Bowing down to the American flag

[LiberalUprising]

http://www.wacotrib.com/opin/content/news/opinion/stories/2005/10/09/20051009wacflowers10.html

“There is an ultimate truth of God, I do believe. No person, no nation and no institution, however, can claim to possess it without becoming idolatrous.”

To me the ubiquitous debates about the sanctity of the Pledge of Allegiance reflect a form of idolatry. Unless the Decalogue has been recently revised, idolatry is one of the biggest Judeo-Christian no-nos.

Yet, not only has the pledge become sacrosanct to many, along the line it also has become a way of enforcing religious dogma. ...

...So it baffles me why some Christians think that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance poses no conflict to their faith. I quit saying it in the late 1980's. On a good day, I fail miserably in living out my faith. Why on earth would I claim my allegiance to a kingdom other than the realm of God presented by Jesus? The answer for me is clear: I don't.

It's time that Christians abandon blind allegiances to the dominant, cultural expressions of religion simply because they sound correct, noble, or even American. As Spong reminds us, no nation or institution can claim to possess God's ultimate truth without being idolatrous. If it is to be retained, let the pledge be an optional only part of the public school forum. School districts should not force all students to recite it as part of a daily ritual. To claim that this is the right and only way to implement the pledge is not Christian. It is idolatry.

Robert Kenji Flowers of Waco is a United Methodist minister.

http://www.wacotrib.com/opin/content/news/opinion/stories/2005/10/09/20051009wacflowers10.html