What so proudly we hail

As many of my readers know, I'm always alert to incidents that raise the question of the relative importance of our allegiances to God and country. So, when a request to sign this petition crossed my awareness today, I signed. The quick summary (to save you the link) is that Goshen College, a Mennonite institution with a century-old tradition of NOT playing the national anthem before its sporting events, has changed that practice in the face of public pressure, which took the form of about 300 emails received in response to the mention of this practice in an NPR piece.

I think that, pacifist or no, every Christian (in fact, every religious person in this country) ought to be appalled to see (to some extent) this sort of pressure, and (much, much more so) this sort of caving. I also think that a long tradition of protesters who are actually best described by no other term than "American" ought also to be appalled that patriotism in this country apparently must take this particular ritual form.

But, honestly, I'm more concerned about the Christians. I found myself thinking a lot of the time when I was teaching high school theology in Victoria, Texas. Every morning, a voice on the P.A. would ask us to stand for the pledge, which we would all do. Then, we were invited to be seated for prayer. This struck me as quite odd. The flag must be stood before, but God ... not so much. Of course, the "prayer" for the most part didn't address God so much as serve as a little spiritual thought for the day--the "Footprints" poem or something from Chicken Soup for the Soul.

My little chat with the principal resulted in two small victories, one immediate and one kicking in a few weeks later. We were soon asked to "stand for the prayer and the pledge," so God was moved to relatively equal footing with the flag. And before too long, as students began to complain about having to stand so long, prayer began to get shorter and shorter. In general, this meant it became more an actual prayer, which was a good thing.

It is strange--and even more so that we don't think about how strange it is--that our devotions to God and to Caesar have become so intertwined here in the U.S. I am thankful for all the people and institutions that gently (or not so gently) point it out and question it. In general, the Mennonites have been such a group. I hope and pray that they will continue to be so.