St George’s Day. Talk of Christian Nationalism is doing the rounds. Such a term is an oxymoron. Jesus overcame divides and sought to reach out beyond his own Galilean/Jewish/Aramaic ethnicity. He was about reconciliation not enmity. There’s nothing wrong with patriotism, a sense of custom derived from one’s own land. The problem is when a cultural tradition overspills into a political weapon. The rise of the nation-state in the last several hundred years or so has had this habit of politicising patriotism. Nationalism can become ugly, fanatical, exclusive and threatening. We tried to bury this in the aftermath of the Second World War. The Church has admittedly got this wrong at various points in the past, through colonialism and the crusades. Like a weed, though, it can grow back. St George himself was not a rabble-rousing character but a defender of faith against a brutal dragon. And if we think St George is exclusive to England, bear in mind that he is also a saint revered in other countries like Georgia, Portugal and Ethiopia. St George is international (photo: King’s Lynn Minster)