The church I go to (Resurrection Life Church, in Grandville, MI) has a number of flags in the snactuary -- along the back wall. They range from countries in Africa, to some European and South American countries. Those are angled along the back sides (the sanctuary forms a hexagon). Along the very back are the American and Christian flags.

This works for our church because part of our mission statement includes reaching out to all nations of the world.

Posting the US Flag makes a church's modern Americanized-ness very visible. I think it tells people of other nationalities they are not welcome.

Not what God intended.

Flying the American Flag in church yards is something that I think every protestant church should do. We live in this country of freedom and it because of that freedom we are allowed to worship God openly and freely.

We should be proud. Let her wave.

But people from other nationalities are in America. I don't believe the flag would turn someone away. If I were in Africa and went to a church, I wouldn't be turned off if they had their flag up.

But that's just me.

I also agree with what Crystal said.

I don't like to see the American flag inside the church. I come to worship God, not country.

I have a question for those who want to honor our country by flying the American flag in church: How should it relate to the Christian flag? According to American flag protocol, the American flag should always be displayed in the "position of superior prominence." Even over the Christian flag? I don't think so.

What is the "Christian Flag?"

Also - wasn't America was founded by Christians? Were they not the ones who made the 'flag rules' also? :-)

Not trying to step on your toes, blogan, but what you see in a church (or outside a church - which is where our flag is flown)isn't necessarilyrepresentative of whom or how your worship, at least I would hope not.

But of course, the question is how we perceive what church really is.

My thoughts are, it isn't a building - with or without flags, but a community of people reaching out into a dying world.

Nor do I see the character or nature of Christ demanding his flag be flown higher than any other flag. I just don't see that in his nature. I don't think God cares about flags. But again, those are just my thoughts.

Forgive me for now I realize that the "Christian Flag" is. I just didn't ever have to learn the a pledge when I became a Christian so I didn't know there was such a thing.

Ooh, this is a great discussion! Thanks for being civil, everyone.

Anne, you commented that God doesn't care about flags, and I'd agree with that. Blogan raises an interesting point about the hierarchy of the flags (which the Star Trib article covered in detail), but it assumes there's some importance in the Christian flag. The Christian flag is just a man-made construct, a symbol that's meaning comes from what we invest in it. So it can get kind of dicey. Should the U.S. be above God? No way. Should a cloth flag representing the U.S. be higher than a cloth flag representing the Christian faith? It's not so clear.

But back to Anne's point: the church isn't a building, it's a community. Darn right. However, we meet in a building, and that building says a lot about our community. If your building is falling apart from disuse, that makes a loud statement. If your building is a local high school you rent on weekends, that says something about your church (brand new, not enough money for their own building, or maybe focused on something beyond buildings). This gets down to the whole point of my post: whether or not your church displays the U.S. flag says something about your church. Is anyone paying attention to what message that says?

I agree with you, Kevin. We do meet in buildings.

I have some friends in Cali who meet in a nightclub. I was just talking with one of them the other day and he told me the nightclub they meet in almost got shut down by the city because of some illegal-adult things going on there on their typical nights. Where they meet says a ton about who they reach out to, where they are at.

Back to the flag. Whenever something tragic happens, our flag always goes half-mast and in a way, I think our community views that as we know what is going on in the world, we respect and mourn with them. Whether it's the Pope or Regan. We are there with our community. We love our country, our freedom, our troops, and we grieve the losses of humanity with the world.

As Crystal said, so many guests wouldn't even know what the heck a Christian flag was. I grew up a PK, so I learned my pledge at GA camp.

I definitely agree with Anne's comment about the flag. It shows a sense of unity. It shows we care. It shows our support.

So true: it does show something about the church if a flag is or isn't flying outside of it. However, I don't think it is a bad thing if a church doesn't have one nor do I think every church should have one. Flying a flag simply shows respect and pride for the country.

I wouldn't even think of putting the American Flag up in my church!!
Oh yeah it's cause I live in Canada.
I find Americans are far more patriotic and so this is a bit more of an issue for y'all, eh? ;)

Crystal, heres a link to info on the Christian flag.

Anne, churches are filled with symbols. Although the symbols are not more important than the worship, I believe they can indicate the values/beliefs of the church leadership. Allowing a secular symbol be placed in a position of superior importance to a religious symbol strikes me as strange behavior for a church.

Of course, reasonable minds can differ what symbols mean and how to display them. For example, I grew up learning that nothing should be placed on top of the Bible; that would be disrespectful. I've since learned that others prefer the Bible to always be at the bottom of a stack, symbolizing being the foundation of everything.

To me it shows the church does things by the laws of our nation, which we do have to abide by.

I am English. I lived in the US for a few months and was totally overwhelmed by nationalism of the US. I came across so much pride of being American and people who really believed the US is the greatest nation on Earth; the funny thing is that most of these people had never been outside the US! Don’t get me wrong there is also this arrogance in the UK and really it comes down to pride and pride is sin. I believe that this pride and been at the root of a lot of the ills of both countries. Should we represent the pride of nationalism in our churches? I don’t think so. Having a nation’s flag, especially from courtiers such as the US and UK that have coursed so much ill in the world, makes more issues then it solves. When I went to the US embassy to get a visa I was on US soil, if we are ambassadors of Christ then when a person comes to a church gathering they are then, I believe, on Kingdom soil and our focus should be on that Kingdom not man made ones!

I think you make an excellent point Paul.

Paul does make an excellent point and articulated it well. I agree. I am as patriotic as the next American, however to honor one country over another in a politically non-biased environment such as the church is to put God "under" country rather than country "under" God. For the church to show political bias is like my Pastor teaching that all men should honor and love HIS wife because that is God's charge to him. Instead the teaching that honors God and speaks to all men is that each man should honor and love the wife God has given them. Great topic. Let's remember; God doesn't see political boundries. He just sees those that have recieved his gift of Grace through Jesus Christ, and those we have been called to share that gift with. No matter where in the world they are.

My congregation includes a pledge to the flag in morning worship, not an assemby for
Sunday school or other such function but as part of Sunday morning worship. I take exception to that. The hatred voiced toward me for taking exception echoes the worst of television evangelism. I am about to leave my congregation because of this situation.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

In our pledge to this symbol we acknowledge being under God, not over him. We pledge allegiance to it, we don't worship it. We acknowledge that this symbol is one that flys over our troops that protect the freedoms, religion being one of them, we have living in this nation. Anyone who links its presence to idolatry is really strectching things. This country was founded by men who believed in God and asked for His blessings on all that we did and stood for. Unfortunately, because of the freedoms this nation offers, many immoral things have become acceptable in the name of tolerance. We give in on things because we don't want to make a big deal out of it. If one is so weak in their faith that they think the presence of a flag takes away from their worship to God then there are other issues there. WWJD should apply here, I personally think he would tell us that there are bigger issues that we should be concentrating on like why there are so many different denominations for his one teaching....