Should Houses Of Worship Display The American Flag?

[hrmjustin]

Antonia Blumberg
The question of whether houses of worship should display American flags is no small matter for some believers, regardless of which side they fall on.

Some say that doing so mixes religion with American nationalism -- a slippery slope bordering on idolatry. "How is it not idolatry to place the flag on the same level of importance with, say, the cross?" evangelical writer Roger E. Olson asks.

Others, like author Lisa Velthouse, find no fault with the practice of displaying flags in church. In an op-ed for Christianity Today, Velthouse writes:

Putting the flag in our local church does not mean we have made religion bow to nation. The symbol cannot be blamed. A flag on its own cannot display a community's full point of view; it is up to the community to do that.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/03/houses-of-worship-american-flag_n_5552481.html?utm_hp_ref=religion

[woodsprite]

1. It's really not whether you display the flag or not, it's what you do with it.

Growing up, I went to a church where we (the choir and kids) processed in carrying the Christian flag and the American flag and singing "Onward Christian Soldiers". Even as a little kid, that totally creeped me out. I would cry and beg my parents to not send me to that church. The front of that church held 3 displays -- Christian flag on the right, Cross in the middle and American flag on the left. As an adult, although I didn't specifically seek it out when I started going back to church, I'm very happy to say that my Presbyterian church displays neither a Christian flag OR an American flag OR a Cross - and in 20 years, I have never heard the hymn "Onward Christian Soldiers" It's Colonial era of the Quaker variety - pews, walls, and an elevated pulpit.

The churches I've attended where they have been displayed (especially right next to the Christian flag) are fundamental/evangelical type churches.

[rug]

2. No.

In Catholic churches there's often an American flag and a Vatican flag.

[stone space]

3. Well, churches will do what they want without consulting atheists like me, I suppose, but...

...I'll have to admit to feeling more than a little creeped out when I see a US flag anywhere near the alter in a church.

It strikes me as a form of Idolatry, a bow to the civil religions of Militarism, Nuclearism, and Capitalism.

Surely such reverence for symbols of the civil religions has got to water down whatever authentic religious messages may be comingled with them at that alter.

Religion at its best is often critical of or even at odds with secular authorities and institutions. But that important oppositional role of religion in society is made more difficult when the symbols of the civil religions are made part of the religious service.

When we join Church and State together as one (in unholy matrimony?) by including the sacred symbols of the civil religions of Militarism, Nuclearism, and Capitalism prominently on the alter, religions risk being co-opted by the State and made harmless, losing their independence of thought and action in the process, and their capacity to present a challenge to unbridled State authority.