Faith and Flag
Some years ago now, my wife and I were invited to food and drinks in a "greenroom" after a church service. The pastor had been one of my roommates in Bible school, and I guess he felt obligated to allow us back with the VIP guest ministers when we showed up unannounced at his campmeeting.
These were the heady days after September 11th, when the religious right had some purported influence in politics. We sat quietly as the preachers and their wives talked about the Patriot Act and how its infringements were necessary to combat the spiritual terrorism Satan had unleashed on the country. I remember one minister saying he certainly didn't mind the government's intrusions into his emails, his bookstores, his libraries or his telephones because he didn't have anything to hide. I remember thinking, how naive.
Years later our military was in the Middle East and we heard about visions of Jesus helping the troops dismantle the reemergence of Babylon and about the soon-appearance of the Beast. At virtually every church we visited we heard sermons about how God was spearheading his last-day revival through the arm of our government, and how the United States would be the righteous standard holding back the onslaught of End-Time terror and the one-world government. This "God, Faith, and Flag" involved even more blind trust. Skepticism of government was deemed unbelief of the worst kind. My wife and I took to running on Sunday mornings instead of paying our patriotic tithes at church.
I wonder how all those Full Gospel preachers felt on Wednesday morning after the Supreme Court handed down its decisions in the DOMA and Proposition 8 cases. Is the United States still God's vehicle for worldwide revival? Should we trust our government with our most guarded secrets, relationships, and communications in the name of God, Faith, and Flag?
The writer of Hebrews reminds us we have no lasting city here. We are sojourners, looking for that city not made with hands. Maybe once the brouhaha of the Court's decisions winds down we'll be able to move on from the myth of faith and flag.
