Patriotism and Spirituality

One time during the medal ceremony of the Olympics some years ago I watched as the gold medalist responded emotionally to the raising of her flag while the anthem of her country played. I don’t recall what country she was from except that she wasn’t from the United States. I thought it was interesting that while I could relate to the emotion of patriotism I couldn't really feel it with respect to her flag or anthem. The flag and the song meant nothing to me and consequently the ceremony evoked little within as I watched it. However, there were of course many times when watching the U.S. flag rise to "The Star-Spangled Banner" that strong emotions had come. Of course I doubt most outside of the United States feel those emotions for our anthem or flag.

Emotions of patriotism obviously depend heavily on the environment in which one was raised. We feel patriotism for a country because we have been instructed to do so but also because we can identify certain key aspects of our lives that are associated with it. Most people do not leave their home country to find a new one and/or develop patriotism towards a country in which they were not born.


The same would seem true of spirituality. I attended a Catholic mass in the Florence cathedral once during my LDS mission . Attending a Catholic service in such a magnificent building, over 500 years old that had undoubtedly been a place of worship for innumerable notable figures in Catholic history, would have undoubtedly brought great emotion to any devout Catholic. However for me while I can't say I felt nothing that I would usually associate with spirituality, I certainly would not say I had anything akin to the type of experience I had in Mormon sacrament meetings or especially the temple. There were of course those that seemed to be very caught up spiritually in the ceremony and I certainly met many who had such strong spiritual experiences associated with Catholicism in general that they had made enormous sacrifices. Religion, like citizenship, also seems to be something the vast majority of people maintain throughout their life-with most living and dying in the faith they were born into (if they maintain any religious affiliation at all) and this in spite of the relative ease of switching religious affiliation when compared to citizenship.


There are of course many exemptions to both situations. Despite what the majority do many do in fact change their citizenship and religious affiliation and we assume with that change for many their feelings of patriotism and spirituality change as well. Interestingly enough though the ones who do make these dramatic changes often have similarities. They are disproportionately the poor, for example. While this is fairly obvious with citizenship (how many Canadians are moving to the United States when compared to Mexicans, for example) but religion often sees this trend as well. Scriptures even recognize this fact, suggesting that humility brought about by poverty can lead to the change of heart necessary to bring conversion. Another less common scenario but common enough is a romantic interest. This seems to be more prevalent in religion-where someone meets a potential spouse of a different faith and then converts-but I have certainly seen it occur on multiple occasions with citizenship as well.


All this seems to line up quite well with how evolution by natural selection would explain our spiritual and patriotic emotions. It would seem both these emotions, distinct though they may be as they certainly were for me, help to define and bind us into social groups. They create bonds with other humans that encourage collaborative efforts, mutually beneficial reciprocating acts and unification against outside forces. Such emotions depend heavily on the environment in which one was raised but such emotions can be swayed. There is great risk in changing social groups since it is extremely difficult to make up for the advantage of the experience and knowledge one gain's growing up within a social group. There are also many social mechanisms built into each social construct to prevent the loss of it’s members and to protect against infiltration from ‘outsiders’. However we would see that it would generally make sense for someone to change social groups in the event that another social group offered a relative evolutionary advantage-additional resources for one's survival, more opportunities for mutually beneficial reciprocating acts or a better potential partner for procreation. Consequently we see that our emotions evolved to tie us to the social group we were born into most of the time but with the ability to also change towards a different social group in the event that there is considerable potential for an even greater evolutionary advantage elsewhere.


While some may feel this detracts from the beauty of spirituality and patriotism I think it gives us a greater appreciation of both while enhancing tolerance towards others who may differ in those essential aspects. There is beauty in a process that was woven together over eons of time to form the intense emotions that bind us together and yes, sadly at times, pit us against each other. However in recognizing the process for what it is we can begin to realize there is both positives and negatives to these evolved instincts and seek to embrace an improved sense of patriotism and spirituality. A system of patriotism and spirituality that doesn't exclusively embrace one’s ‘in-group’ and shuns others but one that opens up spirituality and patriotism. A belief system that is open enough to facilitate each individual finding the greatest potential happiness and fulfillment in the beliefs that best fit each individual's needs and desires while encouraging the greatest degree of positive interaction between all members of the human race.


(Images from Wikipedia from the entries for Olympic Games, Florence Cathedral, Naturalized citizenship and Prayer respectively).