Mere Discipleship or mere nonsense?

I've been meaning to give a commentary on Lee C. Camp's book Mere Discipleship: Radical Christianity in a Rebellious World for some time now. The book claims to be a guide for living the "radical" message of Jesus Christ. As the title also suggests, it's a working on C.S. Lewis' concept of Mere Christianity, although as we shall see, Camp does Lewis a great disservice with this book.

Frankly I don't have enough time to go through all of Camp's arguments. Rather, I'll concentrate on the eighth chapter of his book, which is oddly titled "Baptism: Why Disciples Don't Make Good Americans (or Germans, or Frenchmen)". According to Camp, baptism into Christ's kingdom means renouncing your national identity. One cannot be a good Christian and a good patriot. As usual, he justifies his argument by quoting Galatians 3:28("There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Jesus Christ") ad nauseum. Of course, I already debunked this interpretation of St. Paul's words in a previous post. It should be noted that Camp is arguing from an Anabaptist perspective, which holds a negative view towards patriotism.

However the notion that entry into Christ's kingdom means renouncing loyalty to your nation is complete nonsense. Christian leaders across both time and the theological spectrum have praised patriotism as a noble virtue. This is especially true in the case of Catholicism. This was best laid out by the Catholic Association for International Peace in a pamphlet titled Patriotism, Nationalism, and the Brotherhood of Man:

"Men have always lived in groups. Apparently it is a part of God's plan that they should. And one of the things which have enabled them to live in groups has been the loyalty —the patriotism—which God has implanted in their very nature. This loyalty—this patriotism—this love of country'—involves a triple affection. It embraces an affection for familiar places, an affection for familiar persons, and an affection for familiar ideas. One's 'country' connotes all of these: the land itself, the persons on it, and the traditions associated with it."source

I cannot think of an assessment more starkly different from Camps's viewpoint. It is quite clear just from the issue of patriotism and national identity, Lee C. Camp's "Mere Discipleship" is just mere nonsense. Yet sadly, such views are becoming commonplace within so-called "Christian" circles. There's even a blog dedicated to discussing Lee's ideas.

It is time we patriotic Christians began spreading the truth!