Who Said That?

"I pledge allegiance to the Christian Flag, and to the Savior, for whose kingdom it stands. One Savior, crucified, risen and coming again, with life and liberty for all who believe."

You know how this works.  Leave your guess in the comments section below.  No google searches or cheating.  Answer to follow next week.

Update on Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 05:55PM by Kim Riddlebarger

This is from the pledge of allegiance to the "Christian flag," wherein someone pledges to confuse the two kingdoms.  It was conceived by Charles Oveton in 1897, and formally promoted in 1907.

Comments

[robert kellly]

Barnhouse

[Micael R. Wilson]

Another version says:

"I pledge allegiance to the Christian Flag, and to the Savior, for whose kingdom it stands. One brotherhood, uniting all Christians in service and love."

I don't know the origin of either version or which one came first. It seems that the one I quoted above was the first and then the one quoted in the post was written later. A lot of independent Baptist churches take issue with its emphasis on the universal church instead of local churches, thus opting for the alternate which focuses on Christ.

I'm not a fan of either one, or any sort of pledge to a "Christian flag," but they are a part of my upbringing.

Let's stick to the Lord's supper and baptism for Christian symbols and avoid extra-biblical, man-fabricated nonsense.

I don't like having the American flag in the church either (unless you also have all /many other national flags to go with it as a missions emphasis), It conflates American patriotism with Christianity.

[Don Smith]

William Booth?

[reg]

I had not heard this before. It is really jarring. It has taken a couple of days for me to come to grips with why it causes such a negative visceral reaction in me. There is just so much wrong with this .This makes an idol out of a so-called flag (makes me think of 2 Kings 18:4). While it is true that in Christ we have true life and true liberty, it is hard not to keep going and adding " the pursuit of happiness" in this parody of the pledge of allegiance (The prosperity gospel folks might like adding that.). In mimicking our civil pledge, this also seems so tied up in notions of the US being a "Christian nation" and all the baggage which goes with that view. There is enough commingling/confusing of faith and patriotism as it is. The notion that there are bodies of believers reciting this in church or as part of their religious practices or making children recite it is troubling. It reduces the Gospel to a mindless slogan to be repeated by rote, without thought.

[Zrim]

Reg,

"It reduces the Gospel to a mindless slogan to be repeated by rote, without thought."

Some might call our weekly, public recital of the Creed (and daily for those of us who also worship privately) the same thing. But I fail to see what's wrong with habit. Of course, the Creed is the gospel, while this is civil religion.

The problem here seems less to do with creedal formulation as it does with a pagan form and content: we don't "pledge allegiance" to the one, true God--we confess our faith in him. Pledge-making isn't the same as confessing. Sort of like how altar calls aren't confession/assurance. And even if we are thinking confession when we are doing pledging, what gives with a flag sharing space with Jesus (and coming first to boot)?

Anyway, whoever came up with it likely had an aversion to creedal-religion but loved altar call-spirituality.

[reg]

Zrim,
I agree. In the same vein, I was going to add Romans 10:9-10 to my comment. There is also a hint of idolatry pledging to a flag. I think the creeds are a little different than this. No negative visceral reaction to those.

["lee n. field"]

"A hint of idolatry"? Ya think?

Did I mention the songs about America, instead of God? Memorial day it was most of the way through the second or third song before I could sing. "protect us by thy might, great God our king!" I'm glad we don't have this too often.

[DSY]

This whole flag and patriotic song this is extremely rare in Canada. At least one way we kick USA's a... excel over the USA.

DSY

[Joe S]

How does one allie himself with a flag anyway?

The American pledge of alliegance was written by a liberal Baptist minister and Christian socialist, as a vow not to rebel and divide the Republic again. The salute used then resemled the Nazi salute, not the hand over heart thing. Whatcha reckon the nation's founders would think about that?

[Zrim]

Joe,

Pointing to liberals and Nazis sounds like a "guilt by association" tactic. But liberal Protestants and deists were the framers of our republic. They know nothing about true religion, but they can sure cobble a nice state (OK, Nazi's really suck at that, too). Seems one thing has nothing to do with another.

I'm skeptical when someone is skeptical about pledging allegience to a secular state. It either means they're Arian (JWs) and/or they think heaven implies earth.

[Joe S]

Oh Zrim,

I was tongue in cheek with that. No JW here. I didn't mean to associate the one pledge with the other. I do believe that nationalism is socialism, and I do associate that with pledging allegience to the state. I doubt that the founders would have agreed with pledging allegience to the state, but as you say, they were deists and what-not, and the American revolution was a direct violation of Romans 13. Visit my blog and not even close to finished website to see what I'm about.

http://thesectarian.blogspot.com/
http://www.aconfessionalbaptist.com/