Making America Great again?

By Anthony:

Trying to make America great is not a bad thing in itself.  Patriotism is a good thing, and all people of all countries should be trying to develop and improve their nations, to make them great.  I’m all for it, and even for taking reasonable measures and reasonable military spending to keep our country safe.  I agree with C.S. Lewis that patriotism is a love of home, and how can you begin to love other people and other nations if you don't even love your own home first?  However, I feel very uncomfortable with a lot of what I hear politicians and other leaders saying recently about “making America great again.”  For some context of what I'm talking about, here are a few words from our President's inauguration speech:

"We've defended other nation’s borders while refusing to defend our own;

And spent trillions of dollars overseas while America's infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay.

We’ve made other countries rich while the wealth, strength, and confidence of our country has disappeared over the horizon.

One by one, the factories shuttered and left our shores, with not even a thought about the millions upon millions of American workers left behind."

"From this moment on, it’s going to be America First."

"Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs, will be made to benefit American workers and American families.

We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies, and destroying our jobs.  Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength."

Let me say at the outset of this post for those that don't know me, that I am quite conservative and most of the time I vote Republican.  Even so, these kinds of statements disturb me.  Many politicians and others seem to be saying: “Let’s make ourselves great by focusing on ourselves, our challenges, and our interests, and not worry about other countries and their problems.”  

Perhaps part of my discomfort is because I am a missionary and live overseas away from my home country.  So it's natural for me to care just as much about, say Kenyans, as I do Americans.  I understand why American Christians would think that we should care for Americans first. Even in the Bible, it is clear that there is an order of priority for who we should help first and care most about.  There are biblical commands stressing the importance of caring for our immediate families and our local churches (1 Timothy 5:8, Galatians 6:10).  It is natural and right to care more for those that you have responsibility over and for those that are close to you in proximity.  But I contend that caring for people close to us does not necessitate ignoring the problems of those farther away.

Let me explain why the statements about putting America first bother me.  There are several reasons:

• This seems narcissistic or selfish on a national level.  I realize that a nation is not the same as an individual Christian, and the leaders of a nation do have a duty, given by God, to care for the interests of their citizens.  However, caring for our interests does not entail framing our national interests as “us vs. them.”  It seems very wrong to try to care for American interests if that means doing so against the interest of others or doing so while ignoring the terrible problems in the rest of the world and the vast numbers of people living in poverty, war-torn countries, etc.
       
• Wealth is not a zero-sum game.  If China develops, or African nations develop and become more prosperous, it does not entail the USA becoming less prosperous.  Wealth is not a pie that has to be divided up into pieces.  Wealth can be created.  This has been a controversial argument at times, but it’s common sense when you realize that almost all people on the earth right now are far more prosperous and developed than people living in this world 500 years ago. See this article - A History of Global Living Conditions in 5 Charts.  Almost all countries are developing and standards of living are going up all over the place.  Why? Because we can develop and grow and prosper together.   We don't have to grow at the expense of others.  So it does not make sense to say that the USA is losing its wealth because other countries are starting to prosper.
   
  In addition, what I've learned from textbooks on development (and in every board game or video game that includes trading) is that if you work with other countries, instead of being isolationist, and you trade, then everyone benefits and develops.  When you try to grow on your own without working together with others, when you refuse to trade, you get left behind as everyone else grows.  Isolationism and wars keep everyone back.  The best way to grow prosperous is to allow for the growth, development, and prosperity of everyone.  So the USA should not be so self-focused and so paranoid about competition.   
  And besides, why is it the end of the world if another country surpasses the USA economically?  Don't we realize that many people, who are not American, living in other countries around the world, live very happy lives even though their countries are not the #1 economy in the world?  I imagine our fear of losing that #1 slot makes us seem very insecure in the eyes of other countries.
  
  I understand there is some fear that we are losing jobs in the United States to people in other countries.  I can't imagine how painful it would be to be unemployed and not know how you will support your family.  But I care about an Indian or African person having that pain just as much as I care about Americans dealing with that pain.  In our globalized world, these people seem to me to be just as much my neighbors as fellow Americans.  And the needs in other countries sometimes are 10 times more dire than the needs of the people in our country.  Is it really such an awful thing when a company hires Indians, instead of Americans? Shouldn't we be happy that those Indians are getting great jobs, jobs which can help them provide not only for their families but their extended families as well?
   
• The USA is already great, one of the most developed, prosperous, free, and just countries on earth.  As many challenges and moral problems that we have in the USA, we are still one of the great nations in this world.  Even many of our poorest people in our nation have very good standard of livings compared to people in the rest of the world.  And we have a country with wonderful freedoms and so many good innovations.  And our country has been at the forefront in trying to make many good moral changes in this world.  In the worldwide Church, our theologians, song writers, biblical translations, commentaries, pastors, theologians, aid workers, doctors, etc. are influencing people all over the world.   Are we really so insecure about our prosperity?  Are we really in that bad of shape in the USA?  Do we really have to live in fear and rally the war cry of putting the USA first?
     
• Part of what makes the USA great is all the great things we've done in the world, such as our generous aid to help people in other countries.  If we were to stop and focus only on ourselves, we might be great in our own eyes, but would we be great in the eyes of people around the world?  Would we be great in God's eyes?   In other blog posts, I have been very critical of aid.  But please understand me.  I'm not against aid and generosity.  I'm only against how some of the aid is distributed and how in some cases it causes dependency or encourages corruption. But I would love for Americans to give even more aid and be even more generous.  I also hope that we can do so in a wise way that helps instead of hurting.  Part of what makes us great is our service to other nations around the world, whether we are fighting to eradicate disease, welcoming in refugees and immigrants, providing relief food after disasters, sending our military to protect the innocent, or promoting freedom and democracy.  Were we to stop these things and focus only on ourselves, we would start to become more insignificant, rather than greater. 

All those arguments aside, how do we think about this as Christians?  At the end of the day, we have to remember that before we are citizens of the USA, we are citizens of another Kingdom, the Kingdom of God.  The USA is not my home.  Kenya is not my home.  This world is not our home.  We look forward to our true home, the renewed heavens and earth, the Kingdom of God, the fellowship with our Lord Jesus face to face. 

While I need to respect the leaders of my earthly nation, it is to my King Jesus that I owe my ultimate allegiance, and my King laid down his life to die for me, while I was yet his enemy, enslaved to sin.  He calls me to follow his example.  As he has forgiven me and loved me, so I am also called to forgive and to love, even my enemies.  My King calls me to live a vastly different life than those around me.  It is my King who said, "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."  I live and serve and struggle and love ultimately not for the good of my nation, but for my loving King, who is the King of all nations and all people.