December 1, 2017
American churches seem to have a flag fetish
To the editor:
Baptist News Global’s Nov. 28 edition of e-news included reporter Bob Allen’s article, “Cross is ‘preeminent symbol’ of Christianity and should be removed from public park, say church-state watchdogs.” Au contraire, watchdogs! Have you taken a drive through America’s heartland of late?
My wife and I drove from Virginia to Kansas to enjoy Thanksgiving week with our children. Any objective observer untutored in the fine points of the Christian faith who might have ridden along with us would have concluded that the American flag is the preeminent symbol of Jesus followers. The cross? A mere appendage on the roof top, if there at all.
From the Shenandoah Valley to the Central Plains, American flags flew aloft on countless church lawns. We’re talking humongous, car dealership-sized flags raised high on sturdy, bright white poles, with bricked or flowered boundaries of sacred trimmings. Lighting? Of course!
High on a hill-top in Illinois, the bold letters of the church’s name declared itself to be the “All Nations Worship Center.” Excellent nod to the final ingathering around the Lamb’s throne per Revelation 7 and 14, I thought. A defiant deviance from the I-64 congregational church-lawn norm? Nope.
“O foolish me, for what did I see, not the cross of Calvary but the banner of Francis Scott Key, High on the mountain top, High on the mountain top, High on the mountaintop in ol’ Illinoi-i!” Yep, a big one, too, just in case anyone got some funny ideas about that all-inclusive church name they were stylin’ across the church building.
There was the beautifully landscaped church park-in-progress in Missouri — pavers still paving, landscapers still laying sod, plumbers still plumbing what appeared to be a future restroom (foundation footprint clearly too small for a sanctuary/worship/praise complex). But wait! What had the church leaders made sure went in first, spit polished and finished, in this church playground? A pavilion — a pavilion literally built around a massive, do-the-Pentagon-proud, stand-up-and-salute inspiring flag pole, from which flew, in descending order top to bottom, the Cadillac of American flags, and then an equally impressive though subordinated Christian flag.
I’ve grown accustomed in our Baptist churches to the obligatory American flag and Christian flag, each in its little brass stand, muted sentries holding their respective corners on either side down front in the sanctuary. We get it: we hold dual citizenships, members of two kingdoms. But, it’s always the cross, isn’t it, centered up high for us?
The cross. Whether in the baptistery or on the Lord’s Supper table, (perhaps on the church front lawn?) always the cross: reminding us of Jesus’ way of dying, not in a battle to kill the enemy busily at work slaughtering him and terrorizing his small following, but exemplifying divine love that miraculously, mercifully, converts deadly enemies at one another’s throats into sisters and brothers at one another’s side, sharing bread and cup around the table with the Resurrected Christ as our Host.
The American flag is a totem to our tribe of these United States — great place to live, great people with whom to live, a 241-year long contrivance of constitutional republican and democratic ideals and aspirations for which so many men and women have sacrificed themselves to defend in wars both foreign and domestic. But not particularly Christian, this American flag, per the Founders’ incredible genius, which is what the aforementioned “church state watchdogs” successfully argued, as Allen reported.
Every flag, every totem, every tribe will yield its claims upon their citizens’ hearts, souls, minds and bodies, either willingly in this terror-filled era or apocalyptically in the timeless era of Shalom to come. They will not freely surrender up these loyalties in their own striving for survival and domination among and over each other. That’s why God wishes to install among all nations a witness of the eternal community of peace to come. Our witness, that among these congregated followers, meeting in this building, on this plot of land, no nation stands first among the many whom the Lamb gathers before God’s throne.
Gary Dalton, Keswick, Va.