Christians are in the midst of an existential crisis as they think about their country, their obligations, and the future. It is understandable and probably well past due. However, even though we have the opportunity to evaluate critically, in doing so, we are lapsing into lazy, categorical thinking. Our view of country is still too cloaked in partisanship and ideology, even when we are supposedly re-evaluating it. For the Christian, a re-evaluation of our faith and the flag should be consumed by Scripture, not by external categories that too often blind us from the truth and complicate what is simple or simplify what is complex.

So, for the Christian–not for the Republican, Democrat, or Green, and not for the Liberal, Conservative, or Socialist–but for the Christian, what is the Fourth of July?

This question deserves (and I hope to be moving toward the finish of) a book-length treatment, so I am not going to pretend to answer it fully in what will turn out to be a flimsy blog post, but there are some rough principles we can acknowledge, I hope.

Our allegiance ultimately resides in Christ and our citizenship is primarily in his Kingdom. Scripture clearly assigns some element of “already here, but not yet” to our relationship with God’s Kingdom. This reality demands that our lives  on earth are spent in earthly kingdoms that cannot be avoided. In fact, Scripture gives us some basic commandments (obey, honor, respect, pray for, and pay taxes to) for how to relate to earthly kingdoms as we encounter them.

These kingdoms, as opposed to the Kingdom, are not merely human instruments, but they are divinely instituted. They play a part in God’s redemptive plan for his creation. That does not mean they are the instruments of that redemption, but they are one of the institutional means by which God structures society and through which he carries out his will. God is not limited to using the state, but it does mean the state plays a unique part in God’s plan.

There is but one Israel. God had a unique relationship with his people. No other earthly government enjoys this relationship. When leaders or others claim their nation enjoys something like a special relationship to God, Christians should immediately be suspicious and skeptical of such claims.

There are such things as better and worse governments–not only as we think of particular nation states, but also as we consider structures and forms of government. At the same time, no government is inherently “good,” nor is any form of government divinely blessed, and neither are all governments morally equivalent or equally evil. God bestows blessings and curses on governments and those are related to governmental actions. God does not bless evil and he does not curse the good. As believers, we should reject evil and embrace the good wherever we find them, even in government.

Governments are complex and multi-faceted. They can be “good” in some ways and “evil” in others, often at the same time and even within the same leadership. To label them simply because of a single event or failing often misunderstands their intricacies. Offering a robust evaluation requires long scrutiny and not mere sloganeering.

So, even if we take these principles (and this is not an exhaustive list), how do we apply them to America and its founding?

America has no “unique” relationship to God, at least not in the same way Israel did. Therefore, to claim America as uniquely godly or uniquely favored or distinguished misses the point. At the same time, it is true to call America blessed in many ways. We should be grateful for our history of God’s blessings and we should pray for their continuation.

America has never been fully good. We birthed a system that tacitly condoned slavery, but slavery was divisive among our founders. To lump Thomas Jefferson and George Washington together with Benjamin Franklin on slavery is a gross mischaracterization and over-simplification. The Declaration’s writing, and the Constitution’s ratification, wrestled with slavery, nearly fracturing both documents and the nation at various points.

This American sin, however, was put on the path toward destruction even by the Declaration itself. Jefferson’s lionization of equality created a national d.n.a. that eventually manifested itself in the abolition of slavery. The affirmation of equality, regardless of the extent to which it was embraced at the time by all parties, had a dramatic effect. Martin Luther King, Jr. often quoted Jefferson’s words as a justification for the civil rights revolution. The Declaration, no matter its faults, inspired generations of reform efforts, both here and abroad. To a large degree, America’s history has been the slow and steady process by which Jefferson’s majestic phrases have turned toward reality. We, as Christians, should be grateful for the goodness that flowed from that moment.

Still, that focus on equality has had a detrimental impact on our thinking and culture. American equality has moved away from a legal and political ideal and toward a social and economic justification. Equality is the forerunner to relativism and a seed for economic envy. An unbridled equality is unable to differentiate morally between slavery and the destruction of civil rights and the revolution that has obliterated traditional, sexual boundaries. As a notion, equality gives and it takes.

Beyond slavery, America has at times exploited Native Americans, sometimes to the point of their death. There have been periods, and there are still places, where workers suffered, machines corrupted politics, and justice was hard to find. At the same time, America has often been a force for goodness at home and abroad. American citizens sent thousands of missionaries and millions of dollars across the world to do good, even if it was sometimes misguided. American arms liberated millions, often at great cost. Even when granted the opportunity, America has largely shied away from imperialistic oppression.

America was born in a largely Christian culture, even if pockets of its elites did not really embrace orthodox Christianity. Today, America’s Christian culture has fragmented and may be on the verge of dissolution.

America is complicated.

I don’t see a necessary disconnection between my faith and my love of country, especially when it deserves to be loved. My faith obligates me, though, to speak the truth when our nation fails to live up to God’s standards. An uncritical patriotism–one that shoves God’s principles aside–seems sinful. At the same time, a spirit of bitter criticism that fails to acknowledge goodness when it exists, is despairingly incomplete. Patriotism and unending critique can shield us from truths. Somewhere between these extremes is, I think, where Christians should find themselves as they ponder the Fourth of July.