Politics & Power Quote by Tony Campolo

Campolo’s line lands like a sermon disguised as a citizenship test: the problem isn’t America’s sins so much as America’s refusal to admit it has any. By pairing “arrogant” and “prideful” with the explicitly religious demand to “repent,” he reframes patriotism as a spiritual discipline rather than a loyalty oath. The sting is that repentance, in this frame, isn’t private remorse; it’s public recalibration. The real target is civil religion, the habit of treating the nation as inherently righteous, blessed by default, and therefore exempt from moral accounting.

The subtext is a warning to Christians who confuse national power with divine approval. “God wants it to be” doesn’t just invoke a higher standard; it yanks the moral authority away from flags, parties, and nostalgia and hands it back to a God who, in biblical tradition, judges nations as readily as individuals. Campolo is also smuggling in a critique of American exceptionalism: if the country cannot imagine itself needing repentance, it has made itself uncorrectable. Pride becomes not a vibe but a political posture that blocks reform.

Context matters: Campolo’s career sits in the evangelical world but often against its most triumphalist impulses, speaking in the register of revival while pushing a social gospel sensibility. The intent isn’t to denounce America for sport; it’s to force a choice. You can keep a comforting story of national innocence, or you can keep a faith that demands confession, humility, and change. He’s betting that you can’t keep both.