Adam Russell Taylor writes in this week’s SojoMail that there is a form of healthy patriotism we can work toward:
This summer I’ve noticed a surge in patriotic signaling and sentiment. Both the Republican and Democratic national conventions plastered stars and stripes everywhere as speakers from both parties offered superlatives about the United States — The greatest country! The most powerful country! The richest country! — while delegates chanted “USA! USA! USA!”
I noticed some of this patriotic spirit in myself during this summer’s Olympic games. Despite the International Olympic Committee’s many corruption scandals, I still felt the undeniable magic when the best athletes from all over the world compete — and an irrepressible pride when an U.S. athlete or team does well.
Christian engagement in American patriotism has often gotten a bad rap, and rightly so: All too often, a healthy love for one’s country (patriotism) seeps into a pernicious love of blood and soil (nationalism), with the latter often marked by a sense of superiority, domination, or ethnocentrism.
But instead of offering a strong counter-witness to these toxic impulses, Christians in the U.S. have often led the way, twisting the gospel to support American nationalism. Understandably, some Christians — both now and in the past — have responded by rejecting nationalistic forms of patriotism as something incompatible with following Jesus.
As a Christian, I believe the answer isn’t to altogether reject patriotism, but instead to redeem it. | 
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