Does the U.S. Flag Belong in the Sanctuary?

July 2007
United Methodist News Service

Many UM churches place the U.S. flag in their sanctuaries. There is no policy in the Book of Discipline on whether that is appropriate. The Social Principles support separation of church and state and call the church to affirm ultimate allegiance in God over state. The U.S. flag code directs that the national flag should hold “the position of superior prominence” when displayed – implying the Christian flag should be in a lesser position.

Opponents of U.S. flag display contend that sanctuary placement suggests the flag is an object of worship. They note that early Christians did not display symbols of the ruling Romans, and that the United Methodist Church today is global. However, Richard Stewart, retired UM pastor formerly with the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, says that display of the flag in sanctuaries demonstrates that God blesses this land, and that God was – and is – with “soldiers who died and continue to die on behalf of our nation.” U.S. flag display, he contends, “in no way expresses the notion that God is with us to the exclusion of our brothers and sisters from other lands.”

Americans ‘Chosen People’?

– Janice Love, chief executive of the Women’s Division of UMC in Occasional Papers by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, December 2006:

United Methodist citizens of other nations at times inevitably feel the impact of the UMC being predominantly American. ..[A] downside comes in the claim by many in the United States that our exceptional opportunity to forge a democracy from the eighteenth century onward made us God’s “chosen people.” …Even though “we hold these truths to be self-evident,” Americans frequently act as though we know best what people in other countries want.