Conservatives Are More Than Twice as Likely as Liberals to Be Strongly Patriotic

No surprise there... except - only twice as likely?

 

The poll is flawed, as the article mentions. Negative connotations exist for "extremely" patriotic.

IMO, you would probably see similar results if this were rephrased, but there may be a few points shifted.

 

"Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel," Samuel Johnson (?).

 

Quoted by someone who has contempt for our military.

Figures.

 

I was thinking the same thing. Unfortunately, way too many people today equate right-wing conservatism with Christianity. They soil the Gospel of Christ with patriotic necessity.

About 15 years ago, I was at a old-fashioned camp meeting with a friend. They started the service by pledging allegiance to the U.S. flag. My friend would not participate. According to the looks, I thought they were going to tar and feather him.

 

I had the same experience last Sunday.

 

Are you certain that there would not have been the same looks given if the meeting had been secular?

What kind of a response would you expect from bystanders if someone refused to stand during the National Anthem before a baseball game?

 

I have no idea what the response would be had this taken place somewhere else. But, I've never heard the pledge of allegiance at at baseball game.

 

I had the same experience last Sunday.

I bet they are all so proud to have you serving as their minister of music being on such a higher spiritual plane than the rest of the congregation. I'm surprised that you would stoop so low as to serve people who would dare to say the Pledge of Allegiance in a church service. If they were on the same level as you they would know better. Shame on them for being so spiritually ignorant. Hopefully you taught them a lesson by your excellent example.

By the way, we had a patriotic ceremony before the start of the church service where the Boy Scouts posted the colors, a member read an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence, we sang the National Anthem, and had a special prayer of thanksgiving to God for our country. Then we began the worship service and I preached on the "Qualifications for Hell" from Revelation 21.

 

If you reread my post - you will see that I asked about standing during the National Anthem at a baseball game. Not the Pledge of Allegiance.

So let's try again...

Are you certain that there would not have been the same looks given if the meeting had been secular?

What kind of a response would you expect from bystanders if someone refused to stand during the National Anthem before a baseball game?

 

Secular meetings have different standards than sacred meetings.

The moment we usher pagan nationalism into our worship services we disconnect the Gospel from Christ and attach it to deeds and works performed for a flag.

I'm happy to stand for the national anthem, I'm happy to recite the pledge of allegiance, I'm happy to salute our troops, I'm happy to sing patriotic songs outside of a worship setting.

 

If it is wrong for a Christian to pledge allegiance to the flag in church, then why would it be OK outside of church?

Is this how a Christian's life is supposed to be, we act one way in church, and act another way outside?

 

In a church assembly we are there to worship God as a body of Christians, not to worship the state as a body of Christians.

 

Amen. And amen.

 

This ties into the lie that the connies tell that progressives hate America. I love the United States and the State of Florida very much. There is no other country that I would rather live in. I love the Constitution, and as a Federal employee, I am bound by oath that I will "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same."

True patriotism also requires one to point out where the country is going wrong and try to fix it. For example, I oppose the massive increase in the power of the executive branch started by Bush and continued by Obama.

 

Would God pledge allegiance to the United States of America? I seriously doubt God pledges allegiance to any nation until his second coming, when He establishes the New Heavens and New Earth.

That is why it is wrong to pledge allegiance in the church for we are pledging, as ambassadors of God, the allegiance of the church (God's Bride). God's bride has only one allegiance, God. God has no national allegiance.

Rather, I see nothing wrong with Americans pledging allegiance to God in writings that state, "under God", but I see it wrong for God's ambassadors and bride to pledge allegiance to the state. As His bride, we have only one allegiance.

Yet, as citizens, we may have an allegiance to our state. As citizens, individuals of a state, we may pledge such allegiance but we do not do so as the Bride, but as mere citizens of the state. Soldiers were never condemned by John the Baptist for serving in the military (an allegiance to the state). However, the church is not to pledge any allegiance to any not prescribed in the Bible..

 

So to recite the Pledge is to "worhip the state"?

No hyperbole there huh?

By the way - we the people are the state.

 

You speak this way and you pastor a church? I don't know what type of people you lead, but you would not speak this way to the assemblies I have been a part of, except maybe once! God help us!

 

Would God post on the Baptist Board?

He hasn't yet so you better not either, Ruiz. :smilewinkgrin: