What’s in a Flag: The American Flag over God

I’ve been driving around through many rural areas recently and one thing I’ve noticed is that many churches have flagpoles outside them.  The strange thing about this is that many of them will have both American and Christian flags and will have the American flag equal to or above the Christian flag, but never the Christian flag above the American one. 

While the purpose of this article isn’t to discuss the Christian flag and how odd it is, it probably is important to touch on it as a creation of the latter 19^th century as part of the push by Yankees to form an American civil religion.  The founders loved Rome and much of the artwork in DC and of the founders embraces Roman divine imagery, such as The Apotheosis of Washington and Horatio Greenough’s Enthroned Washington.  More troubling and more relevant to this article, Yankees seemed to be the primary push behind conflating Christianity with loyalty to America.  It should come as no surprise that the Christian Flag, like the Bellamy Salute, both come from New York.  The Confederacy and Southern States already had Christian flags, so there was no need to artificially introduce this new one except to push this Pan-American civic religion.

I’m not surprised that rural churches will put an American flag over their state flag (if they even have a state flag).  After all, the result of the War between the States was a clear shift from a group of sovereign states to a unitary state with a semblance of federalism.  However, there is something deeply troubling about having the American flag over an explicitly Christian one.  It would honestly be better to simply have the American flag and no Christian flag because that probably would be because the church naively believes the U.S. flag is a Christian flag.

There is no law that requires the U.S. flag to be above others. There is an often-cited rumor that Texas is the only state that is allowed to put their flag equally high with the US flag, but that’s not true.  The US flag code is simply etiquette, so it seems Texans are simply more likely to disregard etiquette than other states.  However, while etiquette isn’t legally binding, it is psychologically important.  This tendency of Texans may be one reason why Texit has some teeth.

When a flag is above another, that signifies supremacy of the higher over the lower.  When two flags are at equal levels, that implies equality between the two.  For example, embassies often have the host nation flag and the embassy nation flag at the same level, implying an equality between powers.  As a brief aside, some have argued that in a confederation, the state flag should be above the confederate flag to emphasize where sovereignty lies.  

There should be no equality between a national flag and a Christian one, however.  God comes above all.  By placing the American flag above the Christian flag, the church implies submission to Caesar even on theological matters. While the Bible commands people to respect civil authority, this is not an absolute.  After all, in Exodus, the midwives disobey the pharaoh because they “feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them” (Exodus 1:17).  This is demonstrated as a good thing.  Remember Paul’s words: “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).  Quite clearly, in spiritual matters, we are to disregard what the state says as this is a matter of the soul.  We also see that in the stories of some of the martial saints who were not persecuted because of a refusal to do violence on behalf of Rome, but rather were persecuted because of their unwillingness to renounce Christ or worship the Roman deities.  St. George is perhaps the most well-known of these.

Are we not to be more loyal to God than to all others?  Sure, we are to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but what is Caesar’s?  Caesar’s is a portion of our wages, ever increasing each year, and possibly our very lives (in the form of the draft or military service).  But Caesar does not own your soul.  By having Caesar’s flag above God’s, you indicate that your obligation to Caesar comes first, even with your very soul.

Are you to be more obedient to Caesar than God? The Bible says no.  However, for some reason, Southerners will hang up the Christian flag underneath the American flag, to signify their allegiance to God as a secondary thing to their allegiance to Babylon.  “No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other” (Matthew 6:24).

By submitting in the subtle way, you pave the way to bend the knee on other matters.  Even the PCA is bowing to Caesar, as evidenced by the seminary decision to begin teaching critical race theory.  This shift will become a problem once this crop of students start leading their own churches.  Within a handful of years, these seminary grads will be spreading the gospel of George Floyd instead of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in PCA pulpits.  At that time, there will likely be another schism like that currently facing the SBC and we will see the Church further shrink as many are led astray by false prophets.  

By hoisting God’s flag underneath Caesar’s, you are saying that you will listen to Caesar over God.  These modern churches are teaching obedience to Caesar and Satan rather than obedience to Christ. They will teach everything other than the Bible.  No more divinity of Christ or virgin birth.  No more exclusionary religion that requires you to live a certain way (justified by twisting “by faith alone” to mean just wearing a cross).  It means drag queens ordained, whores in pulpits, and child sacrifice to Moloch.  We must obey God, not the State, when it comes to our souls.  We must refuse to worship the beast, even if it leads to us being slain (Revelation 13:15).

What we need is a muscular Christianity.  A Christianity that embraces the whole of the Bible, including the casting out of those who make a mockery of God, like Christ’s violent casting out of the money changers from the temple (Matthew 21:12-13, John 2:13-16).  We must call out those who not only pick and choose what parts of the Bible they wish to follow, but also those who add to the Bible by pretending there are additional sins.  The often-repeated meme of slavery as the “original sin” of America being the most apparent example (always done without a citation to a verse, as there is no verse that supports this claim). This practice of adding to the Bible is terribly sinful, far more so than slavery could be.  Recall God’s command in Deuteronomy “Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you” (Deuteronomy 4:2).  

Christianity must be a framework of life and belief that holds parishioners and pastors accountable to God’s will and must place God, not Caesar nor the United States, above all else.