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{"id":1477,"date":"2013-04-15T12:12:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-15T17:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/04\/faith-flags-and-freedom-the-role-of-the-american-flag-in-our-churches.html"},"modified":"2015-05-24T11:03:09","modified_gmt":"2015-05-24T16:03:09","slug":"faith-flags-and-freedom-the-role-of-the-american-flag-in-our-churches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/04\/faith-flags-and-freedom-the-role-of-the-american-flag-in-our-churches.html","title":{"rendered":"Faith, Flags, and Freedom: The Role of the American Flag in Our Churches"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I again reaffirmed for him that I did not have anything against the flag but do have a problem with it being in worship. First, I said, your position that the reason why I can worship the way I do is because of the flag\u201d is wrong because I would like to think that I would still worship the God I serve even if it was illegal. A government or state institution does not dictate my worship or belief and it is not supported or affirmed by my allegiance to any state symbol, i.e. the flag. Surely, the only reason why you worship the way you do is not because the state allows you to\u2014but because of your personal beliefs in Jesus\u2014or I would like to think so.<\/p>\n

Second, the flag is a symbol of the state and we must remember, for Christians, our allegiance is to Jesus and not any state or government institution. In short, having a flag in your sanctuary is blasphemous\u00a0and\u00a0idolatrous. Now, I know this is hard for you and many folks to grasp this because the state and God is so intertwine that it is hard to determine which is which. For you, the flag makes sense in sanctuaries because by showing allegiance to this \u201cgreat\u201d country, we in turn celebrate God. God and country go hand and hand and whatever the state does, God approves. However, when we look at our own faith history, the state executed the man we affirm as \u201cLord\u201d because that man would show only allegiance to God.<\/p>\n

I reminded him that I have argued Jesus\u2019 execution was not something as special as we make it out to be simply because when the state \u201clifted him up,\u201d there were at least two more executions going on at the same time. Moreover, despite our resurrection theologies, if we believe that those who executed Jesus had in mind that he was to \u201crise on the third day and redeem humankind back unto God,\u201d we are sadly mistaken. They thought in executing Jesus, they were getting rid of a problem.<\/p>\n

After I shared this with him, he paused for a moment, actually agreed with some of my positions, and openly confessed that he never \u201cthought of it that way before.\u201d I thanked him for the conversation and by talking this out, it helped me formulate my own thoughts about this as well and now I am more resolute than ever that flags do not belong in our sanctuaries.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Now for that picture of Jesus you have in your stained glass window\u2026\u2026..<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"