About the Author
Kristen M. BalzerKristen Balzer is a doctoral student in Religious Studies at Northwestern University, where she draws from cultural history, political theology, and ethnographic fieldwork to study 20th-century American evangelicalism. Kristen holds a B.A. in History and Sociology from Johns Hopkins University and an M.Div. from Duke Divinity School.
Watch
The intertwining of national identity and Christian religiosity is found throughout this service, especially in its music (“The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” 3:08–4:27; “My Country, ’Tis of Thee,” 4:28–5:55; “Sing a Song of Freedom,” 5:56–7:53; “This Land Was Made for You and Me,” 7:54–9:28; “The Star-Spangled Banner,” 21:40–23:13; “God Bless America,” 23:15–25:21; “America the Beautiful,” 25:29–29:47; “In God We Trust, In God Alone,” 1:21:57–1:24:14), its prayers (9:36–11:45; 1:20:40–1:21:31), the veneration of the American flag (11:46–23:13), and a sermon that emphasizes America’s greatness being connected to a presumed Christian founding (37:44–1:20:39).
Context
This July 3, 2022 service was the annual Fourth of July service of Quentin Road Baptist Church, a large Baptist church in Lake Zurich, Illinois. The service was live-streamed on the church’s Facebook page and YouTube. The church sits on a 43-acre campus featuring a 3,000-seat auditorium.
Transcript
The desire to promote a particular narrative about the founding and history of the country, especially its supposed Christian character, drives this service. The following two excerpts show the urgency of this narrative for this church and its pastor:
(38:06–38:21) America’s being attacked, and history is being rewritten, and it’s not accurate. So what we’re trying to do in this church, and in our media ministry, InGrace, is to tell the real story of American history, the story that History Channel won’t tell you…
(1:08:54–1:09:52) …we see it at work in the halls of Congress, where now they’re trying to remove, over the committee rooms, any references to God, under God, and trying to take that from the Pledge of Allegiance, even trying to change our national anthem. I think it’s a change in culture. Culture consists of the arts, the literature, the music of any people, and now what we’re seeing, unfortunately, Pastor, we’re seeing a culture that is anti-God, that hates the Lord Jesus Christ, that hates biblical principles, that dislikes absolutes, dislikes what the Bible has to say, and they want it to be predicated upon some kind of moral relativism that basically says, if you feel comfortable in doing this, it’s acceptable, and it’s going to lead us to ruin if we can’t get that sense of direction.
Liturgical Description
Quentin Road Baptist Church’s worship reflects common practices found in modern American evangelical churches: a large, central platform backdropped by a high-tech screen provides the space for musicians, speakers, and pastoral staff to lead various acts of music, prayer, announcements and offering, and, climactically, a sermon that will typically end with an appeal for a personal decision for Jesus Christ. The outward tone is relaxed although the quality of the production, technology, and music is very high.
Nationalism-oriented services by Type 1 Covenant Nation Celebrators typically involve: 1) using civic rituals involving national symbols, texts, and music; 2) honoring the nation’s military with special recognition given to those who had died in service to the nation; 3) reciting stories about the God-directed history of the nation; 4) dramatizing the nation’s history; 5) showcasing children to represent the next generation absorbing the nation’s values and history; and 6) showing pictures of the nation’s scenic beauty and/or human accomplishments. All these elements are present except for incorporating children into the service, though concern for future generations is mentioned in the sermon. Dramatization of the nation’s history occurred through videos (most concerning “The Star-Spangled Banner,” 12:40–20:44) instead of staged reenactments. National symbols abound, especially the American flag, which is featured in the worship slides, stage backdrop, and a flag ceremony conducted by a U.S. Air Force Captain. Of central importance throughout the service was presenting a God-directed history of the nation.
Societal Aspirations
The content and symbols of this service give an idealized version of early U.S. history and emphasize that a specific form of conservative biblical fidelity is the key to the continued prosperity of the nation. All elements of the service reflect and reinforce this conviction. For Quentin Road Baptist Church, telling and knowing the “right” story about America’s “Christian heritage” and protecting it from imminent, modern-day threats is critical for American society. (And so, this service is a good example of how sociologists Philip Gorski and Samuel Perry describe the “deep story” of American Christian nationalism in their book, The Flag and the Cross, p. 4.) The pastor portrays his congregants as part of the faithful few who remember the truth about what made America great and have not given up on biblical morality. The sermon (37:44–1:21:33), “How God Has Blessed America,” maps this “lost” history and the way back on track. Its four points are, “America is great because… (1) Our Founders Respected the God of the Bible; (2) Our Founders Believed We Should All Work for the Good of All; (3) Our First Citizens Wanted to Be Peaceful and Law-Abiding; and (4) Our Early Citizens Believed They Should Pray for Their Leaders.” It concludes, “What is our responsibility as Christians? To be a light to the government, to work to get Christianity back into our government, our schools, and our society; and to remember that our citizenship is in heaven.”
Appraisal: The Four Theologies of Worship
Read more about the four theologies of worship →
Dynamic Worship Narrative
The story that this service “does” (enacts, performs) is a particular take on American history. Apart from the occasional brief Scripture reference, a retelling of American history is the dominant narrative in the service. Much more emphasis is placed on human activity than on divine activity. The probing questions: Beyond the occasional verbal nod toward Jesus, is there anything in the service that cultivates a love for Jesus Christ as the key Actor in the story of God’s saving activity? Does the service cultivate more of a love for the nation than it does for the Savior?
Eschatological
The vision of the Kingdom of God in this service is narrow—overly mapped onto the United States and disconnected from larger biblical stories about redemption for all creation. God’s primary activity is seen as in the past, having given what is needed for national flourishing and individual salvation. The future? It is when the nation is characterized by righteousness and prosperity, and the individual believer goes to heaven. The probing question: In this service is there any future hope for all creation that goes beyond the United States or the individual believer?
Trinitarian
While Jesus Christ is occasionally mentioned in the service (but notably, not in the song lyrics), the active work of God the Father and the Holy Spirit are largely absent. The service either speaks generically about God or specifically about Jesus Christ. The probing question: If a church wants to be considered as “apostolic” or “biblical,” is it important to follow New Testament patterns of how all three Persons are spoken of as actively accomplishing our salvation?
Christological
The service is what theologian James Torrance (in Worship, Community, and the Triune God of Grace) would call “functionally Unitarian.” That is, the service is primarily something that the congregation is doing for God without need for the mediation of Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit, and there is no hint of Jesus Christ as being the “lead worshiper” of God the Father. The probing questions: Does praying “in the name of Jesus” imply that the prayer ought to be somehow fitting for the lips of Christ or something he would be willing to mediate to the throne of heaven? If so, how dependent and guided must we be on the portrayal of Jesus Christ in the Scriptures to imagine what is fitting to him?
For Consideration & Discernment
This church’s narrative of American history is tied up with a sharply dichotomous view of the world: there are those who love America vs. those who hate it; those who want to support the nation vs. those who would attack it; and those who love the things of God vs. those who hate them. In the former group, this church places itself as well as significant historical figures like the Founding Fathers and Abraham Lincoln. The church uses short quotes from these figures, removed from context and void of nuance, in order to read itself back into the past and make these historical figures into modern evangelicals. (See Warren Throckmorton’s book, The Christian Past That Wasn’t, for a critique of this method.) What might it look like to reject this sharp dichotomy in favor of a fuller historical picture, and to hold a more honest and nuanced history of America in conjunction with a deep love for God and country?
Reflection & Discussion Questions
Would someone who wanted to respond to the pastor’s appeal to come to Christ find it difficult to separate turning to Christ from adopting this church’s perspective on the nation?