The text below is the next-to-last excerpt from the booklet I wrote in 2010. God bless.
***
AND God spake all
these words, saying, I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land
of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Exodus 20: 1-3
In the early days
following my salvation, I spent much of my spare time in Christian bookstores.
The one that I frequented the most carried a fairly large selection of
t-shirts. Most of the t-shirts had Scripture screen printed in prominent spots.
I think that I might have seen the U.S. flag screen printed on a couple of them,
but the majority focused on God and His word.
Shortly after my discharge from the hospital
in May 2010, I decided to buy a large print Bible so that I could study
Scripture again. My dad drove my mom and me to a Christian bookstore that had a
copy of one I'd seen at its online store. I paid for the Bible and while I
waited for my dad to finish his purchase, I checked out some t-shirts near the
front of the store. Almost all of them had the American flag or the colors of the American flag screen printed on them along
with Biblical references. Perhaps, the store was trying to sell t-shirts for
Memorial Day. A quick glance around the store through eyes that have some
vision loss seemed to indicate that patriotic t- shirts were the only ones in
stock at the time. I could have been wrong, though.
The mixing of patriotism with faith is
something that I noticed while I was in the wilderness, but it seems to be more
prevalent now. While watching a Christian network on cable recently, I saw a
program that had footage of a waving flag superimposed over footage of a cross.
I also saw a worship service on the same network that featured children dressed in the
colors of the U.S. flag standing in even rows. They were, essentially, a living
flag.
Although I believe that you should be grateful
to the Lord for your temporary home, much of the flag/cross mix reminds me of
the "Country first" approach to patriotism. If country is first, then
country becomes worthy of worship and the flag becomes an idol. Such an approach
makes the state a god and love of country (instead of love for its people)
turns into cult-like exaltation of nation. God will not compete with anyone or
anything. No one is His peer. No country is His equal. Stars and stripes
will never save a soul, but "with his stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5)
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