The Church Is Not Your Flag

Bonhoeffer, Christ’s Body, and the Death of Christian Nationalism

May 2025 brings us a fifth Thursday, which means paid subscribers are getting a bonus essay this month.

Below you’ll find some reflections on Chapter 12 of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship. I’ve been rereading this as part of a study and sermon series on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount with my congregation, and it’s been stirring up some timely thoughts on the Church’s identity and witness.

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If you think the Church’s mission is to prop up national greatness, slap a Jesus fish on your political agenda, and rally the faithful behind your flag, Dietrich Bonhoeffer has a word for you.

And trust me, it’s not polite.

For the last month or so, I have been re-reading Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship. In Chapter 12, Bonhoeffer critiques the notion that the Church is merely another nation-state or political institution masquerading as a religious institution. He writes, “This saying of Christ removes the Church from the sphere of politics and law. The Church is not to be a national community like the old Israel, but a community of believers without political or national ties.”

Let that sink in.

The Church is not a replacement for Israel wrapped in your national colors. It is not a religious booster club for your side of the political aisle. It is not America’s chaplain or moral validator. The Church is the Body of Christ: crucified, risen, and set loose in the world to witness to something far bigger than any political project.

Bonhoeffer knew the deadly danger of nationalized religion because he saw it firsthand in Nazi Germany. The “German Christian” movement baptized racial purity, national pride, and authoritarian control. But Bonhoeffer didn’t respond by trying to play the political game better; he called the Church back to its true identity, namely, a community bound not by nation or race but by Christ.