By Aaron Treadwell, Contributing Writer
In my sanctuary, on the right side of my pulpit lectern, stands an American Flag. The ‘stars and stripes’ has been common-place in American sanctuaries since the Civil War (1865) and varying races and social groups participate in this practice. International churches also ‘wave the flag’ in their sanctuary, making this practice universally recognized by many as a religious standard. Yet, if we look at this tradition carefully, this article will revisit the concept of ‘flag waving’ and will question if AME Churches should participate in the act.
The United States Congress has made a public statement on how the American flag should be displayed. When presented, the “flag should occupy the position of honor and be placed at the clergyman’s or speaker’s right.”[1]Statutes also demand that, “any other flag (non-US Flag) so displayed should be placed on the left of the congregation or audience as they face the chancel or platform.”[2] By so doing, placing the American flag to the right of the alter, has both biblical and cultural ties to supremacy. A United Methodist Church (UMC) journalist in 2013 went so far as arguing that “placement on the left and that higher placement signifies higher honor than other-flags, like the biblical or denominational flags on the left.”[3]
In 2017, author Joe Carter argued in The Gospel Coalition that “Civil Religion Has No Place in God’s House.” This statement included removing the American flag from the sanctuary. According to Carter, there “is a vast and unbridgeable chasm between America’s civil religion and Christianity. . . The God of America’s civil religion is not the God who died on the cross.”[4]
Carter’s argument is even more complicated when considering the racial tension forever embedded within the embodiment of the American flag. Sasha Weitman argues that “flags are one of the ways nations establish their individuality as separate from other groups of people.”[5] So when considering the ills of slavery, segregation, and systematic oppression under the American flag, many have identified the flag as a symbol of racial degradation.[6]African Americans have desired a reboot of the American flag as far back as Martin R. Delany in 1852, as many have argued for true ‘equal’ representation. Rev. Henry Young Arnett, while serving as a Professor at Wilberforce in 1904, circulated one of black America’s first flag designs. This prototype had “Frederick Douglass, Major Martin R. Delaney, Bishop Richard Allen, the Late Bishop Daniel A. Payne, and Booker T. Washington on the flag.”[7]
20th and 21st Century African Americans carried and still carry on the traditions of Rev. H. Y. Arnett. Replacement flags for the traditional American flag, include: The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League Flag (UNIA), Republic of New Afrika Flag, Congress of African Peoples Flag, All-African People’s Revolutionary Party Flag, Black Liberation Army Flag, the David Banner ‘Official Black Fist Flag’, Black Lives Matter Flag, and the most recognized Black Diaspora Flag. There are examples of the aforementioned flag flying in AME sanctuaries, including Mother Bethel in Philadelphia, PA, and Metropolitan in Washington, D.C. I have also observed sanctuaries that chose to implement no flag at all. Whatever your congregation chooses to do, the decision shouldn’t be dictated by a fear of disrespecting the AME ‘way’ or even Uncle Sam. There is no mandate in the AME Church concerning flag selection, and the United States of America does not have the right to force its flag upon any congregation. If anything, this article should at least start the conversation if it is best for your congregation to move a flag out of your sanctuary, or enhancing the sanctuary’s flag to something that celebrates the liberating gospel of Jesus Christ.
[1] United States Statutes at Large, Seventy-seventh Congress, Second Session 1942, Volume 56 — Part I, Public Laws) states in Section 3 (k)
[2] IBID
[3] “Should We Have Flags In The Church? The Christian Flag And The…”. 2022. Discipleship Ministries. https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/should-we-have-flags-in-the-church-the-christian-flag-and-the-american-flag.
[4] Carter, Joe. 2022. “Civil Religion Has No Place In God’s House”. The Gospel Coalition. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/civil-religion-has-no-place-in-gods-house/.
[5] S. R. Weitman, ‘National Flags: A Sociological Overview’, Semiotica, VIII/4 (1973), pp. 338–49
[6] IBID
[7] “Flag for the Negro,” New York Times, 1 July 1904.
