Which comes first: God or Country?

Answer 1

Questions like this generally deal with priorities and generally deal with two main concepts:

1) The greater good

2) Specific responsibility

As a fellow reply mentioned, the list is usually considered to consist of three options:

a) God

b) Family

c) Country

Not necessarily in that specific order.

Lets look at the question first by considering the Greater Good. If you believe in a God, usually he creates the moral standard. Faith in that God and doing what he says, not disavowing him, are often considered hallmarks of great Good, because without him or denying him you deny the precursor of good. If you do what God says you should be doing what an omniscient, eternal knows is good -- so that good will ultimately be the right action. That's the THEORY. Since we humans often misunderstand what God MEANS for us to do , caveat emptor.

Country. This can be a solid choice because it is backed up by numbers. If the country is of good moral character, stands for freedom, and protects certain inalienable rights it gains more points. Unfortunately, the human element comes into play again. It is compounded by the fact that not everyone in a nation is good and not every national interest is good for most of the people. Lastly, it assumes that all people are equally crucial which is sad actuality may not be the case. For example, on a ship that has a reactor field that is decaying and about to explode who is the most important to save first and get down that tube if only one is sure to make it -- the engineer, the captain, the supermodel, the comedian, your father, a little toddler, or your mother-in-law ... some decisions might be based on logic (the engineer) or hope (the supermodel) or rank (the captain) or self-interest (yourself). But one thing is probable, chance of survival will depend on who gets into that reactor chamber.

Finally, there is family. This is a specific responsibility that is chosen quite intimately by the husband and wife, probably the most important decision either ever made was to marry each other. So it is said that a man will leave behind his mother for his wife and so on. The rest is self evident.

Specific scenarios may change the order, at least in my mind.

Scenario 1:

Your wife, a known christian, has killed two innocents in front of you, reloading the pistol between each separate event. The injured policeman, an atheist and a known racist, is trying to stop her from starting the countdown of a nuclear bomb that she has built to blow up your mother-in-law's hometown, and therefore kill several million innocent resident's of Moscow.

Do you:

1) Say Hasta La Vista mom and shove your mother in law out of the last train to China thus saving your own skin and improving U.S. relations with China while causing the accidental burning of a used Koran to inflame relations in the Middle East?

2) Use your MCI minutes thus involving more people by asking 6 people to get Nicole Kidman on the line, and having all those listening go through severe emotional trauma as they here the explosion and all of you die ( and the additional trauma of a Nicole Kidman movie dramatizing this a year later)?

3) Pick up the racist's gun, shoot your wife dead in the brain in order to make sure the button isn't pushed, but forget to praise Allah or donate the N.O.W. the next morning , thus creating animosity leading to violence in the streets of Saudi Arabia towards women

4) Pop your head out of the most secure place in the house, the half-bath, whip out a Do Not Disturb sign, grouchily exclaim "What the hell is wrong with your hormones, can't a guy get any privacy!?", close the door and your mind, and watch the end product of the digestive system glow while murmuring "HAL is that you?"

5) Read some more Gabriel Garcia Marquez in order to convince your would-be maker how intelligent you really must be while sipping on a cheap Pinot Noir and saying without looking up "Yes dear ... I understand completely."

Or do you just ...

6) Push the Easy Button and let Staples deal with it by pushing millions of pencils around and recording it for all history.

Sorry about the bad humor there, but basically God is always first, provided the afterlife exists and God is infallible, everything else is situational if not negotiable.

Your mileage may vary, best wishes.

Answer 2

God

Answer 3

God

Answer 4

Jehovah God

Answer 5

In the dictionary country comes first other wise God.

Answer 6

God comes first. If the country is a good country, they don't come into conflict.

Answer 7

God always comes first

Answer 8

God before the ones who talk as if they are one. Or technocratic psychologists who think they know everything about everyone and everything due to their delusional ideas of personal objectivity. If a group of people or representatives do not fall in line with the ultimate character of God, then they are not worth speaking to or paying attention to. Beneath the wrong supervision of some, you'll be setting yourself up for a gigantic stab in the back if you're an idiot.

Answer 9

God.

Answer 10

Th country is the creation of GOD so go figure out.