Faulty Faith in a Failed Flag - a Follow-Up

Nearly three decades ago, we examined and wrote about an important, yet divisive and little discussed issue in our country that had been bubbling just below the surface for decades prior. We took another look at this issue two years ago, pointing out its role in a tragedy at a church bible study. This issue has raised its ugly head yet again, this time in 2017 Charlottesville (and other cities) and in a way that is reminiscent of 1954 Little Rock or 1963 Montgomery.

The “stars & bars” – perhaps better known as the Confederate flag – represents a lot more than a group of states and politicians who supported a common group of greed-driven, reprehensible socio-political ideals. That flag represents a mindset that is the epitome of what continues to this day to be a hotly debated topic; it represents a culture of privilege engaging in repression. It would seem that in 2015, Dylann Roof (the murderer of those nine Charleston bible study congregants) allowed what that flag represents to overtake him, so much so that he decided to use one of that city’s 400 churches to carry out an atrocity born of Satan himself and what that flag represents. 

We, God’s people, are called to live lives that represent God well.  At the same time, though, we are called to be working on the ground level wherever God has planted us, in order to win hearts to His side.  Truth be told, this work trumps our allegiances to family, party and ethnicity….and it trumps misguided faith in a failed flag from a century and a half ago. The question might be asked “How do we even begin to walk this out in order to impact the broader society?” Before we can convince the rest of the country that the love of Christ really does transcend all differences, we the church must engage in some open, honest dialog about the elephant in the sanctuary called race and racism…and that dialog begins in the local church. Granted, we’ve got a long way to go to achieve real progress, but if we remain diligent in our efforts to represent God well and to be intentional in our efforts to engage our local communities, perhaps some of the next “Dylanns” actually WON’T go through with it…

“He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)