The Gospel against The World

At a church we recently finished I happened to be in the sanctuary alone a few days before their dedication Sunday. Upon seeing the American flag standing high and proud on the right side of the stage, I felt it was my duty to remove it and liberate them from their unthinking idolatry. So I removed the flag and hid it it a back storage room. (That I thought would be difficult to find because I was one of the few who worked on the storage room.) I immediately felt a little guilty. Who am I to take that kind of step of removing a piece of their stage setup? But as I thought about it longer I realized that I would be doing them a favor....

I was curious to see if the flag would be back on stage by Sunday. It was. But maybe I caused some little old patriotic lady to think for just a moment about why someone would have gone to the trouble of taking down the flag and hiding it in a back room. Maybe there will be a discussion about it at the next business meeting and someone will have the courage to ask why they need a flag on stage anyway. But it may simply remain on stage forever loudly proclaiming the gospel of America to a country already blinded to the rest of the world.

[via McCarty Musings, emphasis mine]