{"id":552,"date":"2010-07-01T09:44:34","date_gmt":"2010-07-01T09:44:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/omeoflittlefaith\/2010\/07\/freedom-the-4th-and-faith.html"},"modified":"2010-07-01T09:44:34","modified_gmt":"2010-07-01T09:44:34","slug":"freedom-the-4th-and-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2010\/07\/freedom-the-4th-and-faith.html","title":{"rendered":"Freedom, the 4th, and Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"jesus_flags.jpg\"<\/span>Some Christians are excited<\/b> that, this year, Independence Day is on a Sunday. They will have flags prominently displayed in their sanctuary. They will sing “God Bless America.” Their choirs and orchestras may do a special patriotic presentation. Their pastor will speak of Christian freedom and American freedom and the faith of the Founding Fathers and tie it all together with a red, white, and blue bow. This Sunday, some congregations may even say the pledge of Allegiance. <\/p>\n

Other Christians will cringe at this.<\/b> They get squeamish when the American flag is elevated to an icon on the level of the cross, the bread, and the wine in a church service. They worry that we are confusing our allegiance to the Kingdom of God — and the international Church — with our allegiance to the United States. That, perhaps unintentionally, we are insinuating that America has a special place in the eyes of God. They insist that patriotism is fine, but it has no place in the Church, not even on Independence Day.<\/p>\n

I’m curious where you land on this issue. <\/b>Will your church have a patriotic service this Sunday? Will there be a flag on display? If so, does this bother you or not?<\/p>\n

Let’s discuss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some Christians are excited that, this year, Independence Day is on a Sunday. They will have flags prominently displayed in their sanctuary. They will sing “God Bless America.” Their choirs and orchestras may do a special patriotic presentation. Their pastor will speak of Christian freedom and American freedom and the faith of the Founding Fathers…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-holidays","category-questions"],"yoast_head":"\nFreedom, the 4th, and Faith - O Me of Little Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2010\/07\/freedom-the-4th-and-faith.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Freedom, the 4th, and Faith - O Me of Little Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some Christians are excited that, this year, Independence Day is on a Sunday. 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