Allegiance

When Lindsay and I arrived in Central Oregon a couple years ago, I dedicated a whole month to studying what the white Christians were up to in the region. I attended about a dozen different church services. Some folks recommended that I check out a church downtown. They said, “It’s one of the most liberal faith communities in town.” So I went there on Memorial Day weekend. When they read the Gospel passage, there was a power point slide with an image of the bible wrapped in the American flag. They were professing faith in a man who was crucified by empire while pledging allegiance to empire at the same time.

White Christians often justify bowing to both the flag and their bibles by quoting Jesus: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” It was his response to questions from political enemies about whether he was paying taxes. This is one of the most misinterpreted passages in the bible. Jesus was not separating the spiritual and the political. He was not saying that his followers should pledge allegiance to both God and country. As a Jew, Jesus believed that everything belonged to God. “The earth is the Lord’s,” the Hebrew Psalm says, “and everything in it.” If that’s the case, then nothing belongs to Caesar.

Members of the early Christian movement were persecuted because they defied Caesar, the one Romans referred to as “the Lord and Savior of the world.” In some areas of the empire, loyalty to Caesar was tested with a ritual. Romans were required to take a pinch of incense and place it on burning coals before a statue of the emperor. As the smoke ascended, every slave and citizen had to say, “Caesar is Lord.” The Christians refused to participate in this patriotic pledge. Even more: they openly confessed that “Jesus is Lord.” All of this (and more) leads me to believe that those of us who are followers of Jesus should stop flying the flag. This doesn’t mean that we hate America. It means we have a higher allegiance—a Love which is often at odds with the way America rolls.