I remember visiting a church whose interior decor contained only images connected to Egypt. River scenes with papyrus plants filled the stained glass windows. Twin cobras showed up frequently in the space. And the central symbol was the winged disk of Amun-Ra. Are these symbols proper to Christian worship space?
To get at a robust answer to this question, I propose four smaller-scale and interrelated questions.
1. Whom or what do these symbols stand for? Does that person or thing connect directly with the faith of the Christian Church?
2. Whose story is behind these symbols? Does that body identify with the Christian Church?
Take the twin cobras. According to an article written about the history of the church I visited, twin cobras in Egyptian mythology stand for wisdom. Wisdom certainly is a virtue in the faith of the Christian Church. And the serpent is described in the Christian scriptures as wise. I don't know the story behind twin cobras coming to represent wisdom--which begins to provide an answer to the second question: My story is not behind this particular symbol. And I suspect that the people who pass on the story of the cobra and wisdom are not identical to the Christian Church.
What about Amun-Ra's disk? According to the same article, the disk represents eternity. And in the name of the disk itself is the name of an Egyptian god. Eternity as a concept connects with our faith; but the person of Amun-Ra does not. Whose story is there? Presumably there are stories in Egyptian mythology about Amun-Ra and his relationship to eternity. I do not know if there still exists a religious group that worships the ancient Egyptian gods. The story of Amun-Ra would be theirs. And Christians generally--especially given the specific rejection of Egyptian gods in the book of Exodus--would not use that story to shape their corporate identity.
If these symbols direct us neither to the deity of Christianity nor to the identifying stories of Christianity, then we would have a good argument for excluding them from Christian worship space.
This example from a unique scenario gives us some pattern that we might apply to the discussion of other symbols, like the American flag.
What does the American flag stand for?
I have heard several answers to this question. A nation. Democratic values. Fraternity (red), equality (white), and liberty (blue)--if we want to borrow from the French. Valor, blood, sacrifice, bravery, integrity, vigilance, perseverance, justice--if we take a few other suggestions about the three colors. Honorable military service. Freedom. Military protection--the flag begins as a banner of war. Patriotism (from the root "patrios" for fathers/ancestors and by extension "family").
How do these things connect to the faith of the Christian Church? For most of the Church's history, there was no such thing as a "nation" as we understand it today. Democracy is not addressed directly in the scriptures and core creeds of the faith. Freedom, equality, sacrifice, courage, and justice can all be found in the Christian faith. While the scriptural story recounts a great deal of military action--some of it directed by God--the teachings of Jesus and the experience of the early Church have an ambiguous or fraught relationship to military power.
What about the people whose story is behind the American flag?
If we date the independent identity of the United States of America to 1776, then the story of the nation is 250 years old. The story of Christianity--about 2,000 years old--is about 8 times the chronological length of the American story. If we say that American citizens are the ones who carry the story of America, then that story connects with about 340 million people presently; that's about 4.3% of the world population. Why do these numbers matter?
The faith claims of Christianity are claims upon the whole world and all of history. The broadest symbols of faith--the cross, the altar, the shepherd's crook, the bread and the cup--connect with every Christian 2,000 years back and forever forward, all around the world. They are common symbols of a spiritual unity in the Church which, though certainly obscured by human tribalism and sin, nonetheless is a goal of the Spirit of Christ and aspiration of the Church. They unite humanity under the umbrella of Christ's self-giving love.
The American flag is a symbol attached to the story of a small sliver of humanity bound to a particular time and a particular place. It is, by definition, a symbol whose provenance does not overlap with, say, the Nigerian flag, or the flag of the People's Republic of China, or the Argentinian flag. So by its symbolic power it divides humanity. It signifies a subset of humanity that cannot, on its own terms, be reconciled with other groups.
A congregation that wants to examine the propriety of a national flag (any national flag) in a Christian sanctuary must reckon with the contrast between the universal claims of Jesus Christ and the time- and location-bound claims of a national flag. What is the effect on a community that simultaneously observes a symbol of divine life with boundless mercy and grace for the whole world and a symbol of a human organization that divides and requires some level of violence to maintain its existence?
There is not an easy, pat answer to this question. Lest we think that the whole matter is contained in the placement of the flag in sanctuaries, be reminded that since the fourth century Christians have struggled with the relationship between the Church and the State. The present question simply serves to push this struggle front and center in a visible way. As both Christians and citizens who value our participation in secular society, however, it is good to wrestle with the matter.
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To move the matter forward, I observe that both Christian symbols and national flags do more than represent ideas and stories. They also demand loyalty. On that idea, more soon.
~ emrys
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