This past Sunday I attended a service at a Baptist church in my area. Not being Baptist myself, I attended strictly in the capacity of a visitor.

It being the Sunday before the Fourth of July, the congregation commenced their service, not with a hymn to God or a prayer, but with all members reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and delivering a powerful, organ-accompanied rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner”.

I remained silent during this proceeding, my mind and stomach churning. Here these people were, claiming to be assembled for the worship of God, and yet mingling it with worship and adulation of the State! One hand held a Bible while the other covered the heart, eyes turned adoringly, not to the cross or to heaven, but to the banner that has become the emblem of interventionism, war, oppression, and corruption around the world. While gathered supposedly in the name of Christ, they started their worship by bowing at the altar of Baal, the state that has proclaimed outright warfare against the Lord and His Anointed.

What disturbed me most about this was the realization that most, if not all, of the people there had no idea that they were participating in idolatrous ritual while supposedly meeting in the name of Jesus Christ. They were blissfully unaware that the flag and “the Republic for which it stands” is a golden calf erected in utter defiance of the King of kings. So many of them are convinced that a good Christian must of necessity be fiercely proud and supportive of the United States and everything it does, heedless of the godless actions, rulings, and ideologies it has come to embrace. The paradoxical nature of their position completely escapes them.

Henry David Thoreau pointed out that we are men (humans) first, and being Americans should follow far behind. As men, we must perform the God-given role of judging righteous judgment, discerning evil, and exposing darkness, wherever it may be found, with the light of love. These people have been conditioned to place loyalty to the Baal State on equal footing with loyalty to Christ. What contradiction! How can anyone serve both? How can we serve both God and Satan? Are we really so far gone that we can’t see the difference between the two anymore?

So long as America abides by the laws of integrity, I say by all means support it. But once it falls, as any human government does, into the trap of tyranny and greed, then we should withdraw our support and stand solely for the Kingdom of conscience, freedom, and love.

We are men first, and subjects last.

Until Next Time,
HFT