F'ing Flags

A friend from another blog life posted about "the church militant", in particular about a gun-bearing color guard standing behind a member of the clergy while he preached. To which I really only have one response, one that has been bubbling in me for quite some time:
Take the flags out of our churches.
All of them.
Now.

The church is not American. The church should not ever be American. The Gospel has no nationality, and neither should the people of the Gospel. Churches out to be like embassies: each embassy, no matter what country it happens to be located in, is sovereign soil of the country it represents. Churches, especially sanctuaries, are sovereign soil of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Isn't it really about the first Commandment? American Christians have made the nation into a god, into an idol, that we look to as the thing that we trust in and rely upon. I have actually had a member say to me (about Obama): "I could never vote for him. By not putting his hand to his chest during the pledge he disrespected the flag, and that's like disrespecting God." It doesn't get any closer to good old pagan idolatry than that.

Take out the flags. Become Christians who happen to live in American, rather than American Christians.
Of course, it leaves the whole issue of what to do about the pledge and the first commandment, but that is another topic for another time.

Political Sound Off

Let's be honest, in my line of work we don't much get to share our political views - at least not with full honesty. And, really, I'm ok with that. I don't want people to be unable to hear the Gospel because they are too preoccupied with my politics. I would rather have them hear the Gospel, and have it then inform their political decisions (which happens far too infrequently among those who follow Jesus).

That said, this political season in the US has me just about bursting at the seams. Never has an electoral choice seemed so very clear to me - especially for Christians. "Feed my sheep." "Whenever you have done it to the the least of these." What have McCain/Palin ever done for the "least of these" - except for look for ways to squeeze an extra penny out of them for the benefit of big business? The hypocrisy coming out of that campaign is sickening - I will follow up with more later.

I just don't get it, I guess. We have made personal moral choices - areas about which our Scriptures are (at best) ambivelent - into the defining issues for our political debates. Instead of abortion, maybe the candidates could talk about the mess of the housing market. Instead of worrying about who is screwing who in the bedroom, maybe they could address who is getting screwed by our ever-more lopsided economy (as we watch yet another major company fold, while the ceo has a golden parachute). Just an idea.