{"id":42341,"date":"2025-10-20T09:40:55","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T16:40:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=42341"},"modified":"2025-10-20T09:40:55","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T16:40:55","slug":"i-pledge-allegiance-to-the","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/i-pledge-allegiance-to-the\/","title":{"rendered":"I Pledge Allegiance To The…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Opening Reflection \u2013 Allegiance and Formation<\/strong>
We stood to honor veterans, and I clapped. Then the congregation turned toward the large American flag in the corner of the sanctuary, placed their hands over their hearts, and recited the Pledge of Allegiance. I remained standing, but I did not raise my hand or recite the pledge. I couldn\u2019t. It was not anger, resentment, or protest\u2014I am genuinely grateful for the nation I live in. But in that moment, inside a worship service declaring Christ as Lord, I could not pledge allegiance to a flag while pledging my whole life to King Jesus (Phil. 2:9\u201311). My allegiance has only one rightful object.<\/p>\n

The moment surprised me. It functioned almost as a personal experience of what my tradition calls entire sanctification\u2014the grace-enabled surrender of the whole self to God. Standing there, awkward and alone, I realized that Jesus truly had all of me.<\/p>\n

The next morning, I was called into the senior pastor\u2019s office. He accused me of \u201cnot loving America\u201d and \u201cprotesting\u201d during worship. Though I tried to explain that pledging allegiance during Christian liturgy felt dissonant, my reasoning was not received. His language quickly became binary: \u201cYou\u2019re either in or out\u2014either for us or against us.\u201d Within weeks, I was effectively sidelined, and eventually I resigned.<\/p>\n

The Discipleship Crisis Beneath the Story<\/strong>
Seminary and ministry experience helped me name what I had encountered: political allegiance was being treated as spiritual orthodoxy. My time working at the Oregon State Capitol had convinced me that Christians can contribute to the common good through public life (Jer. 29:7; Prov. 31:8\u20139). But I had also seen how quickly the church can be seduced by political power. In multiple settings since, I have watched political ideology outrun discipleship and deform sincere Christians. The danger is not political engagement\u2014the danger is political ownership.<\/p>\n

Christian Nationalism \u2013 Identity, Fear, and the Lust for Power<\/strong>
The rise of Christian nationalism in the West is not new\u2014it echoes a recurring temptation from Constantine to the present: to seize the kingdoms of this world by means other than the cross (Matt. 4:8\u201310). Its modern form often emerges from fear\u2014fear of cultural marginalization, loss of influence, or perceived exile in a post-Christian society.<\/p>\n

Russell Moore, reflecting on the Moral Majority and evangelical entanglement, warns that many became \u201cwilling to win at all costs,\u201d until \u201cthe gospel was lost in a fog of outrage, nationalism, and political identity.\u201d He concludes soberly, \u201cwe learned to value influence more than integrity\u201d (Losing Our Religion). Moore\u2019s concern is not public faith, but a tribal religion that must rule in order to survive.<\/p>\n

David DeSilva, writing on Revelation, shows that John unmasks empire as a rival liturgy that \u201cdemands not just participation, but devotion,\u201d functioning as a counterfeit kingdom that competes for ultimate loyalty. Revelation warns the church not to be \u201cco-opted by the beasts who promise security while demanding allegiance.\u201d In this sense, Revelation is political discipleship literature\u2014training believers in how not to be owned by empire (Rev. 13; Rev. 18).<\/p>\n

When the church forgets this, it confuses national destiny with kingdom mission. Once winning becomes the goal, witness becomes negotiable. We baptize outrage, conspiracy, cruelty, and fear\u2014so long as it keeps our side in power. But Jesus never said, \u201cBy this they will know you are my disciples, that you conquered your opponents.\u201d He said, \u201cBy this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another\u201d (John 13:35).<\/p>\n

Progressive Captivity \u2013 A Mirror on the Other Side<\/strong>
Yet ideological captivity is not only a right-wing problem. Progressive Christians\u2014especially those who have deconstructed out of church structures\u2014face their own temptations. Outside the church, what anchors a person to the throne of the Lamb when political identity becomes the new liturgy?<\/p>\n

Bird and Wright remind us that the powers and principalities (Eph. 6:12) operate on every side of the political spectrum, seeking to name the world for us and demand allegiance. Secular ideologies on the left can mirror the same impulses\u2014utopianism, moral self-righteousness, and identity-based belonging. When Jesus becomes a symbol rather than Lord, we lose the very source of transformation (Col. 1:15\u201320). As Moore notes elsewhere, the Christian task is \u201cnot to baptize the culture wars, but to bear witness to a different kingdom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pastoral Leadership in an Age of Media Discipleship<\/strong>
I once assumed that if I simply preached Christ crucified (1 Cor. 2:2), the church would naturally connect the dots and resist political idolatry. Some have. Yet I have also seen how the political imagination of many believers is shaped far more by cable news, social algorithms, and party platforms than by Scripture, the sacraments, or the Sermon on the Mount.<\/p>\n

Today I am convinced that preaching alone is not enough. We must create spaces of courageous, communal discernment\u2014where believers can confess idols, practice civil disagreement, and learn to resist the liturgies of our age. Dr. Clark\u2019s framework for fearless, structured dialogue may be one such model.<\/p>\n

Closing Theological Conviction \u2013 Allegiance to the Lamb<\/strong>
In Revelation 5, John hears of \u201cthe Lion of the tribe of Judah\u201d (Rev. 5:5), but when he turns, he sees \u201ca Lamb, standing as though slain\u201d (Rev. 5:6). This is the shock and center of Christian political theology: the Lamb reigns, not the lion we expected. Our King conquers not through domination, but through cruciform love.<\/p>\n

Ray Boltz once wrote:<\/p>\n

I pledge allegiance to the Lamb,<\/em>
To the Lamb of God who bore my pain\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

This remains my hope and prayer\u2014for myself, my congregation, and the church in our polarized age: that our allegiance be uncluttered, our witness uncoopted, our politics cruciform, and our hope rooted in the Lamb who was slain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Opening Reflection \u2013 Allegiance and FormationWe stood to honor veterans, and I clapped. Then the congregation turned toward the large American flag in the corner of the sanctuary, placed their hands over their hearts, and recited the Pledge of Allegiance. I remained standing, but I did not raise my hand or recite the pledge. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3494],"class_list":["post-42341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp03-moore","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42341"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42342,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42341\/revisions\/42342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}