An Imperial Mindset?

Building an Orthodox Parish by Archpriest Lawrence Farley (originally published at No Other Foundation)

Much of this is good. But I think the last direction is problematic:

Finally, the community must be eschatologically oriented. That is, they must regard themselves not primarily as citizens of this world or as Americans or Canadians or as citizens of any other country, but as citizens of the Kingdom. Patriotism is wonderful, but the good must not be allowed to become the enemy of the best, and the Church stands under the Cross, not under any national flag. To make the flag paramount is idolatry. Through his preaching the priest must encourage his flock to see themselves as sojourners in this age, with their eyes fixed on the horizon to behold the blessed hope of the Second Coming with the cry of “Maranatha!” in their hearts.

Living this out consistently will mean that the society around them will increasingly regard them as aliens, as unwelcome intruders, and as disturbers of the secular status quo. We all know where the front line of this battle is being drawn, and we must not flinch or compromise. Our Lord’s words to the apostles, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:18-19) have lost none of their relevance. The priest must preach and the people must accept that to become an Orthodox Christian is to leave one moral universe and to enter a different one. And they must read the fine print before making this decision—that of inevitable conflict with the world and of possible persecution.

It is true that Christians primary focus is God; but to say they are "citizens" of the Kingdom in this case, as if their political citizenship is not a relevant moral concern, can be misleading. After all, being a member of the people of God, while it does entail "duties" to God and other Christians, also entails that one lives up to one's duties to one's neighbors who may not be Christian but nonetheless are members of the same political community. Christians don't enter a "different moral universe"; their moral universe has been clarified. I say that this may reflect an imperial mindset because it may be similar to the mindset of early Christians living in the Roman Empire. And it is probably even more reflective of how certain non-Western Apostolic Christians in the Anglosphere view things. Perhaps even some Russian Orthodox in Russia think in this way as well. But I think it is incorrect, though there is another error of identifying the state as one's political community, and this must be corrected as well.