Pledge of Allegiance... to whom????

This last week, I had a high school student ask me if the pledge of Allegiance to the USA was an ok expression in response to his undying allegiance to Christ. He felt it was probably unwise and generally not ok but he wanted my opinion.

What Faith. To deny the Pax Romana (Roman Peace used as a symbol for The Empire offering Peace, USA) and follow only our Lord. I wish we all had this faith. Most of us follow the empire with the great exemption "unless it crosses or defies God's word." The problem is: (1) this assumes that the country is or has followed God's will and (2)we are to always and only to follow Christ.

What do we do in response to this faith?

Comments

  1. Terri-Anne WilliamsFebruary 25, 2011 at 7:15 PM

    This has been a huge topic of conversation in our house since school began this year. I hadn't thought much about it because I was under the impression from my son Pete, that it is rarely recited in school anymore, but I went to my 1st grader's class one morning and there they were ~ a bunch of little kids with their chubby little hands over their heart, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance ~ something that clearly NONE of them understood. It was a crazy reality to me as I had not thought much of the pledge in years, but now, did I really want my daughter doing this? Can a six year old pledge their allegiance to something or anything and mean it? We discussed this for a few days ~ I had even asked Sophie if she knew what it meant, which of course she didn't. I then went to her Teacher and said that we did not want her to participate in reciting the Pledge anymore. We felt that Sophie was too young to pledge her allegiance to anything, but that we were hoping that when she grew up and understood she would choose to follow Christ and Christ alone. The Teacher seemed dumbfounded and asked if were Jehovah's Witnesses. I said, "Nope ~ we are Christian". She seemed really shocked and said, "I don't think Christians can opt out. Isn't the Pledge of Allegiance a Christian thing?"

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  2. deartheophilusFebruary 25, 2011 at 10:43 PM

    Great story... I love the bold action you took and the response of the teacher.

    The way most Christians talk, she is probably right. Though it seems more like she feels pressure to do it from the Christian right.

    Thanks for the experience, wisdom and example!

    ReplyDelete

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