Orthodox theologian Alexander Schmemann underscores the danger of loyalty: “Our belonging, our loyalty to anything in ‘this world’—be it state, nation, family, culture, or any other ‘value’—is valid only inasmuch as it does not contradict or mutilate our primary loyalty and ‘syntaxes’ to the Kingdom of Christ. In the light of that Kingdom no other loyalty is absolute, none can claim our unconditional obedience, none is the ‘lord’ of our life.”2
