Marching for God

For those who don't live in the Winston-Salem area or don't follow local news, here are the simple facts. The town of King, NC (less than 20 miles from Winston-Salem) has been flying a Christian flag, among other flags, though no other religious flags, at a Veteran's Memorial in a city park. One King citizen, himself a veteran, complained to the city council that the flag might be an affront to persons of other religions or no religion who had fought and perhaps even died for their country in military service. The King City Council and the city attorney received letters from the ACLU of NC and the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State urging the City Council to remove the flag in that it was a violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. The council voted to remove the flag. Last Saturday, according to the Winston-Salem Journal, "more than 5,000 people marched and rallied in the city of King to tell its city council to return the Christian flag to the Veteran's Memorial." The Journal quotes one of the marchers as saying, "This community (King) stands together to support the Christian flag. It stands for God, peace, love, purity and the blood of Jesus." That brings us to this blog entry. I confess that I have no patience with 5,000 persons marching for a flag. I don't know how long the parade actually lasted, but let's just say that the average marcher spent 2 hours from home to home including the march. Maple Springs, my church, uses about 50 persons to pack 2,000 meals for Stop Hunger Now in about 2 hours. If the marchers would put the same effort into SHN and my math doesn't fail me, they could pack 200,000 meals to be used to feed the hungry. The Samaritan Inn in Winston-Salem is a homeless shelter that feeds its guests breakfast and dinner each day. I have no real idea, but let's just say that they could easily use 10 volunteers per day to spend a night and prepare and serve the meals. If those 5,000 marchers all volunteered for just one night each, the Samaritan Inn wouldn't need to go begging for volunteers again for the next year and a half! How many houses do you think that Habitat for Humanity could build using the manpower of 5,000 persons? You want to march? I don't believe that the walks to cure breast cancer or diabetes or heart disease would turn you down. 5,000 walkers would probably totally overwhelm them. If you don't like those, organize your own marches for the hungry, the homeless, the refugee, the jobless, the uneducated, the underpaid who serve us so well (nurses, teachers, policemen, firemen, trash collectors, etc.), or so many other needy and deserving causes. The Winston-Salem Journal also quoted one marcher as saying that "They've taken God out of our schools and now they're trying to take our flag." I think that there is real irony in claiming to worship an almighty god and then claiming that man has the ability to remove that god from places where his presence is not wanted. What kind of almighty god is that? My god has asked me to help him spread the knowledge of his love and mercy, but so far, he hasn't asked that I defend him. I'm quite confident that he is capable of doing that for himself. Did you notice the word "purity" in the earlier quote. That word, alone, gives me chills. I was thinking that we got past that pretty early. Paul did take the word of Christ's dying for our sins to both the Jew and the Gentile, didn't he? What does purity mean in King? Must you be a WASP (white, Anglo-Saxon, protestant) to be accepted in King. If you are of a different religion, skin color, sexual orientation, etc. will you not be welcome? If you choose to not wave the Christian flag or, please say it's not true, you are a card-carrying member of the ACLU will you be escorted to the town limits? If you are a disciple of Christ disguised as a short, fat school bus driver who just doesn't agree with your flag waving position, will you still be welcome in your churches? One thing I know is that my church is into this "purity" thing 100%. Each and every one of us who attend Maple Springs is for sure purely a sinner! I will now attempt to get down off my soapbox without breaking anything. God is good!