God Bless America - And Only America?

We have had a little problem at my church in the past few months.

It was one of those things that it was hard for me to take seriously because it seemed like such a small thing - but it was one of those things that just wouldn't go away.

As I have gotten older, I truly believe that so many of our "issues" will go away if you'll just leave them alone and not give them the attention they crave.

But this one just kept going and going and it would not go away. As a matter of fact, it was getting increasingly more and more bitter as it went along so it just had to be dealt with it.

Unfortunately, our pastor became the flashpoint for this controversy and he was put in a position that he should have never had to deal with - so in order to put it to rest it was put on the church council adgenda for last night.

And everyone was invited to participate in the discussion and after all views had been heard, the church council would make a decision on what to do and that would be the end of that.

I guess at this point, I should mention the issue: Several older men, in reaction to the "change" that is happening in our country felt it was necessary to put an American Flag up front in our sanctuary.

Doesn't sound like a big deal, does it?

But when old men threaten to whip your pastor's ass because he's a commie - then it gets attention. Lot's of attention.

So our Pastor got up and spoke last night. He spoke as eloquently as I have ever heard anyone speak. And he didn't speak about the issue at all. He spoke about focusing on what is truly important in life.


He spoke of his dissertation that he wrote on the problems we have in our churches these days and the main differences between churches that grow and churches that die. And the reason is that churches that succeed focus on the big picture and churches that are dying tend to expend all their energy on small matters that have nothing to do with the mission of the church.

I'm sure that the color of the wall in the boys bathroom is important - but not to the extent that you should have committee meetings to deal with it. And the list goes on and on about how many unimportant things we spend so much of our valuable time on.

Anyway, he went on to speak on a sermon of John Wesley's where he pointed out that each of us should be able to live with the differences we have but celebrate the things we have in common.

Now, you have to keep in mind that I'm simply summarizing comments and concepts here - so it is very difficult for me to express in this forum how eloquent and passionate his presentation was.

When he was done, he prayed a beautiful prayer and went home to kiss his wife and tuck his daughters in. He left the council to deal with the issue because for some reason, he had become, like I mentioned earlier, the flashpoint for the issue and he wanted to remove himself from the discussion so the discussion could remain on a non-personal level.

There were many people in attendance.

And I had no idea who was there to speak for what side. I went because I wanted to make sure that a rational point of view was represented if things got ugly.

I guess, basically, that I went to have the back of my friend, my pastor (or my boyfriend as my wife likes to call him!). You can picture me as kind of like the big guy on the playground that kept an eye on and took up for his friend, the little book worm guy that the othe kids were picking on.

But sometimes, believe it or not, I can become very passionate about things I believe in. And fortunately or unfortunately (depending on your point of view) I as born with the ability to verbalize my concepts very well and sometimes to roll over people with a differing point of view.

And for that reason, my wife, my beautiful, wonderful wife who I would die for (but have much more fun living for!) was not very happy that I was there.

She didn't tell me - but I could tell - that she didn't want me to get up and be, well, get up and be me.

So I prayed about that. I really did and after much consideration I just figured that I would wait and see what happened.

Then it started and people got 2 minutes to say whatever they wanted to say on the issue with the directive to keep it civil and not become personal in their expressions. We did not want a forum for people to slam others because of thier beliefs.

Most of the people there to speak were older folks. So I was worried how this was going to go.

And when I say older, I mean much older - Korean War veterans and pillars of our community, and to a person, people that I have not only respect for but admiration as well.

Then the first speaker got up, wasn't so old but he was dressed in his uniform and spoke about going back for his fourth deployment - and his obvious patriotism - and his need not to have a flag in order to realize what country he lived in. He was very eloquent and I appreciated his comments.

Then the comments kept coming and coming and coming.

And all of them were about why we didn't need to have a flag in the sanctuary of our church and how thinking that we were somehow unpatriotic if we didn't do it was just not true.

Each and every comment had been in favor of us just letting this issue go and why it wasn't important to any of them.

Then came that point in the meeting where a letter was read. The letter was written by someone who could not be there but wrote about her father that had just died.

She wrote about how he had served on Iwo Jima and Guam and Guadalcanal with the Marine Corp in the Great War. About how crusty an old not-so-educated southerner from another era he was. About how patriotic he and all of the people from his generation were and the sacrafices they made that can't ever be misunderstood by any generation. She spoke of how even though he left the Marine Corp after he got home from the war that he kept up with his comany members up until the time of his death.

She wrote about how when the Anti-War sentiment of the Vietnam War raged and everyone wanted to use the "America, love it or leave it" theme in the churches and wanted to drape all of our sacred things in patriotism, well, she wrote about how he was against it then and he surely would be against this now.

And I don't know if it was the emotions of the moment or the beauty of her letter or my hormones or whatever, but I found myself holding hands with an old man (and one that my wife not-so-secretly loves) and tears were running down my face.

I'm not even sure what the tears were for.

And I'm still not sure - but I can tell you that for an hour of my life last night, I was so very proud of who I am and where I was and maybe more importantly than any of that, the fact that my faith in those around me was lifted so very high that I can't even begin to describe how wonderful it felt.

The bottom line to all this was that there was only one of the men that wanted the flag put up that showed up. And I have great respect for this man and cherish him. His arguement was eloquent and passionate as well and I appreciated his point of view.

But there was not another point of view like his in the entire room.

The worry I had about being there to protect my friend if needed was gone completely so I was very happy to report to my wife that not only did I not embarass myself (or her) - but I didn't even get up to speak. It would have been so redundent that it would not be needed.

All of us that were there for that issue had to leave while the council had formal discussion and made their decision - and I have no idea what that decision was because I met my wife for some sushi! But I didn't need to stick around because we were all of one mind.

With the one exception, who I now felt so very sorry for.

And I haven't made any arugments here, nor do I feel I need to about why I feel the way I do on this issue. This thing is very personal and each person is allowed to have his view and to hold them close or advertise them as he sees fit.

That's what is so great about our country.

And isn't that the point of all this anyway???

If you're interested in my point of view at all, you can check out chapter six of the Gospel of St. Matthew and figure it out.

But at this point, for me, I am just so happy this thing is over and can be put to rest. Now it's time to get on with life and our mission.

So during this time of Advent, when beginnings are so celebrated and cherished, if there is anything in your life that you need to start over with, I say this is the time to say yes to you!

Peace!