I was in a meeting with a couple of other pastors who serve in the city of Reading, and I asked them if they had been part of what was reported as a “Service of Christian Unity” that was held in City Park on Easter Saturday. Their otherwise intelligent gazes looked at me with confusion – neither one of them had even heard about it until it was reported on by the Reading Eagle. I hadn’t either, which made me curious about why some churches and clergy were invited and others weren’t. It isn’t because they didn’t know about us; two of us have been serving in the city for over 2 decades, and the third serves a large downtown church. Our pondering turned to one of the central activities – raising a Christian flag. “Ah”, I said, “Christian Nationalism!” There was our answer. None of us having this conversation would have agreed to this act of oppression.
Most Mainline Protestant clergy I know are conflicted about flags. We don’t like the idea of having an American flag in the church, since our faith is not about one nation; it is about God. Just as we wouldn’t allow a particular political party to have sway in our building, neither do we think of ourselves as American churches. And I, for one, love my country and often have a flag waving in the breeze outside of my home. We are also dismissive of so-called “Christian” flags. Flags were created to bear a coat of arms and be carried into war. This way, you would know who to kill and who to fight next to. Flags are fine, but a Christian flag in a public park or on a public building is a blatant crossing of the line between religion and the government. It seems that those who decided to raise this flag do not see it this way.
There was a letter to the editor of the Reading Eagle last week stating this very thing, and I followed it up with a letter – which hasn’t been published yet – of support. This disunity in American Christianity is at the center of our disunity as a nation. Misusing the Bible to convince believers that they are right to support a particular party or candidate, or to go so far as to call a candidate “the Messiah”, is a perversion of the faith. It is using God’s name in vain. It is blasphemous. One only has to go back to Germany in the late 1920’s to see the dangers in this kind of evil partnering. The separation of religion and government allows religious practice to be up to the individual. It also allows religious communities and individuals to speak freely to and about the government. When religion gets in bed with government, the only thing that union produces is monsters.
Any person can vote for the candidate of their choice. You and I don’t have to agree on that choice. But no person can blame God for their decision, because God has nothing to do with who gets elected. This is our circus – these are our monkeys. Stop blaming God.
Prayer – We apologize, God of unity, for the way we dismantle Your peace. We repent of our foolishness and the way we blame You. Forgive us, we pray. Amen.
Today’s art is “#16 Unity” by Nancy Rourke.