The church of today faces more than a few serious challenges, but in my view none more disturbing than its loss of credibility. When the church speaks, hardly anyone listens anymore, and for good reason, I’m afraid. One of those reasons is the failure of clergy and churches to maintain what I call a “prophetic distance” from our nation.
The prophetic tradition in scripture is about people of faith acknowledging government actions that are right and good, but never hesitating to criticize actions that are wrong and bad. Deciding which is which is not as complicated as it may seem. A nation’s actions are good when they promote justice and peace. They are bad when they ignore justice for all and make war more likely than peace. Certainly there are shades of gray when leaders have to make decision about such matters, but the problem is not that leaders have to grapple with ambiguities. Just the opposite. Trouble starts when they see no ambiguity, when they are sure they are right and critics are absolutely wrong, and especially when they are more influenced by money and power than concern for the common good.
Because nations do bad things, there must always be a necessary tension between churches and their governments. This doesn’t mean churches cannot support good policies a nation may enact, but they must do so always being aware that the very next action by that same government may promote injustice or militarism. This is why “prophetic distance” is essential. Love your country, but love God more. Respect your nation’s laws, but never give up your responsibility to speak against any you believe are wrong.
Sadly, I think most churches fail miserably at maintaining the “prophetic distance” from our nation they should. Here is how you can test my thesis. The next time you happen to be in a church, see if there is an American flag in its sanctuary. If there is it reflects the fact that members of that church see no conflict between allegiance to God and allegiance to the nation, that loyalty to country equals loyalty to God. This may not be what they believe, but it is what a sanctuary flag says they believe. It is an enigma to me that any congregation would put a flag in its sanctuary, the most sacred space a church building has. In fact, I think it is astonishing that this is so common.
The congregation that doesn’t want the message a sanctuary flag conveys to be its public voice, that wants to reclaim its “prophetic distance” from the nation, can actually do something about it. It can initiate a church wide discussion about why the flag should be removed altogether, or at least be placed somewhere other than the sanctuary. An honest study of the issue will find that scripture is unequivocal in naming this practice for the temptation to idolatry it represents. It will show that while the removal of the flag may seem like a small thing, it turns out to have huge implications. It is a statement not only of priorities, but of loyalties, of faithfulness, of an awareness of the temptation to idolatry a flag in the sanctuary represents.
But…be prepared for a fight. There will be people who believe God and country are two sides of the same coin, who don’t know or don’t care about history, who don’t grasp the fact that when churches align themselves with their government they lose their integrity. They don’t ask themselves the question, “Who listens to a church that supports a nation’s unjust policies or its unjust wars, either openly or by its silence?” But the question is one everyone else asks, and its answer is obvious: No One. In fact, no one should listen to this kind of church, and as it turns out, fewer and fewer are. That is why confronting the sanctuary flag is an urgent need. The church’s credibility really is at stake, something that may not matter to some, but matters a lot to me.
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One of my early experiences as a new arrival to America was to find bibles in hotel and motel rooms; “curious”, I thought. Later I experienced what you describe here, flags in churches. Like the motel bibles I consider flags in churches an “American thing”. Where I grew up, in the Netherlands, there was no such thing as flags in churches or bibles in motel rooms. American flags in churches speaks to a level of assumed God sanctioned national supremacy that is not supported by scripture and certainly never was by Christ.
Well said, Jan. Churches do have trouble being “in” the world without being “of” the world. God loves all of His creation and all of His people, regardless of our earthbound stage of social evolution. It is, I think, up to church leadership to constantly assert this principle, though the “business-like” structure and member driven demand to teach their preconceptions makes that difficult. Oneness, humility, spiritual maturity; the road to these states of being seems so arduously slow. Our eventual arrival will take place with constant reminders from all who see the bigger picture. Thanks.
I confess I never gave American flags in sanctuaries of churches much thought. I think in every church I went to there were just always there. Now when I read your blog and think about it a bit. I see your point of view. I am continually amazed at how limited my knowledge is on so many subjects, but I’m a die hard learner.
Monica’s comment is so very important because it underscores just how “American” churches are in our country, yet they don’t know it. It takes hearing someone who was not born here to jolt us into understanding our church experience is not necessarily what the rest of the world experiences.
Jan, it is good to find your blog and hear you again!
Back in the early 70’s, I was pastoring a small rural church in Wisconsin. At their Vacation Bible School, their custom was to gather in the sanctuary and say the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the USA, to the Christian flag, and to the Bible. I could not do it. I explained to them that I could not pledge my allegiance to anything other than God while in God’s sanctuary. I could pledge to lesser loyalties, but not in the sanctuary of my highest loyalty. I opted to sit at the back and not participate. To my surprise, three of the women who were working in VBS, joined me at the back and shared with me that they had never been comfortable doing the pledges in the sanctuary. There are church members who have the sense that something is wrong with those customs, but they need help identifying the issue and responding to it. I do not remember ever being in a church in my current state that does not have a USA flag and Christian flag in the sanctuary. Your comments are very much on target!