Hating Your Own Country May Be Just As Bad As Loving It Too Much

It seems like the only commercials playing on Amazon Prime and Hulu right now, if they’re not for car insurance or other shows you could watch on those platforms, are pushing HIV meds, contraceptives, and heart conditions. Is it just us? Is it just my household? Please tell me America feels other needs besides for pharmaceutical solutions to sexually transmitted diseases, avoiding pregnancy, and not dying from myocarditis. Speaking of heart disease, former President Trump has finally unleashed a nickname for his anticipated Republican rival for 2024, calling him 'Ron DeSanctimonious' to something like the MAGA rally equivalent of crickets, not to mention held noses and downed thumbs among conservatives on Twitter. And this is well-deserved. From everything I've seen of DeSantis over the past several years, he's an excellent governor, and would be a better choice for next President of the United States. A quick word, then, about trying to box your political opponents out with pejoratives. Calling people and things by their name is one thing. Assassinating the character of others with falsehoods and slander, however, is quite another. Trying to trade someone's good name for an ugly one just because they may be competing with you in the near future? That's corrupt, selfish, short-sighted, and foolish. And it's liable to bring painful self-inflicted damage to your own reputation more than that of the one you're trying to bring down a few notches.  Another true thing to remember is that an untoward thing can be suspected or true of others even as a greater benefit and virtue may be found in not calling them what you might be tempted to. There are many true things that can be said. They cannot all be said simultaneously, nor do they all need to be in every circumstance. Rather, we must consider relevance and circumstance to know when a word or phrase is fitting versus when it is a distraction or undermining of otherwise profitable means and ends we should be pursuing instead. Given our current circumstances more broadly, however, we should turn our attention to the question of how best to love our countrymen and country. Some say that to especially love America, or our fellow Americans, by virtue of their Americanness, is partiality at best, and possibly even idolatry at worst. And while rose-colored glasses about our country might be called loving it too much, I am reminded of what the Scriptures say of a father who refuses to discipline his son, that he hates him. Yet a father who loves his son will discipline him.  Thus, I conclude that there is too much in common between loving America "too much" and hating it. Much damage is done either way which impedes the righteousness which Proverbs 14 promises "exalts a nation," even as the sin which "is a reproach to any people" runs all the more rampant thereby. In both extremes, we will refuse to call for repentance when it is needed. On the one hand, we will deny that there is any sin to repent of. On the other, we will hope no repentance comes because we want to see our nation punished or even destroyed. Are either of these attitudes of the Lord, or do either honor Him? I fail to see how, especially when they are compared with noting the sins, calling our country to repent of them, and praying for that healing and forgiveness from the Lord without which no nation or people can ever be truly blessed. It's time to seek the Lord's face, and humble ourselves, and pray that the Lord will hear us from heaven.