Growing up in Nashville, Tennessee, in the Cold War years, I don’t recall racism ever being mentioned in my childhood, all-white, Southern Baptist church. Patriotism, however, often was mentioned.

During the church’s two-week Vacation Bible School, during the summer, we children began the day with pledges to the Christian Bible, the Christian flag, and the U.S. flag. We jockeyed to be the one bringing in the U.S. flag. Not so much the other symbols.

This is not to denigrate my church. The love shown me in that congregation, during my childhood and adolescence, is my most priceless possession after my family’s love. And by teaching me about Jesus, my church was laying the path I would follow toward eventually confronting my country’s racism.

I am disturbed, though, by the worship so many American Christians give to their earthly country.

You need to understand that I’ve lived in enough other countries and cultures, including the Middle East, to appreciate the United States. I am proud of good things we have brought to the world—sending aid to nations damaged by war, even to our enemies, for example.

However, I am disturbed by the tendency on the part of some Christians, it seems to me, to equate the United States with Jesus.

“God’s on our side,” someone said, in commenting on how God would choose their political group in the last election.

Really, the truth is that God has the “side.” We’re the ones who do the choosing.

What measures us is how well we choose God’s side, how well we carry out Jesus’ teaching.