Independence. Our country was founded in a fight for independence. To this day, our society worships at the altar of independence. Herbert Hoover called us a country of rugged individualists. From John Wayne to John McLane, the great icons of our society are the lone heroes who save the day single-handedly. The problem with this is, the idea of independence is completely contrary to the design of God. We’re designed to be dependent.
Right from the beginning, God said “it is not good for man to be alone,” yet right from the beginning man has tried to go it alone. American society, however, is unique in its obsession with individuality. In his book Against the Night (out of print) Chuck Colson compared the rise and fall of Rome to modern western society and concluded that the barbarians are at the gates and a new “dark age” is upon us. The beginning of the end, Colson argued, was the rise of individualism; when man became “the fixed point around which everything else revolved.” The U.S. is the primary purveyor of this kind of thinking, and unfortunately the church has often been infected with the same kind of thinking.
Mutual inter-dependence is a central theme of scripture. Beginning with Cain’s question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” the resounding answer has been “Yes!” This flows through to the New Testament, where Paul reminds us that we are all members of the Body of Christ, each one dependent on the other. Individualism is not something for Christians to celebrate, it is something for us to un-learn. We are designed by God to be reliant creatures, who live and breathe community. Our dependence on God and on the community of faith he has placed us in is central to who we are.
To be clear, I’m talking about independence; not individuality. Individuality is God-designed diversity. No one can look at His creation or the scriptures and not understand God’s love for diversity and individuality. Too often people confuse the two. Individuality is something to be enjoyed and celebrated. Independence, however, is a mindset that is contrary to everything that God teaches us. Dependence is a forgotten virtue, especially in American society. We’ve forgotten (or maybe never learned in the first place) how much we need each other, and how much we need God.
Don’t get me wrong, I love our country and I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. We should be thankful for and celebrate the freedom we have. As Christians, however, we must remember that our ultimate citizenship is in the Kingdom of Heaven. We cannot confuse American values with godly values, for they are often in conflict.