Old Testament and Independence Day
Here’s my thought for the fourth, I’ve written such on my blog in previous years, but there are new readers here so … From the book of Ruth chapter 1 we have:
And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.
The poetic plea of Ruth’s, “For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” seems to me not far from the patriotic declamation of Captain Hale, “I regret I have but one life to give for my country.”
When one transposes the sentiment Ruth expresses for Naomi and love of one’s country I think there are strong parallels here. Patriotism is about roots, about earth, about home and hearth at it’s core. It is also at it’s heart, a parochial plea. It is exclusive. I love my country (and not yours). This is my land where I and my family will dwell.
I’m curious, does that jibe with you’re notion of patriotism?
Filed under: Mark O. • You Cry Out
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I agree with the first half of what you wrote – Patriotism is about roots, about earth, home and hearth.
I disagree where you break away to making it exclusive. I CAN love my country and yours, too.
As the hymn goes:
This is my song, O God of all the nations
A song of peace for lands afar and mine
This is my home, the country where my heart is
Here are my hopes and dreams, my holy shrine
But other hearts in other lands are beating
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.
My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean
And sunlight beams on clover leaf and pine
But other lands have sunlight, too, and clover
And skies are everywhere as blue as mine
O hear my song, thou God of all the nations
A song of peace for their land and for mine.
Amen!
Interestingly, I love the Ruth story for a lot of what it teaches us about how to run a country in a positive way.
If the Israelis had not implemented the Sabbath practices of setting aside some of the residents’ goods for the foreigner and widow (Ruth being both – a Moabite and a widow), Ruth may well have died of hunger and, as an ancestor of Jesus, what would have happened then???
Israel failed to follow God often, as we do, but she had some good policies that were at least occasionally in place.
Dan,
You love all men and all women. You love your wife in an more “exclusive” fashion. That’s how I mean you don’t love other countries.