I'm not the only one

Ran across this in my RSS reader this AM. I would have expected this from say, Michael Gorman, but coming from someone in the heart of Indiana... I'm not as sure as he is about how innocent it is, though. What? you ask. The problems of civil religion, that's what.

He lists seven problems, which you definitely need to read. I'll just highlight one:

6. The flag becomes a symbol like the cross.
I imagine that there may be as many American flags on the platforms of American churches as there are crosses. Indeed, there are probably a good many American churches that would be angry at the idea of having a cross because of some association of it with Catholic perversity.

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He's right. There are more flags than crosses. I was at an event several years ago in a megachurch's building. They had no crosses in the building. But they had a huge—and I mean huge U.S. flag flying in the front. There was no way you could have told it was a church building; in fact, it looked more like a government building.

I asked about the absence of the cross. They said that they wanted to make the building available to all and that a cross would be a hindrance to that. Exactly! Isn't that what skandalon means?!

When I questioned the flag versus the cross, I was viewed as a heretic...I guess I am—if your religion is nationalism.

So, Ken, welcome to the club of heretics... : )
</idle musing>