The American Flag in American Churches
June 30, 2026
The upcoming July 4th holiday (military appreciation day #2) reminds me to mention that putting a national flag in churches is a uniquely American practice. It was reported back on June 1:
Chinese authorities demolished a prominent Protestant church in eastern China after months of conflict with parishioners who resisted government demands to display the national flag inside the church, exposing the treatment of Christians opposed to the state’s Sinicization project.
This Sunday there will be multiple American flags set up in conservative, evangelical, and fundamentalist churches in addition to the usual prominent one.
Thanks to MT for the article link.
Laurence M. Vance [send him mail] writes from central Florida. He is the author of The Free Society; War, Christianity, and the State: Essays on the Follies of Christian Militarism; War, Empire, and the Military: Essays on the Follies of War and U.S. Foreign Policy; King James, His Bible, and Its Translators, and many other books. His newest book is The U.S. Proxy War in Ukraine.
