Loving America is a blessing. But here's why being proud of it is a dangerous curse
I was 15 when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, sparking the first Gulf War. In response, our choir teacher added a song by Lee Greenwood to our fall repertoire. I remember standing on the bleachers with my classmates, the boys in tuxes, the girls in shiny green polyester prom dresses with puffed sleeves, singing 'I'm proud to be an American' with my full voice and whole heart.
I was proud to be an American back then. I believed every word of that song was the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I believed America was the only country on Earth where people were free. I believed war was the only way to preserve our God given rights to liberty, justice and the pursuit of happiness. I believed that I lived in a country where there always had been liberty and justice for all.
Now I know better. I know the man who wrote the Declaration of Independence, along with many who signed it, enslaved other humans. I know in Thomas Jefferson's book, 'Notes on the State of Virginia,' he declared his belief that Black people were 'inferior to the whites in the endowment both of body and mind.'
I know that America has been a democracy only since the Voting Rights Act was signed in 1965. I know that Uncle Sam 'forgot' to give the Black soldiers who risked their lives defending freedom all the benefits of the GI Bill after World War II, just like he 'forgot' to give their ancestors 40 acres and a mule after they were emancipated from enslavement.
I know that the injustices of redlining, the Chinese Exclusion Act and segregation were the law of the land. I know that Native parents did not have the liberty to raise their own children and pass on their culture. Japanese Americans were not 'free' to leave internment camps, and there was never any justice for the victims of the Wilmington massacre, Tulsa Black Wall Street massacre or the countless victims of lynching.
And I know that America is now led by an administration determined to take us back to the days when schoolchildren learned none of this tragic history, where the values of diversity, equity and inclusion are deemed un-American, a return a to the kind of colorblind society where an active duty four-star Black general is fired and replaced by a three-star white general supposedly on the basis of merit, and the White House releases a video featuring federal agents jangling chains in preparation for shackling humans, calling it an 'ASMR' video, or one that's meant to evoke a pleasant reaction.
We used to grieve the worst moments of our history. Now we aspire to them.
I haven't been proud to be an American for a very, very long time. I know many people will read that as a treasonous statement. But I am a follower of Jesus, and Scripture teaches us that pride is a sin that separates us from God. Proverbs 8:13 reports that God hates 'pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverted speech,' while 16:18 warns that 'pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.' The prophet Micah poignantly reminds the people that God requires humans ''to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God.'' The Bible commends humility, not pride.
I am not proud to be an American, but I am determined to love my country. I do not love the destruction and suffering it has inflicted on the powerless at home and abroad. I do not love its lies, its prejudice or its propaganda. But I love what America still could be — a country that welcomes the tired, the poor, those yearning to be free where liberty and justice for all is the law of the land. I love the pain-filled, imperfect, too-slow work to face our past, make reparation and form a real democracy. I love the veterans who have risked everything to protect and serve. I love the separation of church and state, the balance of powers, and the Constitution that is a living document always able to be amended to form a more perfect union. And I will love my neighbors, those who are citizens and those who are not.
The title of that Lee Greenwood song is 'God Bless the U.S.A.' But in Scripture, pride is not a blessing. It is a dangerous curse. It's better and more costly to love America than to be proud of it. Pride is fragile, defensive and ego-driven. It is fueled by deception and lies. But love, according to the apostle Paul, 'does not envy, does not boast, is not proud.' Love 'does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth' — even pain-filled truth, because it is the only path to transformation. Love knows that only truth will set us free.
Kate Murphy is pastor at The Grove Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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