Star Spangled Jesus

What concerns me is some would see nothing wrong with this video. And it is apparently is not a satire:



For more, read:

Profoundly Disturbed on The Fourth of July: God, The Flag, and The End of America
by Bob Hyatt
Our call to worship this 4th of July weekend was This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land. After the Color Guard presented the flag, we stood, said the Pledge of Allegiance and then sang The Star-Spangled Banner. Our worship set included The Battle Hymn of the Republic, My Country ‘Tis of Thee, America the Beautiful and God Bless America. We even finished the service by asking the congregation to sing along with Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA (“I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free…”).

And through the whole thing I couldn’t help but think how moving it was with flags draped from the ceiling, how well-done the music sounded with the drums beating a military cadence throughout… and how incredibly wrong that we were doing any of it.

Churches throughout America this year celebrated the 4th of July weekend with similar patriotic anthems, displays and pledges. These services have taken on an increased importance to many congregations, particularly since September 11th as we have struggled to make sense of tragedy as people who believe in a God Who is In Control. There has been a renewed stirring of national pride. We have put flags on our bumpers, right between the little silver fish symbol and the One Nation UNDER GOD sticker. And if, on the anniversary of our nation’s independence, we want to wax a bit patriotic in church, is there anything wrong with that?

Yes, there is.

CONTINUED: here