.

CHARLIE KIRK’S FINAL WITNESS: THE FAITH THAT FUELED A MOVEMENT

Darling sees a shift taking place in the culture in recent years, with even liberal academics and scholars questioning the sexual revolution and the intrusion into the public square of “radical gender ideology.” Christine Emba, a writer on sexual ethics, pens a column in the Washington Post arguing that “sex possibly has a deeper significance than just recreation.” #MeToo has “spurred a questioning of the orthodoxy of the sexual revolution.” Younger people are seeing the wreckage of the sexual revolution and the emptiness of the drug culture. Thousands of them filled the seats at the recent funeral service for Charlie Kirk.

“I love this country,” Darling concludes. “I grew up in a patriotic household. We visited Washington, D.C. when I was 12, and I came away filled with awe. I got weepy when I heard Chris Stapleton sing the national anthem at the Super Bowl. And you should too!” Amen.