Should churches display the national flag and the Christian flag together

[Crabtownboy]

I agree with the following quote from a piece in the Christian Science Monitor that carries the title Does the American flag belong in church?

The trouble doesn't lie with Christianity but with power. The two have always been at odds. Political power is a synonym for "physical force," for bending people to government's will regardless of their inclinations, interests, or welfare. But Christianity is love – power's antidote. Anyone who sincerely follows Jesus Christ will never try to compel others – because he didn't. Jesus sought to persuade by word and example, loving men so much that he let them judge for themselves the truth of his teachings.

No wonder the state wars against so potent an adversary. Its antagonism compelled America's Founding Fathers to decree, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The Founders weren't only insulating government from Christianity, as today's secularists insist; they also hoped to protect Christianity from the poison of political power. A free society flourishes because of its families, schools, marketplace and churches. If these become mere outposts of government, if the state subsumes them so that they advance its agenda rather than curtail its power, the country sinks into totalitarianism.

How disastrous, then, that many American Christians are too busy courting government to curb it. Preachers vie to endorse political candidates, cozying up to them rather than calling them to account. Churches no longer disdain money taken from people via taxation; instead, they complain that their handouts under the Faith-Based Initiative weren't big enough.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2008/0728/p09s02-coop.html

 

[jaigner]

It's true, I don't display my flag at school, but I don't have a problem with the rest of the teachers in my school or any other school that do. Or in ballparks and stadiums and public buildings and so forth.

It's an issue of conscience. I'm not going to kick and scream about it. I'm just going to do what I feel led to do.

 

[targus]

It's true, I don't display my flag at school, but I don't have a problem with the rest of the teachers in my school or any other school that do. Or in ballparks and stadiums and public buildings and so forth.

It's an issue of conscience. I'm not going to kick and scream about it. I'm just going to do what I feel led to do.

If it is a issue of conscience why do you not allow others the same latitude that you allow yourself in their choice to hang a flag in their church?

 

[jaigner]

If it is a issue of conscience why do you not allow others the same latitude that you allow yourself in their choice to hang a flag in their church?

I do allow it - I don't have any control over it - but a flag in a place of worship is way different than a flag practically anywhere else. I believe very strongly that it doesn't have a place in Christian worship.

 

[sag38]

"I'm too spritually minded to display a flag. God forbid, I might accidently be identified as a neocon or something even worse."

 

[mandym]

The great Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn once wrote this warning,
"To destroy a people you must first sever their roots."

 

[NaasPreacher (C4K)]

I do allow it - I don't have any control over it - but a flag in a place of worship is way different than a flag practically anywhere else. I believe very strongly that it doesn't have a place in Christian worship.

I agree. I don't like it, but am not going to kick up a fuss if I attend a church where the flag is displayed.

If is a matter of soul liberty. If a church wants to do it that is up to them. I don't have to like it or do it myself. All I ask for is that the same liberty be extended to me.

 

[NaasPreacher (C4K)]

The great Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn once wrote this warning,
"To destroy a people you must first sever their roots."

How can anyone sever a believer's roots, which should be firmly planted in the gospel?

 

[mandym]

How can anyone sever a believer's roots, which should be firmly planted in the gospel?

Do you have children?

If so did you create a godly home for them to grow up in?

Having a godly country and being founded in biblical principles is no different.

 

[NaasPreacher (C4K)]

Do you have children?

If so did you create a godly home for them to grow up in?

Having a godly country and being founded in biblical principles is no different.

Is the US a godly country when it allows for the slaughter of 50 million children?

We didn't allow that in my home.

 

[mandym]

Is the US a godly country when it allows for the slaughter of 50 million children?

We didn't allow that in my home.

Refer back to my quote so as not to lose sight of the intent of my comments.

 

[NaasPreacher (C4K)]

Refer back to my quote so as not to lose sight of the intent of my comments.

Your quote dealt with severed roots. I contend that nationality is the wrong place to sink our roots.

 

[mandym]

Your quote dealt with severed roots. I contend that nationality is the wrong place to sink our roots.

Our roots are not sunk in nationalism, our roots are sunk in a country founded on biblical principles. Two different views and your view is just not correct.

 

[Crabtownboy]

Our roots are not sunk in nationalism, our roots are sunk in a country founded on biblical principles.

That is a wonderful, delightful myth.

 

[NaasPreacher (C4K)]

If one sinks their roots in a secular nation how can they be free if God wants them elsewhere?

If one sinks there roots in the Kingdom nationalism matters little.

 

[mandym]

If one sinks their roots in a secular nation how can they be free if God wants them elsewhere?

Well I suppose that if you have roots sunk in a secular nation then that could be an issue. But that has nothing to do with anything I have said.

 

[NaasPreacher (C4K)]

The great Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn once wrote this warning,
"To destroy a people you must first sever their roots."

Fair enough. I misunderstood.
What kind of roots are you referring to here?

 

[mandym]

Fair enough. I misunderstood.
What kind of roots are you referring to here?

My perceptions is you are working to be intentionally difficult and just talking past me. I explained that this country was founded on biblical principles. You rebutted with the current abortion in the country which is irrelevant to the founding of this country. I do not believe it is possible to have a reasonable discussion with you on this issue. I just do not care to run around in your circles. I do hope you are blessed by God in all you do here and abroad.

 

[NaasPreacher (C4K)]

Is it your claim that the US is not a secular nation?

BTW, your perception is incorrect. We differ on this issue so are not going to find agreement. That does not mean that either of us are being difficult.

 

[annsni]

We have our flag in our sanctuary on purpose. First, we are a part of the United States of America. We are proud of that. We are grateful for the freedoms that are afforded to us by the government. We also are reminded to pray constantly for our leaders and our government. We see in the front of our church the American flag on one side showing that we have a civil leadership but on the other side we have the Christian flag and the cross of Jesus Christ showing that we also have a divine leadership.

What is wrong with that?