Should Christians Be Patriots?
by Wang Yi
In a context in which Christians have been forced to either come under the Chinese government's oversight or face persecution, Wang Yi ponders what it means to be a Christian patriot who loves their country and strives for its betterment versus a nationalist who idolizes their nation.
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Preservation
Patriotism is the preservation of the nation, and nationalism is the destruction of the nation. Patriotism is a war of self-defense, nationalism is a war of aggression. For the patriot, the country is the wife who has shared her husband’s hard lot; for the nationalist, the country is the sleeping beauty that has not yet awakened. For the former, opposing corrupt officials is like stopping adultery. For the latter, to love the country is like having a second wife. While healthy patriotism is compatible with faith, nationalism is an alternative to faith.
Terminal Disease
Patriotism is against destruction; nationalism wants to be the center of the world. Patriotism is against killing one's own sons and daughters; nationalism wants to destroy the enemy. Patriotism is love for one's neighbor, nationalism is hatred for those far away. Therefore, it is appropriate to call a person like Li Chengpeng a patriot, just as it is appropriate to call CCTV a nationalist mouthpiece. Patriotism is providing a cure to the best of one’s ability, while nationalism is the terminal disease itself.
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Wang Yi is the founding pastor of Early Rain Covenant Church, a Calvinist house church in Chengdu. He is also a productive writer, editor, and social activist, and was a legal scholar at Chengdu University before he resigned to take up the pastorate. As of December 2019 he is serving a nine-year prison sentence for "inciting subversion of state.”
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Category: Academic
Date created: 2013
Key terms: church and state, nationalism, patriotism
This article was originally a pastoral letter to Early Rain Covenant Church. This English edition, including the introduction and footnotes, are copyright © 2023 by the Center for House Church Theology. All rights reserved.
Cover design and illustration by PC Ng.
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