Keeping America Christianity Compliant

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Battle looms over Christian flag at public memorial in King, N.C.

October 21st, 2010 2:32 pm ET

For six years, the Christian flag flew proudly over the veterans war memorial on public property in Central Park in King, N.C., "Your Friendly Hometown" of not quite 7,000 people--no doubt every last one a good Christian.

But when a war veteran complained in September, the city council wisely realized that not all veterans, or citizens for that matter, are necessarily Christian and removed the flag.

This naturally upset the decent, Christian folk of King who have vowed to stand up for their perceived right to place their religious symbols on, not just their own, but everyone's property. This Saturday, October 23, the good Christians of King will host a rally at the memorial to speak out for the supposed right to make the country Christian. The rally, they say, is about religious freedom (theirs).

Rally participants who will come from as far away as Florida, will meet up at the Calvary Baptist Church, naturally, and march in silence to the park where they will hear speeches supporting their conviction that Christianity is America's religion and their God is America's god.

Guest speakers will include David Gibbs of the Christian Law Association (who, one would think, would know that a Christian flag on public property is a violation of the religious freedoms of every American) and Ron Baity of Return America (a revistionist history group who want to "return" America to a Christian fantasy that exists only in their dreams).

Leslie Bray Evans of The Stokes News quotes rally organizers who say, "This event is being held in a spirit of love for our country and our heritage, and with great respect and honor for all our veterans that have gone out for our freedoms that we have enjoyed.”

Well, not all our veterans, right? Not the non-Christians, of course.

Since the removal of the original Christian flag, veterans set up their own, identical, flag in front of the memorial and have taken turns standing guard. One can imagine how proud they feel doing so, defending America's heritage of thoughtless promulgation of one religion over any other and intolerance of non-Christians.

James Joyce, a King resident, told the Associated Press, "We've let our religious freedoms and constitutional rights be stripped away one by one, and I think it's time we took a stand."

Somehow, residents of King (let's not fool ourselves, Christians all over America) have it in their heads that they are the only ones with rights to public property. If their flag is allowed at the memorial, then so is a Muslim flag, a Jewish flag, an atheist flag, etc.

One wonders if other religions are so arrogant as to have flags. There is certainly no atheist flag. But no doubt a group of atheists somewhere will be more than happy to create one to put alongside the Christian flag in King.

Yard signs all over King call out: "We the people say fight!" Any level-headed, common-sense explanation that the Christian flag is a violation of separation of church and state and their side will surely fail in any attempt to force the issue falls on deaf ears.

That's a cop out, they say.

Unfortunately, the veterans' permit to stand guard over their Christian flag expires at the end of the month, and the city has declined to renew it. That's hardly enough time to "return" America to the bigoted, Christian heritage for which these people yearn.

Discuss.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Crowd backs flag - Thousands march in King, urge council to return Christian flag to Veteran's Memorial

LEGALITY QUESTIONED: FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUE

By Annette Fuller | JOURNAL REPORTER

Published: October 24, 2010

KING, N.C. -- Many of the marchers’ T-shirts simply read, “Put our flag back.” Waving U.S. and Christian flags, and singing “Amazing Grace,” more than 5,000 people marched and rallied in the city of King yesterday morning to tell its city council to return the Christian flag to the Veteran’s Memorial in Central Park.

“The council didn’t get the opinions of the town of King and Stokes County,” said Pamela Swain Deszern, of Rural Hall, formerly of King. “This community stands together to support the Christian flag. It stands for God, peace, love, purity and the blood of Jesus.”

The dispute began this summer when a veteran, who lives in King, complained about the Christian flag being flown at the memorial. In mid-August, the council and the city attorney received letters from the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina and the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. Both groups urged the council to remove the flag, saying the flag was a violation of the First Amendment.

On Sept. 15, the council voted 3-1 to take down the flag, on the advice of their city attorney.

The flag, which has a cross inside a blue rectangle on a white field, had flown next to the U.S. flag, the North Carolina state flag, the city’s flag and several military flags.

The council may discuss the issue again at its Nov. 1 meeting.

Tim Hamm of Lansing drove a couple of hours yesterday morning to attend the rally, sponsored by Calvary Baptist Church in King.

“I support the symbols of Christianity to be displayed. Out of sight, out of mind,” he said.

Regarding people from other religions, Deszern said, “God bless them.”

“There is no hate in King. Anyone is welcome here. We march in this rally to show our love of Jesus, who said to love one another. But we Christians have to say, ‘enough is enough.’ They took God out of schools, and now they want to take away our flag.”

Americans are slowly losing their religious freedoms and liberties, said Larry Reeves of King and a member of Calvary Baptist. “One day we’re going to wake up and find out liberties are completely gone. We’ve got to do something about it.”

Laura Carey of King agreed.

“All the little towns in America, like King, need to stand up for our rights to our faith and beliefs,” Carey said.

Rick Sakowski of King, a member of Calvary Baptist, said that representatives of other religions have the right to approach the city council and ask for their flag to be flown at the memorial.

“If it’s approved, let them fly their flag too,” he said. “That’s better than saying we should take our flag down.”

At least one protester showed up, namely Colin Covington of King, who stood on the sidelines of the march with a sign that said, “Jesus would be ashamed of all of you.”

“Stirring up this mess goes against Jesus, who preached peace and tolerance for all people,” Covington said.

“This seems to be intolerant of other people. There was once a dude named Adolf who had a flag and got all amped up about it. Think about it. Jesus just wants us all to get along.”

Some passing by Covington and his sign yelled out, “God bless you.”

Others had signs that said, “We the people say, ‘FIGHT.’” Others said, “Let it fly!”

Hundreds of motorcyclists from the Christian Motorcycle Association and the Rolling Thunder POW/MIA advocacy motorcycle group rode their bikes to the event.

The rally took place at the Central Park amphitheater. After the 30-minute march from the church to the park, Kevin Broyhill, the pastor of Calvary Baptist, said, “It’s time to tell our legislators and lawmakers that enough is enough. We need to limit the ability of groups to strong-arm cities like King to give up their Judeo-Christian heritage. We acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as the God of America.”

Ron Baity, the president of Return America, a conservative Christian group based in the Winston-Salem area, gave a speech that included many references to the founding of America and its roots in Christianity.

“The Mayflower Compact, the first piece of legislation in this country, speaks specifically about advancing the Christian faith,” Baity said. “Our forefathers believed that a Bible-believing and Bible-reading nation can never be conquered.”

Before the Founding Fathers created laws, they sought guidance from God, Baity said.

“The first recorded piece of business in this country was led by a prayer given in the name of Jesus Christ,” Baity said. “When the flag is attacked, my savior is attacked…. I have come to the conclusion that King, North Carolina, has been attacked.”

David Gibbs III of the Christian Law Association, based in Seminole, Fla., spoke next.

He had a message to those who want the flag to stay off the pole: “I can think of Muslim countries they can move to…. I will start raising the money to move the North Carolina ACLU out of here. I hope they do well trying to take the Quran and prayer mats away around the world.”

Gibbs said that Muslim nations don’t pretend that they aren’t Muslim.

“How many of you believe that the United States should stop pretending like we aren’t Christian?” he asked, to thunderous applause and cheers.

The United States was founded as a Christian country, and we’re here to protect that heritage, Gibbs said.

Our Pledge of Allegiance is made to one country, “under God,” Gibbs said.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I don't see the flag as primarily a religious symbol, so I don't see why it can't stay up.

[웃 910]

I've never heard of the "Christian Flag". Never seen it until now. I've been to at least 20 different churches, never seen it. Never seen it on a bumper sticker, on tv, in a magazine, nowhere.

How many people have seen this flag, and if so, did you know that it was the Christian flag?

[BishopM 114]

I've never heard of the "Christian Flag". Never seen it until now. I've been to at least 20 different churches, never seen it. Never seen it on a bumper sticker, on tv, in a magazine, nowhere.

How many people have seen this flag, and if so, did you know that it was the Christian flag?

I had never seen this flag either. I don't see why it should be taken down, but then again I wouldn't flinch if another religion put up a similar flag...

[AlinaH 38]

I have never seen that flag. I'm Christian, but I don't feel that we should be pushing religion on those that aren't. If it offends someone, take it down.

Edit: It would be different if it were on private property, then you should be able to fly whatever flag you want.

Edited October 24, 2010 by AlinaH

[Peikko 1,575]

Since when did Christians have or need a flag? The only appropriate flag is the American one (IMO), no other flag is required and allowing this to be a free for all 'let's see who has the biggest flag' would be ridiculous. Mind you, I really could not care less at a personal level; if the flag has no identification with anything dodgy and everyone has the right to ask for a non offensive flag of any type to be flown, then have at it. One thing's for sure, no matter what is and isn't flown at the cemetery it will not make any of the inhabitants any less dead.

[Ban Hammer 13,659]

I've never heard of the "Christian Flag". Never seen it until now. I've been to at least 20 different churches, never seen it. Never seen it on a bumper sticker, on tv, in a magazine, nowhere.

How many people have seen this flag, and if so, did you know that it was the Christian flag?

never seen it before either. looks like some scandanavian country flag.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Some interesting facts about the flag...

The Christian Flag is a flag designed in the early 20th century to represent all of Christianity (see also Christendom), but it has been adopted mainly by Protestant churches in North America, Africa and Latin America.

.....

The flag was first accepted by the Mainline Protestant denominations in the United States, and by the 1980s many institutions had described policies for displaying it inside churches. During World War II the flag was flown along with the U.S. flag in a number of Lutheran churches, many of them with German backgrounds, who wanted to show their solidarity with the United States during the war with Germany.

.....

Pledge

Some American churches practice a "pledge of allegiance" or "affirmation of loyalty" to the Christian Flag, based on the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag. There are various versions of the pledge, including the following:

I pledge allegiance to the Christian Flag, and to the Savior, for whose kingdom it stands. One Savior, crucified, risen and coming again, with life and liberty for all who believe.

I pledge allegiance to the Christian Flag and to the Savior for whose kingdom it stands; One Savior, crucified, risen, and coming again with life and Liberty to all who repent and believe The Gospel

I pledge allegiance to the Christian flag and to the Savior for whose kingdom it stands; One brotherhood, uniting all (some versions add true) Christians in service and in love.

I pledge allegiance to the Christian flag and to the gospel for which it stands; One Savior, crucified, risen and coming again, with life eternal for all who believe.

http://en.wikipedia..../Christian_Flag

[Danno 1,228]

I had never seen this flag either. I don't see why it should be taken down, but then again I wouldn't flinch if another religion put up a similar flag...

I have seen that flag before and I don't see why it should be taken down... or others not put up if someone so desires.

I hardly see how a flag at a memorial rises to the level of "establishing a religion" (which is what the Constitution forbids Congress to do).

Is this another example of -Diversity being our greatest strength?

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

I've never heard of the "Christian Flag". Never seen it until now. I've been to at least 20 different churches, never seen it. Never seen it on a bumper sticker, on tv, in a magazine, nowhere.

How many people have seen this flag, and if so, did you know that it was the Christian flag?

Never heard of it or saw it until now.

[Peikko 1,575]

I have seen that flag before and I don't see why it should be taken down... or others not put up if someone so desires.

I hardly see how a flag at a memorial rises to the level of "establishing a religion" (which is what the Constitution forbids Congress to do).

Is this another example of -Diversity being our greatest strength?

Essentially an American flag is entirely appropriate at a veteran memorial because everyone who signs up to the American armed forces does so because of basic desire to serve America and the flag symbolizes that commitment. Unless I missed it, when one joins the American armed forces one does not simultaneously sign up to a particular faith so flying a faith flag of any description seems superfluous, unnecessary and incongruous. It is not therefore a question of who it offends or does not offend, but whether it serves a purpose at all. My feeling is that no, it does not because the American army is not a faith based army so no flag should fly symbolizing a commitment that is not commonly shared.

[Peikko 1,575]

Mind you, if it is going to be a free for all, why not all kinds of symbolic advertising? They could fly a breast cancer awareness flag next noting offensive about that

[Danno 1,228]

Essentially an American flag is entirely appropriate at a veteran memorial because everyone who signs up to the American armed forces does so because of basic desire to serve America and the flag symbolizes that commitment. Unless I missed it, when one joins the American armed forces one does not simultaneously sign up to a particular faith so flying a faith flag of any description seems superfluous, unnecessary and incongruous. It is not therefore a question of who it offends or does not offend, but whether it serves a purpose at all. My feeling is that no, it does not because the American army is not a faith based army so no flag should fly symbolizing a commitment that is not commonly shared.

And our Money does not serve a religious purpose either.... yet there is it "In God We trust".

This nation was founded on the concept that we are a people whose Rights are derived from our Creator, not from Government.

If our founding documents found room for this idea... I don't see how a flag with a little cross or Star of David is inconsistent with our traditions and history .. especially at a memorial site.

[scandal 951]

And our Money does not serve a religious purpose either.... yet there is it "In God We trust".

This nation was founded on the concept that we are a people whose Rights are derived from our Creator, not from Government.

If our founding documents found room for this idea... I don't see how a flag with a little cross or Star of David is inconsistent with our traditions and history .. especially at a memorial site.

As a non-Christian, I agree with you. I see nothing wrong with this. Arlington Cemetery is full of Crosses and Star of David tombstones, honoring the Nation's heroes. As it should be.