In church, “I pledge allegiance” sounds an awful lot like “Hail Caesar!”
The American church has forgotten its anti-nationalist roots and exchanged the cross for the flag. In nearly every congregation I served over 26 years of ministry, I’ve fought the false gospel of Americianity, and lost the war every time. They say you’ve got to pick your battles–but this IS a hill to die on. Americianity has become a cult, and its followers don’t even know they’re in it.
From its beginning, the Church was anti-nationalist. Jesus’ message was so anti-imperial that he was executed on a Roman cross for treason. In the early generations, church leaders forbade Christians from becoming soldiers, because Roman troops were forced to take an oath of allegiance to Caesar, who was revered as a god. Believers were called to have one sole allegiance, and one proclamation, that Christ is Lord. For this reason, many were persecuted by Rome, and died as martyrs. For some reason, American Christians have decided it’s okay to have dual allegiance.
You may ask, “What’s wrong with being patriotic? Shouldn’t churches teach that Christians should be good citizens? Don’t you love our country?” Simply put–there’s a difference between loving your country and making it an idol. Let me give you some examples of this weird mixture of Americanism and Christianity, which has become an idolatrous desecration of both church and state:
The American Flag in Church
In most of the churches I’ve served, the central pulpit was flanked by the U.S. flag on its own right, and the Christian flag on its own left (from the perspective of the pulpit, not the perspective of the congregation). Yes–this follows flag etiquette , a topic in which my veteran father would be happy to instruct you. But it doesn’t follow the principle of putting loyalty to God first, above loyalty to state. If you’re going to have an American flag in church at all, the theologically proper position for it would be to the left of the Christian flag, not to the right (or beneath the Christian flag if they’re flying on one staff). But just try doing this and see how fast you get all the military people angry with you. I knew one pastor who lost his job because he stopped a procession with the U.S. flag from happening every week, and because he removed it from its undue place of prominence in the sanctuary.
Pledging to the American Flag in Church
At one church I served, our senior adult Sunday school class stood each week before they began, placed their hands over their hearts, and pledged allegiance to the U.S. flag. Don’t get me wrong–I’m not opposed to pledging to the flag at baseball games, in school, or at other civic events. But church isn’t a civic event. It’s church. It’s a place where people of all nations can find, well, sanctuary–not a place where we make people who aren’t U.S. citizens feel like outsiders.
Pledging to the Bible and Christian Flag
At the beginning of Vacation Bible school, children march forward as if they were in the military, carrying the American flag, the Christian flag, and the Bible. Maybe you remember the drill: “Attention, salute, pledge!” After the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag comes the parallel: “I pledge allegiance to the Christian flag, and to the Savior for whose kingdom it stands: One brotherhood, uniting all mankind, in service, and in love.” Then, “I pledge allegiance to the Bible, God’s holy word. I will make it a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. I will hide its words in my heart, that I may not sin against God.”
It’s hard to know where to get started as to why this is wrong. Maybe I’ll start with the militarization of the church–“Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war” has nothing to do with the peaceful kingdom of Christ. Or I could discuss the problem with having a Christian flag at all, since flags are national symbols and Christianity isn’t a nationality. Or maybe I’ll point out the difficulty with pledging allegiance to symbols of God, rather than to Actual God. Or I might highlight that making these pledges to the Christian flag and the Bible, at the same time as the American flag, elevates the national symbol to the same level as the symbols of faith. Christians have always been called to be anti-nationalists–but if you can’t do that, you should at least put God first.
Patriotic Songs in Church
Many musicians I worked with balked at my objection to patriotic songs in church. I mean, who doesn’t love a rousing rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” on the Sunday before Independence Day, in place of the hymn of worship? Or substitute “I’m Proud to Be an American” where the offertory used to be. I mean, doesn’t “This is My Country” make a great invitation song? The truth is–while these may be great for a high school marching band, most patriotic songs have no place in church. And they certainly shouldn’t be sung instead of songs of faith. I admit, I’ve caved a little bit with this point, because nobody in church understands. Remove their patriotic songs, and they think you hate America.
So instead, I’ve encouraged one, or two at most, songs that still have some reference to God. “God Bless America,” and “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” are good compromises. I’d rather we left all patriotic songs out of church services, because church is about Jesus, not the red, white, and blue–but you’ve got to throw people a bone somewhere. But once you start singing nationalistic songs, try explaining why some are acceptable and others aren’t. Plus, they’ll want to sing them every Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Patriot Day, and Veteran’s Day. We don’t have enough songs for all those days, without recycling some of them.
Nationalistic Prayers
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard people publicly pray, “Lord, we thank you that we were born in the greatest nation on earth!” Now, this is a tough one–because I love the country where I was born. But all too often, remembering how free we are sounds like nationalistic egotism. Our prayer turns into a chest-thumping, “God, I thank you that I’m not a sinner like these (Luke 18.9-14)!” And claiming to be the best–that’s just outright arrogance. Why can’t we be grateful that America is a good country to live in, without proclaiming in a prayer that we’re better than everybody else? Boasting that you’re the best certainly isn’t what prayer is for. And, what happens when visitors from other countries are present at such a swaggering prayer? They feel unwelcome, put off, and insulted that when the praying person called America the best, they are calling the visitor’s home country the worst–or at least second rate.
Freedom in Christ
Another misguided prayer is, “We thank you for all the freedom we have in Christ!” That’s well and good, if the praying person is thanking God for freedom from sin, from guilt, from estrangement from God. This also works if “freedom in Christ” means we’re free to help our neighbors in need, free from malice and therefore free to love our enemies, or free from oppressive worry and fear. But if the praying person means free to be as capitalistic as we want to be without regard for the poor or the environment, this isn’t “freedom in Christ.” If they mean free to vote for our leaders rather than having monarchs or dictators or other forms of government, this isn’t “freedom in Christ.” It’s not even “freedom in Christ” to be able to worship free from persecution or harm. This is political freedom, which is NOT something for which Jesus lived or died. American Christians need to understand the difference between those two things.
Legislating Morality
For as long as I can remember, growing up in southern evangelical churches, I heard people saying, “If only we’d overturn Roe v. Wade,” or “If only we’d bring back prayer in schools,” or “If only stores and restaurants were still closed on Sundays…” In all these things, what they’re really saying is, “If only we could return to the days when Christians were in such a majority that we could legislate morality for everyone else.” Don’t get me wrong–I think abortion is tragic, and I believe there’s a proper place for voluntary, student-led prayer in schools, and I personally practice at least one day of rest per week. But Americianity is this weird mixture of faith and flag-waving that insists on cultural and political dominance and making the rules for everyone else. This has nothing to do with the spirit of Jesus Christ.
Manifest Destiny
In my high school U.S. history class, we learned that American leaders believed their nation had a heavenly mandate to reach from Atlantic to Pacific, to be a beacon of light to all nations. Many proponents believed that the United States was a new Christian replacement of Israel as God’s chosen people. As such, they had the prerogative to murder, subdue, “civilize,” and Christianize Indigenous peoples. Likewise, they believed that they had done enslaved Africans a service by bringing them to America so they could learn the Christian religion and participate in helping to make America great. At some point, many citizens became disenchanted with this colonizing brand of Christian empire-making. This is the reason for the decentralizing of the church in American life–because society at large has seen that the emperor has no clothes. Yet Americianity heard the emperor’s call to “make America great again,” and white evangelicals rallied to the call.
American Idols
In truth, Americianity has become a false religion that exalts its own conservative colonialism over the loving Jesus who calls us to welcome the poor, the outcast, the stranger. Nothing could illustrate this unholy mixture of church and state more than the recent prayer of Mike Pence:
“Let’s run the race marked out for us. Let’s fix our eyes on Old Glory and all she represents. Let’s fix our eyes on this land of heroes and let their courage inspire. And let’s fix our eyes on the author and perfecter of our faith and freedom and never forget that where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom — and that means freedom always wins.”
By misquoting scripture (2 Corinthians 3:17; Hebrews 12:1-2), the Vice President literally and literarily substituted the flag for Christ. He misrepresented the freedom of the Holy Spirit as mere political privilege, entitlement born of empire, and the kind of selfish self-rule that is nothing short of satanic. This is what Americianity does–it twists scripture to its own ends to deceive the faithful.
In Matthew 24:23-24, Jesus warns of false Messiahs:
“Then if anyone tells you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah,’ or ‘There he is,’ don’t believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform great signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God’s chosen ones.”
Jesus knows that people tend to put their faith in human beings who rise up, claiming to be someone great. Twisting people’s faithful expectations, these false messiahs pretend to be political saviors. They often get the support of Christian followers who want to bring back the good old days of Manifest Destiny and Christian dominance. Biblical scholars have used the term “antichrist” to characterize such false messiahs who deceive God’s people for political ends. Americianity lends itself to idolizing politicians who say they will push the political agenda of evangelical conservativism, no matter how unchristlike they may be personally. But Christians need to be careful, because they are the very ones the Bible says the antichrist will deceive.
Romano-Jewish historian Flavius Josephus reported the revolt of Judas the Galilean, in the year 4BC, about the time of Jesus’ birth. Rome had placed an eagle standard above the gate of the temple. Calling it an idol due to it being a graven image that pointed to the cult of emperor-worship, two Jewish friends, Judas, and Matthias, along with forty other men, invaded the temple to cleanse it. Denying that Rome had any authority over the temple, they cut the image down with axes–for which they were executed to a man. They are celebrated as martyrs and heroes to this day.
Yet, for some reason, American Christians are okay with the eagle presiding over their own sanctuaries, if it is festooned with stars and stripes. They welcome the state’s sovereignty over church proceedings and use holy time to pledge allegiance to the imperial standard. They long for the “good old days” when church and state were even more linked than they are today, when they could legislate morality and enforce that church doctrines be taught to unwilling audiences. Mostly, good patriotic Christians don’t recognize when their mixture of religion and nationalism has gotten out of hand. And I’ve learned over the years that If I cut down their idols for them, I just get crucified for it.
Put Down the Flag to Take Up the Cross
The good news is that Americianity seems to be doing a fairly good job of imploding from the inside. By following emperors who have no clothes, these gullible followers sabotage themselves, then wonder why the world wants less and less to do with their brand of religion. One by one, fundamentalist leaders fall, revealing that their house of cards was never built on solid rock.
You may wonder–what’s left for Jesus’ followers after Americianity crumbles? I’m hopeful that genuine faith will endure–and thrive–after the demise of churches that hanged themselves like Iscariot. Once that false church’s betrayal is done, the true disciples will remain to do God’s work. Not by picking up the flag, but by taking up the cross, to follow Him.
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