Hey Mates! It’s Memorial Day weekend!
Time to go shopping for a new mattress!
Or hit the lake!
Bust out the grill! Enjoy some beer and brats!
I’ve seen it already: “Happy Memorial Day!”
Happy? That doesn’t sound like the appropriate sentiment for the occasion.
And all you active duty and retired soldiers and sailors – prepare yourself for all the quasi-patriots wanting to “Thank you for your service!”
CAPTAIN’S NOTE: Mates, unless you are standing in a cemetery, this is not the time for that!
But speaking of quasi-patriotism, in yer Captain’s home port there is a local business that buys an ad to be shown everyday during the early morning news broadcast.
They solicit members of the community to record a video of themselves saying the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag.
Some of them are just darling!
The four-year-old missing her front teeth, spinning around and waving little flags as she mumbles through the words.
The six-year-old who doesn’t understand what he is saying and neither do we because he mispronounces so many of the words.
It’s “indivisible”!
And then there are the groups of people – the VFW auxiliary, employees of the local nursing home, staff at the DMV – all flaunting their patriotism.
But one last week caught my attention and caused the Captain to shed a little tear.
It was a Sunday School Class from a local Baptist church.
Older adults facing an American Flag with their hand placed properly over their heart.
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America…”
I suspect they do this every Sunday morning before they begin their Bible lesson.
Now, perhaps it was the Captain’s evangelical upbringing, but it was drilled into my head and heart as a child that to be a Christian means you give your life to Jesus.
Every part of your life.
Hold nothing back.
In the Ten Commandments, God commanded the Israelites, “You shall have on other gods before me!”
It was Jesus himself who said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your strength and with all your soul.”
It was Jesus who said, “You cannot serve two masters.”
It was Jesus who said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
I took that to heart.
In high school, as the rest of the homeroom class stood and recited the Pledge, the young Captain-to-be remained seated and quietly read from his pocket New Testament that had been given to all the students in sixth grade by the Gideons.
Yes, back in those days the Gideons were allowed to enter the classrooms and hand out their little Bibles.
King James version.
CAPTAIN’S NOTE: The Gideons still hand out the King James version, not for theological or ideological reasons, but simply because it is in the public domain.
That means they don’t have to pay royalties to have it printed!
But here they are, in church no less, pledging their allegiance to something else.
No doubt they will point to “one nation under God” as the reason for their enthusiasm.
“See! The Pledge even says we’re a Christian nation!”
Actually, it doesn’t.
The phrase “under God” was added to the pledge in 1954. Although at odds with the general understanding of the separation of church and state, the rationale was that Abraham Lincoln used the phrase “under God” in the Gettysburg Address, therefore it must be okay.
“Under God” is not found in original manuscripts of the Gettysburg Address, but several eyewitness reporters wrote that he did say it.
But in the context of the Gettysburg Address, the phrase “under God” would mean “God willing”, which doesn’t at all fit the intention of the Pledge.
Now, with no proof either way, yer Captain is guessing that that patriotic Sunday School Class reciting the Pledge is also chock-full of Trumpf Republicans.
I could be wrong.
But I am not.
So it is with unrealized irony that we hear them say the words “with liberty and justice for all”.
I’m just going to leave that there for now…
Yer Captain has moved away from his evangelical roots over the years, but it still strikes me as odd when I see Christians pledging their ALLEGIANCE to a flag.
It also strikes me as odd when I see police departments with “In God We Trust” emblazoned across the back of their cruisers.
Does that mean they are unarmed? Not wearing bullet-proof vests? They don’t call for back-up?
I mean, if you claim to trust God, why would you need those things?
If you recall, Candidate Trumpf claimed God redirected a bullet intended for him.
That bullet struck and killed an innocent bystander instead, but that's not important.
But I digress…
Truth be told, yer Captain doesn’t even like making Christian children recite the Pledge to the Christian Flag or the Pledge to the Bible.
That just smacks of idolatry.
And it really bugs me that our denominational publishing house sells little prayer cards featuring all three!
But here’s the kicker! That Sunday School Class? Dividing their allegiance between God and a flag?
They ended the Pledge with “Amen”!
Not in the original - or any - text!
So not only are they dividing their allegiance between God and the American flag, they are more or less praying to the flag too!
O, them Golden Calves are sneaky little devils!
Mates, on this Memorial Day, go ahead and have your celebrations with family and friends.
May the weather be ever in your favor!
But don’t just mumble the word of a Pledge you don’t understand and think you've done your patriotic duty.
I hope you’ll take a moment to reflect on and remember those who gave their lives to protect this nation and the freedoms that are so quickly being stripped away from us.
“With liberty and justice for all.”
Indeed.