SERVING THE NATIONS

THE CORPORATE IDENTITY OF THE U.S.A.

General about Corporate Identity (CI).
Throughout the Bible peoples, tribes and nations, and also cities,are spoken of as very important to God's plan, and they are spoken of and treated as corporate personalities: they have an identity,they are addressed as "Virgin Daughter Judah, Virgin DaughterBabylon", they are held responsible for their actions, they are covenanted, they will be judged and they can be redeemed.

The theology for this understanding can be found in chapter 3 of my book "The City Called ; Theology of the city and her Redemption."

Definition.
These "corporate persons" are created in the image of God. The CORPORATE IDENTITY of a corporate personality is
a. the expression of God's character in that personality, because of which it contains
b. her destiny in God and
c. her redemptive gift to her fellow peoples.
Through the fall and the effects thereof, this (corporate) identity has been distorted and corrupted. Each individual person of a people group reflects more or less the CI of that group; a substantial part of his personality is rooted in his corporate personality.
Throughout the Bible we find nations and cities "named" (Jer 8:5; Hos 2:23; Hos 1:9; Isa 41:8; Deut 9:24; Isa 13:19; Jer 50:12,31,32; Isa 47:1; Rev 18:5; Isa 19:25; Isa 10:5).

The way to discern the Corporate identity of a nation.
I found the identities presented in these Monographs through Bible study, corporate prayer, waiting on God, and through posing all sorts of related questions to spiritual and secular leaders in these nations. These questions concerned both the true and the corrupted expressions of the corporate identities, both in hero's and in facts, both historically and contemporarily. Of course the examples are selective, but all of the monographs presented have been discussed in the very nations over and over. All suggested corporate identities are open for further study.

Generalization
Through years of travelling a long list of CI's has developed and refined. I have found, that the inevitable generalisation in this approach does not make void the general use of this concept. In case the reader might think what he reads about other peoples applies, but for his own people not really "because it is too general," then I am confident. It is always a surprise how other peoples perceive you, especially when you are not accustomed to thinking at peoples scale

Purpose of these monographs
First of all: Just reading the Corporate Identities gives a new joy of the manifold wisdom and character of God, our Lord Creator, the Shepherd of the Nations.
Second: These monographs should not be used to feed prejudices against peoples that one has already. Rather use these monographs to pray hope and destiny into the peoples.
Third: We should start to accept that there are differences between peoples. Suppressing the experience of differences between peoples works in the end very negative. Understanding the original divine given corporate destiny of peoples, and their distortions, and the possibility of redemption, will open new dimensions of ommunication, unity and cooperation. This is my experience in many nations since 1990. Even stronger: with this understanding I could help many people in many nations to accept and love their own nation, both where they suffered from anti(American)nism or national inferiority or discrimination.

Corporate Identity of the USA: ADVENTUROUS LEADER.

God's character:
God was for sure adventurous, both in his creation plan and in his redemption plan; so was Jesus in his coming to dwell among humanity. And he is for sure a leader, even the "Pioneer and Perfecter of our Salvation."

Positive expression, historically and at present; typical persons:
In the church: The church of the US has taken worldwide leadership in world evangelisation; movements such as AD 2000, with its subsequent "tracks" bear fruit worldwide. Several international evangelistic organisations, like OM and YOUTH WITH A MISSION, are originally American, with worldwide fruit.
In society: Leadership is something natural for Americans. Even the whole terminology of leadership, leadership styles, leadership training, leadership manuals, etc., etc., is typical American. "I can do that," "You can do that," "Go for it," are typical American sayings. Small girls are cheerleaders; boys are impregnated by the idea of establishing and leading a big company, or setting a foot on a moon yet to be reached. Competition fits very well in Adventurous Leadership; rather: Adventurous Leadership has made America highly competitive; and the celebration of celebrities in America is almost a cult.
The question whether the necessary attitude of the early settlers has caused this Corporate Identity is not relevant here: modern Canada 1) was also established by settlers, but her CI is almost opposite (and much American-Canadian sensitivities are the result).
Negative expression: historically and at present; typical persons:
In general: The corrupt side of Adventurous Leadership, or, as another foreigner after living nine years in the US had observed: "Dynamic Entrepreneur" is "Presumptuous Leadership": the boss is right; do not question the boss. Internationally this expresses along this line: Americans tend to think that their leadership is the best: "When an American has not done it, it has not yet been done." They evaluate other nationalities on the basis whether they have leadership quality or not. In other words: they tend to measure other nationalities against their own standards, and often do not mind to value cultural qualities of other nations or cultures. The effect is a cultural insensitivity, which the Americans do not experience themselves (at the most it frustrates them), but it has caused a worldwide anti-Americanism. The fact the American leadership often is the best, does not matter in this discussion.
I have discovered this CI by working very intensely with Americans in Europe and through travelling in the US, and, to be honest, through some intense irritation of the presumptuousness of Americans, even to the point that God told me, in a missionary setting, to make a public confession of my pre-occupation. That was God's way to force me to wonder the redeemed version of Presumptuous Leadership might be, and accept and then also love Americans, redeemed in their American-ness or not yet redeemed.
In the church: In the church this distortion of God-given Adventurous Leadership has become evident in cross cultural missions: American missionaries who were spiritually mature enough to obey the Lord to go abroad, but who had not yet discovered their American-ness, let alone letting it be (the beginning of) redeemed, and in this way unknowingly forcing a type of leadership on peoples with a completely different understanding of leadership, or people without outspoken concept of leadership, but with great understanding of servant hood or of spiritual authority!
In society: The type of leadership inside the States itself is rather top-down: the boss is right. Also the (extreme) competition in the US culture results from a corruption of her CI, to the detriment of the marketplace, the political arena and the education system. Another corruption is individualism: going your own way, because leadership is "better" than being led.

US - Russia
Some comparisons between the US and Russia 1) may shed more light.
Very briefly I give "the CI of Russia: GLORIOUS RULER, TEACHER KING (<-> Tyrant and teacher of tyranny).
Two large nations: I am convinced that God made these two nations so large and powerful, because He wanted to show forth some very beautiful aspects of his Own Leadership and Ruler ship qualities to the whole world and on a grand scale.
Language learning: People of both nations are very eloquent. Internationally the corruption of both the American and the Russian CI leads to "linguistic imperialism": America and Russia have forced many peoples to learn their language. This is a terrible sin: Learning another language means: to humble yourself to the toddler stage and "start all over again." In going cross cultural, it is either-or: either the foreigner humbles himself and "toddlers" into the host culture, or: the foreigner forces his host to a toddler stage and makes a little America/Russia around himself, where he is the eloquent Leader. For a long-term missionary this behaviour is of course very contradictory to the mission he has.
Violence: American corrupted leadership leads to individual violence -exported through the film industry-; Russian corrupted leadership leads to collective violence -exported through her political system-. Both corrupted CI's pollute the whole world.
US - Russian confrontations: numerous are American-Russian frustrations: Americans are achievement oriented, Russians are rank oriented. Americans are team workers, Russians are delegators. Americans think in horizontal relationships, Russians think in hierarchical relationships.

Endnotes:

The Corporate Identity of these nations has been researched in a similar way. Back to tekst.