A Question of Priority?

Yahoo! News posted an opinion piece by a free-lance writer and the Christian Science Monitor. It struck me because it has always been a hot-button issue in churches I have served.

Does the American flag belong in church?

The author, Becky Akers went on:

All in all, American Christians seem as devoted to their government as Ruth was to Naomi. But should they be? Do either the flag or the Pledge have any place in the Lord's house? Is congregational commitment to the republic for which these emblems stand consistent with Biblical Christianity? Is political power?

As may be expected from that paragraph, she concludes:

If they think about it at all, most believers probably see the flag and Pledge as tokens of affection for their country. In reality, both symbolize an infatuation with government. Churches hope to change circumstances through political force when Jesus called us to change hearts and minds with his message. We cheat ourselves, trusting the state's inferior and transitory power instead of the Almighty.

We also enhance rather than counter the state's supremacy. Our "patriotism" is really nationalism: unquestioning and enthusiastic support of political power. Christians eager to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's have the rest of the week to do so. But the things rendered should not include our allegiance. That belongs to God. Why taint our worship by pledging it to the state's flag instead?

On trial for his life, Jesus Christ asserted his divinity while denying that his kingdom was of this world. It's ironic that Americans who accept the first truth devoutly reject the latter.

Over the years I have been fortunate to know a number of Christians from other parts of the world, including those who lived behind the then "Iron Curtain." With no exception, they all commented on the American habit of having the US flag in the sanctuary. They all commented that it did not belong in much the same way as the above article.

I guess every time there's a war the issue arises. We have to show that we are patriotic and support our troops. But having the flag in church is not one of those ways. As Akers so well implies, it shows a divided loyalty. It is one of those things that we really need to be prayerful and cautious about.

Which leads to a truly interesting piece that Douglas Harink wrote for the Faith and Theology blog. (part 1; part 2) They are a response to Jim Wallis' book, God's Politics and make a good case for looking at the underpinnings of both liberal and conservative American church leadership and theology:

The good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that it is God’s radical and decisive invasion of our humanly constructed worlds, and God’s deliverance from and destruction of the powers that hold us in bondage. The American nation, or the Canadian nation, or any other nation for that matter, is a humanly constructed world; it is a power that enslaves human beings and makes us serve its ends. Every nation is in the first place an idolatrous regime to which God comes in the Gospel to set his people free. Before the church and its discourse can be of any use to American people, it must learn that it does not exist in the first place as America, or to be of use to America, but it exists as the church, constituted in its worship and service of the one true God.

In other words, whether America as such stands or falls – and it will surely one day fall – should not be a matter of primary interest to the churches in America.

Harink is clear that he is actually supportive of Wallis' social and political ideas. He is pointing out, as I see it, that we have to be very vigilant not to allow faith issues and political issues to get mixed up in idolatry in the services of national ideas. It is the same issue as the flag issue above. How else can we remain prophetic? Harink closes with this:

How then do people get truly political? They believe the Gospel, they are baptized into the body of Christ, they worship the triune God, and they participate in the eucharistic life of the congregation. Only out of this primary and constitutive political performance will the people of God be capable of interrupting, even if only among themselves, the idolatrous and destructive discourses and performances in our nations which go by the name of “politics,” and of speaking the word of truth to the nations for their judgment and healing.