Kathy,
The military folks are well trained, or
brainwashed to a degree, on honoring the flag and
nation and all of that. Wouldn't it be a real
test to see if Christians felt the same way in
varying circumstances? Oh, well, it seems you do
have that very situation indeed. Hands down it is
a Christian representation which ought go before
the American flag. However equally to the fact
the American flag ought not serve as a idol or
god, neither ought the Christian one, as it
wasn't the Christian flag who is god. Your
question of whether which ought hold higher honor
in a church, a Christian flag or American one, is
almost so obvious it is almost redundant. I
understand your veterans, but they need to
understand Christ died for all people, not just
Americans. How then would putting the American
flag first be any different than your country
putting its own ideals birthed out of its
citizens to take God off our money, pledges and
courtrooms? The USA need to know its place in
existence, and before Christ is not it. I love
this country too, but we are a people many times
grounded on false security and patriotic piniáta,
a shell of patriotism filled with sweet gimme's
and fail to see we do have faults and we are not
superior in people, God created all equal, but not equal to God himself.
Brad
on 03:19 PM 4/23/2006, Kathy Du Bois said:
Hi Guys,
Well, it looks like Greg and I might be in a bit
of the thick of it again. Unfortunately, it
isn't because of doctrine or anything like that,
it's over the position of the flags in our
church. It would be interesting to see if you
guys have anything to say about it.
The Bangor area is pretty military. Our airport
doubles as a civilian airport and a military
base. We have the longest runway in the
country, so I'm told because of this union. Many
of the troops who are either flying overseas, or
returning home, go through Bangor Maine. We have
a group of people, in the area, who have
established themselves as troop greeters to give
them a warm American send off or welcome no
matter what time the military plane arrives, day
or night. A few of the members of our
congregation participate in this. Hopefully,
this helps to set the stage for what blew up today.
The church has always had two flags in the
front of the sanctuary. One is the American flag
and one is the Christian flag. In flag protocol,
established by the military in the early 1800s,
the flag of the highest honor is supposed to be
positioned to the right of the speaker. In a
church, this would mean to the right of the
pastor. Well, this protocol was established
before the Christian flag was even created so it
doesn't mention the Christian flag or how to deal
with it at all. Some pastors have opted to just
remove the flags from the sanctuary altogether to
stop the bickering, but our congregation wants
the flags to remain. This leaves us with an
interesting dilemma, which flag should receive top honors in a church?
First of all, I will say very emphatically that
Greg and I are both very patriotic. We love our
country and we are grateful to live here. We
have no interest in protesting the war, or the
military and we never have, but, we believe that
Christ should receive top honor in His
sanctuary. If you go to any of the offices of
government, the court house, the town office, or
any military establishment, such as the V.F.W. or
the American Legion, you won't even see a
Christian flag on display and that is okay. We
may say that we are one nation under God, but we
aren't and we aren't insisting that the Christian
flag appear anywhere outside the
church. However, as much as I love this country,
my first allegiance is to Christ. I will protest
when my country becomes immoral, but I will cling
to the cross of Christ no matter who is in earthly power.
Well, at our business meeting, it came up
today. The veterans among us are all protesting,
some threatening to never come to our church
again, because the Christian flag is in the
honored position. I have to say that most of the
congregation voted in support of Greg, putting
Christ first. Greg had even talked to an army
chaplain on the matter before today and the
chaplain agrees with Greg, but never the less,
it's a small town, so the winds of trouble are blowing again.
When I arrived home, I looked up the first commandment in Exodus 20:3-6.
You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol in the
form of anything in heaven above or on the earth
beneath or in the waters below.
You shall not bow down to them or worship them;
For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God,
punishing the children for the sins of the
fathers to the third and fourth generations of
those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand
generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
I don't know, perhaps I am making too much of the
connection, but I couldn't help but wonder if
part of the reason that our society is so messed
up today is because other things, such as flags,
have replaced our love of the one true God in first place in our lives.
Unfortunately, the veterans, in all this, won't
hear our point because of their emotional
commitment to the flag. They see us in the same
way as they saw the Viet Nam protestors of the
60s and, to be truthful, it is hard for us to
respect their commitment to Christ that they
would be willing to break up community over
this. We have done services in the past honoring
the veterans, but that doesn't seem to be remembered now.
Just pray for us Guys. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Kathy
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