I’ve driven by this particular church dozens of times, but this morning is the first time I noticed a few American flags in front of it. I love this country. I love the freedoms we have–like the freedom to attend religious services or pop off in a blog post, both without fear. I also try to love Jesus (I’m not so good at that).
But I won’t attend a church that flies American flags out front.
The reason is crystallized in a quote from a Citrus County Chronicle column. The column quotes a man named John Labriola, a member of a group called Christian Family Coalition Florida. According to their website, their goal is to serve “as a voice for the pro-family citizens of Florida to ensure that our religious liberties are protected from government intrusion.”
At a recent Citrus County [Library] Advisory Board meeting, Mr. Labriola proclaimed that “this is a conservative community.” He also regularly reminds elected officials that, according to the column, “we are a Christian community and libraries and governments should act accordingly.”
With all respect to Mr. Labriola, Citrus county, along with every other county in the country, is most certainly not a Christian community. This country exists, in part, because people fled communities that proclaimed a specific religious affiliation. If America was built on the foundation of religious freedom. That means the government best serves us by letting us decide where and if we worship, and what books we allow our children to read, among other things.
Which brings me back to the flags in front of the church. God is bigger than any particular country. While he may love Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene, he also loves Joe Biden and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. He even loves Gavin Newsom. He loves the people of the United States, but he also loves the people of Ukraine and Iran and Russia. He doesn’t favor the people of one country over another. He’s not aligned with a specific nation-state.
To indicate that God’s somehow aligned with America shrinks God to a nationalistic deity, when he not only created all the countries and their people, but everything else that exists. Everywhere.
A government that acts accordingly stays out of my way and allows my family to make its own decisions. That includes whether we attend church services, which church we attend, and what books we allow out children to check out from the library. If they want to check out Gender Queer, Nineteen Minutes, or Beloved (all typical targets for removal), Mr. Labriola, the Christian Family Coalition, and Moms for Liberty don’t get a say. Similarly, if they don’t want their kids checking out those books, I don’t get a say.
If my decision angers God, that’s between God and me. Mr. Labriola and all the others who wrap their political agenda in Jesus’ cloak can mind their own business.
And as a tangible manifestation of God’s presence, a church should be agnostic when it comes to countries. It can appreciate our freedom to worship as we please. Asserting a divine affinity for a specific country is not part of any church’s mission.
Conservative Christians are fond of saying that the purpose of the first amendment is to protect churches from the government, not to protect government from churches.
When the government aligns itself with a specific church or set of churches, it violates that principle. All the other churches become less free. That’s a direct violation of why this country was founded.
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