A Citizen of Earth and Heaven?

I have been reflecting for quite a while on the issues arising from my identity and my loyalty. Many of you know that I was born in the United States but moved to Canada 35 years ago. People still ask me: “So are you an American or a Canadian”. Legally, I could answer yes to both; but which of these is my primary identification?

To complicate matters, my ancestors were German Mennonites, and I learned to speak a German dialect (“Pennsylvania Dutch”) as a child. When I worked in Frankfurt, Germany in 1972, some German residents assumed that I was also German, which I am, emotionally, in part.

But I have other national loyalties also. My wife Kathleen is an Irish Canadian, so my children have both Irish and Canadian passports. I might thus apply for Irish citizenship (based on my marriage) so that we could all live and work in the European Union.

Furthermore, my mother’s surname is Overholt; this name comes from a picturesque village high in the Swiss Alps. My father’s family emigrated from Alsace which is now part of France. I worked for most of my career for a Dutch bank, so I also speak the Dutch language.

Finally, I have learned to speak a bit of Spanish and Chinese, so I can identify readily with those cultures also. Do you think I am slightly confused in my cultural/national identity?

Actually, I believe that I am fortunate to realize that strong national and cultural identities can often be more of a problem than an asset, because they often promote conflict.

The greatest challenge facing our world is conflict: clashes between individual people, between families, between communities; conflict between tribes, states, nations; conflict between cultures and religions.

Imagine a world where we stopped fighting so fiercely for our own possessions, for our own territory and our contending ideas; where Marxists and Capitalists could sit down peaceably for dinner, with Royalists, Anarchists and Democrats. Imagine Baptists, Catholics and Muslims and Hindus conversing pleasantly and exploring their vast differences amicably.

Imagine people from China and Japan, India and Pakistan, Israel and Syria, from Venezuela and the United States, all agreeing on a fundamentally new direction – where world resources were shared equitably and where we conserved the Earth from despoiling; where people from every continent helped each other notwithstanding their huge differences.

Utopia is what they call this. Poets, philosophers and prophets have long hoped for such a Utopian world, but this golden hour never seems to arrive. Our differences and conflicts seem instead to grow fiercer. More people have been tortured and slaughtered in the past 100 years than ever before in the history of Earthlings!

So what is to be done? Thousands of recipes for peace have been touted over the centuries; I am not a prophet or guru who can solve this intractable dilemma.

However, I believe that we have already heard most of the wisdom we need to contribute our individual part to world peace and harmony. We may begin this quest somewhat haphazardly, but as long as we continue heading in the right direction, much progress can be achieved. So what is stopping us?

It is our misguided loyalty. We support our own nation against other nations, even when our nation is wrong, or at least partly wrong. We assume our religion or belief is supremely correct, even when some of our fellow members (whether Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Marxists, etc.) are involved in wars that murder helpless victims. We amass wealth mostly for our family when someone down the road is hungry and cold.

As a Citizen of Earth, we should be loyal to every other Citizen of Earth, not favouring “our group” of citizens against other groups of citizens. This is much harder to accomplish than to preach, but it is worthy of our serious thought and reflection. Unless we individually stand up against the tide for what we believe, there can be little hope of stopping Hell-sent demagogues like Hitler who want to manipulate and enslave us. We should loyally oppose our own friends, our coworkers and our governments when they violate this principle of global citizenship.

But there is another dimension to this equation. Most religions and cultures worldwide have shared a historic belief in a dimension that transcends our mundane life on earth. Not everyone believes in a monotheistic God, but most people believe in a “higher reality’ which in many societies has been called “Heaven”. It is from this Higher Realm that our wisdom comes. Heaven is both our spiritual origin and we hope our ultimate Destiny. St. Paul wrote in his letter to Philippians: “Our citizenship is in Heaven”.

True prophets worldwide have always taught goodwill towards foreigners and strangers. They have advocated compassion towards all humanity, particularly the most poor and disadvantaged. We do not need to resolve all of our differences in order to work for universal peace and goodwill. Mostly we just need to renounce force and coercion as a means to resolve our disagreements.

At every turn in the road, we need to recall our obligation to be loyal to Heaven and loyal to our fellow citizens of Earth. We should examine our conduct to see that it is consistent with this larger and higher loyalty.

We will unquestionably encounter struggle when we oppose narrow-minded loyalties; but it is far better to struggle (or even die) for the right cause, than to fight for a narrow segment of humankind. There is nothing wrong with loyalty to our friends, family and nation, except when these loyalties become the context for doing wrong to foreigners and strangers.

Heaven help us all!