A New Flag

 I'm cooped up at home this Sabbath while the last of the children cycle through their treatment for Strep. Any small sickness in a household of 10 tends to take 2 weeks or more while it progresses through the members two-by-two. Hopefully this will be the last few days of this particular round.

Driving home Thursday from an out-of-state install, the conversation between me and my workers got to the subject of church, as it usually does. I made a comment that struck a nerve with one worker who is in a very structured and authoritarian group. The comment I made was that I no longer want to fly the Christian flag. As you can imagine, from your own reading of it, the statement begs an explantion, like, what do you mean by 'the Christian flag'? 

I was born in Louisiana, and raised in Texas. Though not an active member of the association any more I'm a registrant of The Sons of Confeterate Veterans. I've studdied the Civil war at length, and have my own educated opinions of the actors. I subsequently have and used to fly at my home the 1st National flag. It's the lesser know of the confederate symbols, but one that is meaningful to me. That flag stands for something, but more than that, that flag means something specific to ME. To ME, That particular flag means that my ancestors saw corruption as a threat and assembled against it. Also much more than that, but for the sake of this point I'll stop at that.

However! Despite my deep feelings on the subject, you'll notice I said I 'used to fly'. I no longer fly my 1st National flag, or wear my belt buckle because other people see something different. Now, at this point I AM NOT saying that others' views of the subject are correct, I happen to be vehemently opposed to the stigma that has been added to the CSA that I do not believe is historically warranted. But! I am not capable of changing public opinion on that flag... the damage has been done. While I see something to be proud of and celebrate, others see racism and hatred, then they associate ME and everything I say and do, with that flag and their interpretation of it's significance. I would rather now, abandon that flag than use what I believe is a misinterpretation as a descriptor of how I think.

A flag is a symbol of something, usually an idea, that you, when flying it, are publically declaring correctly discribes you.

Now, what about the Christian Flag? The term Christian, is loosely defined in english as 'one of or a follower of Christ' that's only the Seth edition dictionary, but you get the picture. The term Christian was actually not coined by Christians, but given to them in Antioch by others who associated the proseletyzing the new religious movement did as being 'followers of the savior'. It's arguable if the believers actually used this name amongst themselves, because it's not recorded that they did. What's recorded is only that they referred to each others as believers, or followers of 'the way', etc.

Whether or not they did, 'Christian' is a term used for many dissimilar things. There are Christian rap artists, Christian churches, both protestant, catholic, jewish, and many more, Christian plumbers and electricians, Christian book stores, and even Christian dating services. All of these unrelated enterprises feel it appropriate to use the term to describe themselves, but I'm not sure you could make many direct connections between the physical acts of one named Jesus who acted as Christ, the savior of the world who brought glad tiddings and the physical acts of those today who whimsically slap on decal of a cross to their billboards and call-it-a-day.

That's, in my opinion, the flag of Christianity is defaced. Christ is not defaced, the savior of the world is not of lesser value, but Christianity is. To non-believers, the flag of Christianity, not unlike my boxed up 1st national flag, represents the rape in the Catholic church, the debauchery of television evangelists who are constantly in the news for their escepades. To them the flag of Christianity stands for the atrocities of the crusades, and for those heartless angry people like Westboro Baptist who stand on street corners amd yell obsenities to strangers. The blatent hypocracy of the closed doors during hurricanes of the Houston mega churches, along with the million dollar homes, the private jets, the endless elective aesthetic procedures of those who lock the doors to shelter from the literal storms. The gaslighting by the authoritarian churches, the absurd denial of science, the ignorance of social issues, the insistance on conservation while not offering logical explanations to contemporary problems. The millions of dollars of income and offerings and tithes with no works of compassion done by them. These are SOME of the things the flag of Christianity stand for in the eyes of the non-believers. Is that an accurate description of Christ? Is that an accurate discription of you? I honestly don't think modern believers understand what we look like in a mirror. 

That's why I no longer want to fly the Christian flag. That's not what I stand for.. I am no more a 'christian' than I am a republican or a democrat. I do not, and do not want to be associated with those concepts. I propose this; like the first generations of believers in the 1st century, as well as the patriarchs of the Old Testament before the creation of the national identity of Israel at Sinai, I want to be described by my relationship with God. I believe in God, I believe in the being who became Christ, the... my savior. He acted a specific way, a pattern of behavior for me. He brought, without a flag, good news to people. He WENT to those in need, He went to the outcasts, the downtrodden, and the like amd He brought better with Him. 

I know I'm capable on my own of damaging the reputation of Christ. The evil we see attatched to Christianity today is a result of that very thing. The problem is that while one person being a hypocritical liar is able to be rekoned with by the general public, we have created a flag. We all attribute ourselves to each other. We have elevated the church we visit to the position of Christ. We have been taught to equate the church and the mortal men who run the organizations to Christ Himself. The 'church' is the flag. We no longer worship God, modern believers no longer gather to worship God and His Christ, whether or not we realize it we only gather to worship the church. We assemble together and take the name upon ourselves and then don't do any good works and certainly do not, as Jesus did, bring good news to the world. Instead we bring Dogma to the world, rules for the sake of tradition and unity, we bring condemnation to those who are not of the same belief, we bring derission to those that question and hatred to those who are different. The 'church' is Not Christ. If we were to borrow a non-believers eyes to view ourselves I'm certain we would be surprised at what we saw. We may very well actaully believe on Jesus, we may actually practice good works and bring good news, but just like my pride in my interpretation of the the 1st National flag... That probably isn't what other people see.

I no longer fly that confederate flag, I don't wear my favorite belt buckle, renew my SCV membership, pay NRA dues, and I'm not a registered libertarian,  but that doesn't mean I no longer believe in my history, right vs. wrong and standing up against tyrany. In a small but, real sense this blog is just that for me. I reject those that tyranize my faith! I'm not a believer because my church. I am not ever going to be a good person because I associate with x person instead of y persons. I can only be Christ-like by acting like Christ the savior. In short, I no longer intend to call myself a Christian. I am a believer, I believe in acting like Christ, and that's a very different thing.