The Virtue of Nationalism

Wikipedia says concerning Yoram Hazony:

Yoram Hazony is an Israeli philosopher, Bible scholar and political theorist. He is President of The Herzl Institute in Jerusalem. Hazony is known for founding The Shalem Center in Jerusalem in 1994, and leading it through its accreditation in 2013 as Shalem College, Israel's first liberal arts college.

Hazony's book, The Virtue of Nationalism, released on September 4, 2018, a few months before French President Macron used the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I to bash nationalism in contrast to the views of President Donald Trump.  He said:

Nationalism is rising across Europe, the nationalism that demands the closing of frontiers, which preaches rejection of the other.  It is playing on fears, everywhere. Europe is increasingly fractured.

I wrote the following for our bulletin for Veteran's Day, Sunday, November 11:

Scripture shows stable and cohesive national  identities are the will of God.  This is one means God has used to preserve the truth and His way of living in this world.  There is no unifying factor in the whole world and there never will be until the Antichrist takes it by force, and then more preferably, Jesus rules over the entire world according to His will.  Our soldiers fought for our nation and for principles that Americans had in common, which were worth dying for.  We can be thankful for them and those men and what privileges we still hold dear, that allow us to meet in freedom to worship God today as a church.

Christians should never be "country first," but also should support nationalism.  God separated men into distinct lands at the Tower of Babel in response to something close to globalism.  Genesis 11:8-9:

So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.  Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

The founding fathers of the United States saw wisdom in separation reflected in God's divisions into nations.  Hazony in an October 19 interview said:

Nationalism is a principled standpoint that sees the world as governed best when nations are given their independence and freedom to chart their own course on the basis of their own unique national, religious, and constitutional traditions.

I believe that nationalism is one of the most fundamental conservative ideals.  It is foundational to the protection of life, liberty, and property.  Conservation of ideals occurs within the borders of a nation.  I call on all professing Christians to support nationalism and reject globalism.

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I noticed at RCP today an article with the exact same name as this on The Atlantic, which isn't a review of Hazony's book, just making the same point with the same title.  Interesting.