I Vow to Thee, My Country

I vow to thee, my country, all earthly things above,
Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love:
The love that asks no question, the love that stands the test,
That lays upon the altar the dearest and the best;
The love that never falters, the love that pays the price,
The love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.

I heard this hymn on the radio this morning. And I thought, "No, no, no, no, no."

To be sure, I'm proud of my country. Of the land; the people; our relative tolerance; of the earliness with which we found a balance between People and State; of our incomprehensible way of managing affairs; of our relative freedom of speech; of our justice system; of our history and our sense of humour.

But to put my country above all earthly things would require heavenly things to include an awful lot: family; friendship; truth; justice; honesty; love. It's a shocking image - to "llay upon the altar the dearest and the best." Not that shocking images are always wrong. But an altar implies a sacrifice, and the sacrifice implies someone or something to which that sacrifice is made. And there's only One worth "the dearest and the best", and that One has made it clear there's no need for any more sacrifices, thanks very much.

Take my great-great Uncle Ernie. We don't know which corner of a foreign field is his. I can, however, point you to two places where his name is written - one in Holloway and one at Thiepval. I don't know whether he was kind, or brave, but he was someone's dearest and best. He was laid on the altar of the mud and barbed-wire of the Somme. A war that started in the far-off empire of Austria-Hungary, ended in a North London boy dying at the hands of Germans, in France. In Aussies dying - and killing - in Turkey. In Germans dying on Eastern and Western fronts. Whose bloody stupid idea was that?

Look, I'm not saying we should never fight a war. But it's only ever going to be the last option. And romanticising your country makes it more likely that you'll waste its dearest and its best. And you don't lose those without the best of reasons.

The dead are to be honoured - regardless of whether their leaders were right or wrong; monsters, or those who believed there was no alternative; whether they took their countries into war for good reasons or bad, as the last straw or as the first mover. So let's honour the dead. And work and pray and argue and negotiate to try and make sure nothing like it ever happens again. And hold those in charge to account if they ever go to war when they didn't have to. Because that would be the best way of honouring them.