by Lou » Mon Jul 06, 2015 4:13 pm
During my 24-year tenure in my current pastorate, my philosophy and practice re. patriotic emphases on certain Sundays of the year has been very much a work in progress. Once upon a time we had the Christian and U.S. flags up in the auditorium 24/7/365, and did patriotic (or perhaps nationalistic) worship themes for Memorial Day, Independence Day, Veterans Day, Flag Day... But then several years ago I had a series of challenging conversations with a friend who helped me realize that (as Dave aptly pointed out) when you say God AND anything else, you are violating the 1st commandment. My personal tipping point came when a certain church member began coming into the auditorium before the Sunday service and moving the U.S. flag to a higher position on the stage steps than the Christian flag. That's when I took the flags down for most of the year and put them back out only on those particular patriotic weekends. And then there came the time that they disappeared completely.
I did get some pushback from a couple of our church members, both veterans. One of those men raked me over the coals pretty heavily. This fella had served in the U.S. Air Force for 13 years, and wanted to make sure that he had the opportunity to stand and be recognized and applauded for his service at every opportunity. (Incidentally, this man never served in a combat zone, and rather than staying in the service until his 20-year retirement point, he took off his uniform in 1963. You do the math.)
Yesterday morning the instrumentalists played "America the Beautiful" as the offertory hymn, and that was the extent of our patriotic recognition.