Should we really pledge our allegiance...

Interesting question. But what's the alternative?

 

Yes. No nation is perfect, even ours. However, the precepts on which this nation was founded are great and we should adhere to them.

In Florida, there is an oath at the bottom of the voter registration form where you sign which states:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Florida, that I am qualified to register as an elector under the Constitution and laws of the State of Florida, and that all information provided in this application is true."

I don't think it's unreasonable to have a voter sign that upon registration. I have much loyalty to the Constitutions of the United States and the State of Florida, and I will protect and defend them.

 

Maybe you could consider giving allegiance to a country whose citizens have sent, and continue to send, millions of Bibles all around the world free of charge since at least 1816. The American Bible Society was originally established by such patriots as John Jay, DeWitt Clinton, James Fennimore Cooper, Rutherford B. Hayes, Benjamin Harrison, Francis Scott Key, John Quincy Adams, and Elias Boudinot, one of the first presidents of the Continental Congress.

Or possiby to a country which has sent Christian missionaries to every continent in the world. Or a country whose citizens annually contribute $95 billion in charity to foreign countries?

Yeah I can do that.

 

It depends on the meaning of "allegiance".

If allegiance includes working to correct injustices within the nation - then yes.

Are you suggesting that unless a nation is perfect then a Christian should have no allegiance (or loyalty) to that nation?

BTW - not sure what you mean by devotion in this context.

 

But surely the USA as a nation has not and does not send millions of bibles around the world, or missionaries to every continent of the world. There are in America surely plenty of atheists, adherents of false religions and cults, and "nominal Christians", few of whom would have a desire to send missionaries or distribute God's Word. I don't live there, so I'm quite prepared for you to tell me I'm wrong on this.

 

The courts were the ones that decided that abortion is legal - not the "nation".

Your sense of allegiance may not be the same as mine.

To me allegiance includes working to right injustice - the larger the injustice the greater the committment to right it.

When the courts make a bad decison or when Congress passes a bad law should the people turn their backs on the nation because they don't agree with it?

If that is the case then their was no allegiance to begin with.

Allegiance isn't "my country right or wrong".

Allegiance is "this is my country and I am going to work to make this nation the best that it can be".

 

We've got to take the good with the bad. "Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them."

People, probably you included, have no problem showing loyalty to their relations, their town, their state, knowing that there is both good & bad in all of them. It seems to be only when we reach the national level that critics see things totally different and warn against allegience.

 

Again, it depends on what your definition of allegiance is.

What is allegiance to you?

 

Of course it is individuals who have abortions, not countries.

Meaning no disrespect, but for as long as I have been reading this board you seem to have taken a dim view of US nationalism. But then no one is forcing you to pledge allegience, that's the beauty of it. You don't have to :thumbsup:

 

These seem like to different issues.

One is pledging loyalty to a nation that is guilty of allowing grave injustice.

The other is pledging loyalty to a nation at all.

It seems to me that you need to decide upon an answer to the latter before deciding upon the former.

 

Rog does bring up a good point here.

My conviction all along is that it's not appropriate to pledge allegiance to an earthly Kingdom.

But bringing the actions of the country into the conversation makes it even more difficult. It doesn't stop with the abortion issue - this country has done a lot of crappy things. Manifest destiny? Slavery? The list goes on and on. For a nation that some claim is a Christian one, we haven't ever mirrored the Kingdom of Christ.

I enjoy living here, but if God called me somewhere else, that would be okay, too. There is nothing eternally special about the USA.

 

That's the problem in dealing with humans and their institutions, they're just so darn imperfect.