Expatriate Musings on an American Holiday

Today's the 4th - but since I don't live in America, for everyone around me, it's just another Monday. I'm going to go to work as normal, and, due to my schedule, probably not do anything special tonight.

Now, I love my country, but being outside of it for an extended period of time changes one's perspective.

Sometimes I'm embarrassed by how my fellow Americans act, both when they're here in Europe, and back home. Some of the crap we pull, and worse, some of the crap we American Christians pull, makes me ashamed.

Another problem I have is that I find a lot of American Christians act the way they are named - Americans first, Christians second (if at all). Our willingness to accept injustice and attitudes towards the disadvantaged and hurting are too often the result of our Faustian deal with free-market economy rather than an outgrowth of Christian character - and it shows.

Given that I'm personally torn between Just War and Hauerwas-style pacifism, America's military present and history can be a rough point for me. The Just War arguments are good - good enough to stick to when I feel like I would be betraying servicemen and -women, good enough to stick to when the other option is to admit that the Revolutionary War was inexcusable...but am I convinced? I don't think about it too much, because I'm scared of the answer.

In a "post-American" age, are we as Americans allowed to have issues about being American? Or do we all have to still pretend it is the 50's?