Observers weigh in on patriotic piety.
A Christian church has absolutely no business displaying a national flag in the sanctuary, at least not as it is commonly done. The church born at Pentecost was a reversal of Babel, not a doubling down on the fragmentation of Babel.
Our churches should not place any unnecessary barriers to the worship of visiting Koreans, Russians, or Portuguese. We already must deal with natural and providential barriers, such as differences in language. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile (Gal. 3:28). I wouldn't want to worship in a sanctuary with a Scythian flag up front (Col. 3:11), and the Golden Rule requires that we not do to the visiting Scythians what we didn't very much like when they did it to us.
The New Testament is all about this principle. Where customs interfere with transnational fellowship, those customs must give way (Acts 15:29). Read more
In that case, we should not permit any displays of authority other than God's, nor any symbol or name of anything on earth. To be consistent, we should prevent ministers from wearing vestments since that imply earthly authority, prevent any mention or depiction of Christian saints or ancestors, prevent Christian ministers from being licensed by the state to perform legal marriages, prevent Anglicans from agreement with the Articles which teach that all authority in heaven and earth, even that of "princes" is the Lord's. Such a rule vitiates our our specific prayers for state ministers, church ministers, husbands and fathers which read "Endue thy ministers with righteousness"; it prevents us from obedience, in the Lord, to any man.
ReplyDeleteFrankly, the presence or absence of the State flag is adiaphora to the mature Christian. It doesn't occur to him that the state is being held up as an idol, an authority and sovereignty other than God's. In fact, it should be quite the opposite; recognition that the church authority, state authority and family authority is under God's authority. It is absolutely essential to Christian doctrine that Christian duty includes holding all his "ministers" accountable to the Lord.
I have to conclude that obsession with removing the state flag is a sign of Christian immaturity.
Any Christian that insists on the American flag not being displayed in places of worship (to demonstrate that God is sovereign over the affairs of men), they ought not expect to place the Ten Commandments, crosses or anything recognizing a higher power in public places.
ReplyDeleteaatych,
ReplyDeleteIn your second, your conclusion does not follow your statement. My friend, in many church you will see the flag prominently displayed. You will also see people turn to the flag or the flag brought to the center while the 4th verse of "My Country Tis of Thee" is played. The words start out with "Our fathers' God to thee." This looks a lot like state worship. The state and much less the flag has no place in our worship of God. Caesar worship was in fact part of the worship of Rome, the state. Christians refused to burn the pinch of incense to Caesar. They died because they understood that the worship of the state is idolatry. Some see the the cross used as a focal point of worship as idolatry, so in the reformational Church of England, it was removed. The Decalogue was however prominently placed to remind us all of God's righteousness and what He commands of us, including absolutely no idolatry.
I'm not familiar with any ritual such as you describe, but if it exists then I would agree with you. No idolatry allowed. For the record, the reformational CofE prohibited all sorts of idolatry, including the elevation of the sacrament, but it did not suspend prayers for the King/Queen. In any case, I am not making a case for having the flag, but rather for not prohibiting it. As for that verse of "My Country tis of thee", it most certainly is NOT about state worship. Here is the full verse:
ReplyDeleteOur fathers' God, to thee,
author of liberty, to thee we sing;
long may our land be bright
with freedom's holy light;
protect us by thy might, great God, our King.
Let us not give anyone the pretext for taking away from us our "pledge of allegiance" wherein we say "one nation under God".
ReplyDelete"One nation under God?" The United States of America is not a nation but a federal republic. That is a confederation of sovereign States. Throughout the Constitution the pronoun used to refer to the United States is always in the plural (they, them); the verb is always plural. The constitutional convention rejected the term nation.
ReplyDeleteBy the way the "under God" was not added to the pledge until 1954. Why are we pledging allegiance to a flag anyway? An interesting read is the biography of Francis Bellamy, a Christian socialist. The whole things sounds to me like state worship.
Vocabulary lesson: The Constitution does not use the word "nation" because that term was at least at that time not a political term, but rather a cultural term. A "State" is a self-governing political entity. Yes, we are a Republic of multiple states. The primary definition of "nation", however, is a tightly-knit group of people which share a common culture.
ReplyDeleteThe idea that the United States is a nation actually comes from the Constitution which begins with "We the People" but it was not until later that the term "nation" was used for the United States. Abraham Lincoln in fact was very careful in his 1st Inaugural Address to describe "national" authority narrowly. He carefully distinguished the authority of a sovereign state as superior to the authority of the federal government in every way (except in the right to terminate the Union). In his 2nd Inaugural Address he used the word "nation" many times, but used the word "state" not even once.
As for God, a Lincoln "meditation upon God's will" was found among his artifacts after his death. It expressed his own desire that the North should not be too quick to put on the cloak of God's vindication: "The will of God prevails — In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong. God cannot be for, and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose is somewhat different from the purpose of either party — and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect this."
The bottom line is this; a national or state flag standing demurely in a corner of the place of Christian worship does NOT mean that government has a role in the affairs of the Church, that God's blessing for the nation is assumed, or that its members are asked to worship the government, but it DOES mean that God's sovereignty and authority extends to the government represented by that flag every bit as much as it extends to the church's members. They have a duty to be involved in the affairs of government, especially in a Republic. When we pledge allegiance to the flag, it is no different that when we pledge allegiance to our spouse, or our parents or our children or our boss or our church presbyters. All these duties of obedience and service we do "as unto the Lord"; acknowledging the universality of God's dominion.
By contrast, the absence of the flag means, to me, that Christians are abdicating their responsibilities and conceding the affairs of government to sovereignties other than God. Ironically, this is the idolatry. O yes, I know they don't see it that way, but it seems to me that it stems from a feebleness of mind and lack of faith.
When I was growing up, I never saw flags in the Baptist Churches, the Presbyterian Churches, nor in the Episcopal Churches. At some point they creeped into the churches along with the concept that "America is the greatest country in the world." A lack of humility. The state has become all in all to some people. Nationalism has become a religion. Look what the state has given us. Look at what nationalism has wrought: WWI, WWII. It is an idolatry. Of course all nations, clans, and tribes are under the providence of God, and not just one particular people. America greatness is only in her obedience to God, her faith in God, her submission to God. Her humility before God. It is not in her pride; that only goes before the her fall. There is no need for a flag in a church. There is no need for patriotism in God's house. God is no respecter of persons. The churches should reflect this and avoid nationalistic anthems. Pray for our leaders and all Christians leaders that they submit themselves to God but be wary when the state is all in all. The church should not promote this kind of thing.
ReplyDeleteBtw, Lincoln was full of contradictions. You make the perfect case that the United States was not founded as a nation. Read yourself carefully.