For Flag Day, churches find room for patriotism at the pulpit

At St. John the Apostle Catholic Church, the worship platform is sacred ground graced with altar, pulpit, tabernacle - and an American flag.

It's the wrong place for Old Glory, according to Catholic guidelines that discourage permanent display of national flags in church sanctuaries.

But in an American culture that celebrates June 14 as Flag Day, many churchgoers in various denominations expect to see the Stars and Stripes where they commune with God.

The colors were already on display when the Rev. J. Biber, St. John's priest, came to the parish that includes many active-duty and retired military members.

The flag flanks a large mural of Christ crucified and is behind Biber, toward one side, when he celebrates Mass.

"If I took it out now, it'd create such a distraction that it would be deleterious," Biber said of the flag. "If I moved it, there'd be mutiny."

Just as a presidential candidate can be lambasted for not wearing a flag lapel pin, flag displays in churches can be a hot issue.

Last month, police in DeLand, Fla., began a criminal investigation after a Baptist minister who moved the flag from his sanctuary was harassed.

The Rev. Sean Oliver Allen took a month's leave after getting anonymous notes at his home mailbox and in his hymnal at church. "Resign this Sunday or else," one note stated, according to a news account in the Daytona Beach News-Journal.

Many in South Hampton Roads' faith community say the flag in their sanctuary represents tradition, national pride or religious liberty.

At Providence Presbyterian Church in Virginia Beach, the Rev. Jeffrey S. Bell called the flag near his pulpit a symbol of Americans' freedom to worship.

"It's the civil government that gives us the right to our free expression of religion," he said. "Our stance would be, 'We're one nation, under God.' "

At Calvary Evangelical Baptist Church in Portsmouth, the colors are displayed on the worship platform near the choir.

"I see the flag as being a part of our heritage," the Rev. Allen R. McFarland said. "This is the United States of America, and folks who come here must recognize, this is who we are."

Brent Walker of the Washington -based Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty said sanctuary flags are appropriate on special occasions such as Memorial Day.

His worry is that permanently displaying the national flag in worship space might suggest that God and country are co-equal.

"There's a tendency, particularly in wartime, to meld piety and patriotism to the point that you can't tell them apart," he said. "If there's ever a time not to do it, it's 11 a.m. on Sunday in the sanctuary."

To Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, flags are a fitting display of a congregation's patriotism.

But he also emphasized that, for Christians, "our ultimate allegiance belongs to God, not to America."

Both Bell and McFarland said their churches make clear that members' first loyalty is to the Almighty.

"Anyone who comes into the church is coming in to worship God," McFarland said. "We don't worship the flag."

Catholic officials say they avoid mixed messages by keeping flags off the sanctuary, which they define narrowly as the area around the altar.

Eschewing flags underscores that the Catholic Church is a universal institution, said the Rev. Rick Hilgartner of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "We really transcend national boundaries and civic symbols," he said.

On its Web site (www.richmonddiocese.org/worship/docs/FlagsRCChurches.pdf), the Richmond diocese states that flags could also compromise Catholic teaching that "challenges the values of a country."

For example, the Catholic faith opposes the death penalty, even though capital punishment is upheld by Virginia and the federal government.

"You should be able to teach the social justice principles without a confusion in sacred space" that flags bring, said Catherine Combier-Donovan, the diocese's worship office director. She said that even the Vatican flag should not hang in the sanctuary.

Under Catholic rules, the national flag is removed from caskets of military personnel or veterans during funerals in Catholic churches.

"Before they were a member of the military, they were a member of the church, a child of God," Hilgartner said.

The diocese's guidelines state that temporary flags are appropriate in church on holidays such as Veterans Day. Permanent displays are better placed in a commons area, vestibule or memorial shrine, the policy states.

Combier-Donovan said the guidelines can be a hard sell.

"Not all Catholics buy in, particularly in times of war or national strife when you feel more patriotic," she said. "Do our churches follow it? No." She said there are no consequences for those churches.

At St. John, parishioner Marylee Allard said she'd never thought about sanctuary flags. "It's never offended me that the American flag was in the church," she said.

Mary Giordano, another St. John parishioner, gave the displayed flag a thumbs-up.

"To me, it's a great reminder that we are actually free to worship in this country," she said.

Biber recalled that his last parish wanted to add a flag to the sanctuary.

"I said, 'No, we won't have any flag in there, we have the crucifix for our allegiance,' " he recalled.

But at St. John, the flag has become part of the scenery. "Once it's in there," he said, "I'm not going to take it out."

Steven G. Vegh, (757) 446-2417, steven.vegh@pilotonline.com