LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This Associated Baptist Press article talks about the growing divide in US Christian congregations: Nationalism.

'Nationalism' new culture split for churches, says prof

Date: 07/26/2005

By Ken Camp

WACO, Texas (ABP) -- Culture wars threaten to divide churches in ways that make worship wars pale in comparison. But at the same time, they unite some Christians across denominational lines, a Baylor University professor observed.

Rather than dividing over worship style preferences, Terry York sees Christians in the United States splitting into two camps -- “those who want to try to re-establish Christendom and those who refuse to wrap the cross in the flag.”

While the division began to emerge more than 25 years ago when the Religious Right took shape, it surged and solidified following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, said York, associate professor of Christian ministry and church music at Baylor University and its Truett Theological Seminary.

The urge to rally around the flag as part of corporate worship cuts across denominational differences and draws all kinds of worshippers, he noted.

“Fighting over what songs we sing pales beside the clash of kingdoms, and this is a kingdom clash,” he said.

Ironically, the rush to wed patriotism and worship has led to alliances across denominations and drawn followers from a variety of worship style traditions, he added.

York sees nationalism reflected in musical selections, symbols in a church’s sanctuary and in sermons. “If you’re not following the lectionary and the Christian calendar, how about letting Fox News tell you what to preach about this Sunday?”

In contrast, other churches reject the nationalistic approach, and they range from traditional Baptist churches to post-modern emergent churches.

The division between the two church models -- nationalistic and non-nationalistic -- does not fall entirely along partisan political lines, and many Christians who reject the nationalistic approach to worship are fiercely patriotic, said York, an ex-Marine who grew up in a military family.

“If a military officer came in the room, I would stand up. But if Jesus walked in, I would fall down on my face,” he said. “It’s all about knowing the difference between what we stand up for and what we bow down to.”

Nationalistic worshippers confuse respect and reverence “because they live next door to each other in the deepest places of our hearts,” York said. “The things we’re willing to go to war for and that which we worship are the extremes, and they live close together.”