Progressive Christians regard Jesus as one of their own, a citizen of a borderless world:
Progressive Christians have long held the conviction that the whole Christian-America-thing is actually anti-Christian. Christianity has an implicit anti-nationalist bent. Jesus actively resisted the nationalist aspirations of his followers, which made him a disappointment to them — and ultimately cost him his life (initially!). https://www.onfaith.co/onfaith/2014/08/07/4-ways-christian-fundamentalists-get-progressive-christianity-shockingly-wrong/33537
Was Jesus an anti-nationalist? Admittedly, He was inclusive of all who would come to Him (John 6:37), However, He did not initiate them into a borderless existence but into the Kingdom of God.
This Kingdom is a Kingdom set apart from the rest of the world. It is exclusive but inclusive of any who will come. It is also a Kingdom with stringent requirements and boundaries:
“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)
Nor is this Kingdom universal but particular, for a particular people who would enter it:
"Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” (Luke 13:24)
Consistent with the particularism of His Kingdom, Jesus only prayed for a particular group of people:
“I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me; for they are thine:” (John 17:9)
Jesus consistently affirmed the particularism of the Old Testament against progressive universalism. Likewise, He did not teach that we have equal responsibility for all parents but affirmed our overriding responsibility for our own parents (Matthew 15), children, and family (Matthew 24:43).
This was a particularism reaffirmed by Jesus' authoritative commentators, the Apostles:
But if any provided not for his own, and specially his own household, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever. (1 Timothy 5:8)
Even though Jesus had fulfilled the Mosaic Covenant by bringing in the New, He never spoke against the former. Instead, He insisted that we should live according to it:
But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”(Matthew 4:4; 5:17-19)
Under Mosaic Law, Israel had been both a civil and religious state. While the Law provided for a separation of powers—prophet, priest, and king—a separation of religion and state had been unthinkable. God and state were to operate together. The state and its laws were partnered with religion, all under God, as a witness to Israel’s God to the surrounding nations.
Israel did allow non-Jews to settle in Israel. However, they could not worship as they had before, nor could they proselytize. One law- the Mosaic Law - would apply to all: Leviticus 24:16 Whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.
There is a Biblical place for patriotism, at least for Christ-honoring expressions of patriotic concern. If we are to have an overriding love and concern for our wives, children, and even our block association or neighborhood, it is certainly not illegitimate to have an overriding and particular concern for our nation.
The Church has, in so many ways, proved to be a vehicle of mercy to its community. What had been the fruits of America’s Christianity? Alexis de Tocqueville, French statesman, historian, and social philosopher wrote “Democracy in America” (1835). It has been described as "the most comprehensive and penetrating analysis of the relationship between character and society in America that has ever been written." According to Tocqueville, freedom and morality both found their American incarnation in Christianity:
“In the United States the influence of religion is not confined to the manners, but it extends to the intelligence of the people.... Christianity, therefore, reigns without obstacle, by universal consent; the consequence is, as I have before observed, that every principle of the moral world is fixed and determinate.”
“I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America in her harbors...in her fertile fields and boundless forests; in her rich mines and vast world commerce; in her public school system and institutions of learning. I sought for it in her democratic Congress and in her matchless Constitution. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.
