state of religion

watching the Anzac day coverage today had me thinking, i know it has been said before but it seems that the "Anzac Spirit" has become the new state religion, the guiding metanarative for secular Australia....

This new religion of the "Anzac Spirit" is really a syncretism of Christianity and a kind of ancestral worship. Today i heard much about how these young men, who by all accounts were slaughtered by the bad planning of British authorities, forged the ideals that have shaped us as a nation.... but in what way is that true? These men wernt politicians, or activists or idealists... they were doing the job of a soldier....

i know this is politically incorrect way of thinking but as i said this has become the new "State religion" so how should we as Christians respond to this? do we just roll with it? is it bad? is it an opportunity to contextualize the Gospel?

to tell you the truth i am not sure? I can see the emptiness of a world view that is purely a nationalistic view of wars past.... but also how does it effect the way that we move headlong into the new millennium... the war that was to end all wars has not.... we continue to fight and kill, both through conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan etc... and through unjust foreign polices effecting millions in the third world. Do we need to challenge the view that war will "fix" the worlds problems?

a good article to look at over at signposts

any comments?