Today around the nation, fundamentalist churches will participate in God & Country Sunday. The national anthem will be sung. The pledge to the flag will be said. The military will be honored. Jesus may or may not get an honorable mention.
To be sure, the conflation of patriotism with Christianity extends far beyond the walls of fundamentalist churches but one can be sure that if they visit most fundy churches around Memorial Day, Independence Day, or Election Day they are much more likely to hear more about the Founding Fathers than our Heavenly Father. Fox News, The President, Congress, Public Schools, Welfare, The Second Amendment, gays in the military, tax laws, and the ACLU also get significant air-time during these patriotic services. Be sure to invite all your unsaved friends and family unless they are Democrats or (worse yet) Canadian.
And woe be unto him who would suggest that perhaps the American flag has little place inside a church full of the citizens of heaven…
Completely agree. The conflating of patriotism with Christianity is disturbing.
The words “idolatry” and Exodus 20:3-6 immediately come to mind…
You guys need to get a life.
You know, all those things above echo one message, that some Fundies think it’s the government’s RIGHT to pay homage to Christianity when it has no obligation to do so. They rather should pray more for the sorry state of the churches across the nation!
That’s incredibly insightful, Douglas. Would you care to elaborate?
I’ve had to endure services like that before. It’s very sad. Thankfully, the church we go to now is very CHRIST-centered. I didn’t hear a word about America last Sunday.
Didn’t God destroy many nations in the OT because of their national pride?
After I read this post the first time, I logged on to Facebook, and one of my fundy friends had just updated his status which said, “heading to church, & excited to be having a patriotic service”.
I honestly see nothing wrong with patriotic services. The church is really about fellowship, and I find nothing “idolatrous” or “sad” about diverting attention from a preacher for one Sunday toward veterans, the widows of veterans, and giving thanks for the liberties God has given the United States.
Jordan, I think you may have a point there. I think you’re right in that it comes down to how you view the church. If you view the church primarily as a place fellowship, or, say, evangelism, then yes, it would logically follow that you would have special services to honor veterans, mothers, fathers, etc.
If, however, you the church primarily as a place for the preaching of the Word and the distribution of the sacraments/ordinances, for the glorification of God and the edification of the saints (which would include fellowship, but also includes the means of grace – the preaching and the sacraments/ordinances), then it would logically follow that you NOT have special services honoring veterans, mothers, fathers, etc.
So yes, at least to a degree I think it DOES come down to how you view the primary purpose of the church. That said, I’m in the latter camp and still (therefore) stand by my previous comment.
So much for proofreading. The second paragraph should read “If, however, you *view* the church”
I’ll have to agree with big sis on that one.
Despite the fact that I love this country and I support it full-heartedly, these patriotic services have always been those that bug me. I almost wish I didn’t have to go to church on these Sundays to sing “patriotic hymns” and hear about our great country and how God has blessed it and how our country needs to turn from its wicked ways back to God. Just a thought of mine.
Jordan,
1. The church is not really about fellowship. Fellowship is a purpose of church, but THE purpose of church is to glorify God.
2. If your attention is directed to patriotism from a pastor, you need to find a new church. Church isn’t about a preacher.
The conflation of Christianity and patriotism is a non-unique harm. Darrell said so in the second paragraph, but it’s worth repeating. Indeed, the Religious Right is predominately new evangelical and pentecostal rather than fundamentalist. Then again, anyone to the left of the Religious Right certainly isn’t going to split hairs. Pat Robertson, Bob Jones III, and Oral Roberts all look like fundamentalist to the left.(-:
Do these people not realize that our nation’s capital, Washington D.C. was built upon masonic symbols and that most of the founding fathers were not really believers, but were professing believers who were just good ole boy Masons? Our allegiance is to Jesus Christ and not to a flag. Also, born again Christians in the service, that are honored on God and Country Day are actually serving the agendas of the New World Order.
That pic looks soooo familiar. Almost like I’ve been there before!
Should’nt there be a redux post on this today or tomorrow?
bahaha, just saw this post for the first time while using the “random posts” feature. good job on the canada reference! when i first started going to my old fundy church in south carolina, i found out later that one of the deacons was worried that since i was from canada i was probably a democrat!