So, the Israelites had this annoying tendency to idolize the wrong things. They made that infamous calf at the base of the holiest mountain on Earth and danced around it while God spoke to Moses. They married into the indigenous Canaanite religions and bowed down to Ashtoreths and Baals before Joshua was even cold in his grave. Then they elected an unfortunate series of corrupt kings who continued to read books on Wicca and erect...well...inappropriate erections.A good but somewhat recalcitrant judge named Gideon began the process of pointing out these sacrilegious inconsistencies amongst the Lord's people when he chopped down his father's Asherah pole (a totem-pole-esque edifice honoring the Hebrew goddess of fertility, Asherah) and demolished the adjacent altar to everyone's favorite euphemism for the Semitic rain god Hadad, Ba'al. Ever since, party-poopers like Gideon and myself (with the incredibly unpopular spiritual gift of discernment) have been doomed to deconstruct the myriad surrogate deities we alleged followers of the Lord set up in place of the real Jehovah. And here I go again...
Folks, this past Sunday morning in "church" I bore witness to an orgy of patriotic gyration the likes of which Sodom and Gomorrah never even dreamed about. Proud, shrieking eagles swooped across the altar; monstrous flags obscured the stained glass portrait of Jesus; Uncle Sam stomped in with Old Glory hoisted higher than the cross. We sang every trite, maudlin bunting song in the red, white, and blue book. We waved little plastic replica flags (that were, I giggled to note, made in China) in time to "Grand Ol' Flag," a tune I'm quite sure none of the salivating patriots realized originated in a toe-tapping Broadway show and NOT as the follow-up track to Lee Greenwood's "Proud to Be an American."
Now I don't mind celebrating the Grand Ol' Fourth any more than the next guy. But in the house of the Lord, I would like to reserve my adulation for Him, AND ONLY HIM. I will NOT condone an entire Sunday devoted to tired, over-simplified praise songs exalting our perfect, morally pure and supreme nation of almighty glory and power...but with "never a boast or brag." My gall caught in my throat.Am I just a jumpy jeremiad? Have any of you experienced this disappointing trend? What is to be done? I cannot follow Gideon's example and simply cut down the flag to use as fuel for burning the bunting-and-balloon altar to the great god Freedominus Americammon. Maybe Jefferson was right: the separation of Church and State doesn't seem like such a bad idea after all.
Judges 6:25-32; 1 Kings 18:21-39
1 comment:
This is one of the many errors this country has; we tend to worship the wrong things. As one wise man said "As Americans, we play in worship, worship our work, and work at our play".
For the record, I am a proud American. But I also remember that my citizenship, as a Christian, is in Heaven. Thus, while I live here, I will be patriotic and give to Caesar what is Caesar's. But first and foremost, I will give to God what is God's.
Keep in mind, America as a nation is slowly drifting away from Biblical standards; with abortion being legalized and deregulated, homosexuality unhindered in the military (and even taught in some elementary schools), and D.C. filled with self-serving, thieving goons who would start useless wars, spill American blood, sacrifice our young men's lives if it means that their wallets will be stuffed with millions in the process. It's in those cases that I'm pained and shamed to say "I'm an American" How much more shameful to use the LORD's house of prayer for civic exaltation and glorification? Essentially, we're turning it into a den of thieves.
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