Church-Hopping Reflections, Number 2: “Freedom” and the Church
I’ve been given the opportunity to visit different churches in the Denver, Colorado area the past couple of weeks while I’m here for a farming internship this summer. Last week, I reflected on a sermon I heard about the hemorrhaging woman in Mark’s gospel (I know I’m a bit out of order, but those thoughts have yet to be flushed out in words). This week I’m reflecting on a service I attended in downtown Denver-at a church whose identity I will not reveal out of respect.
I perhaps should have realized upon walking into the doors that this particular Sunday was the one directly following July 4, indicating a prime opportunity for American patriotism to be blended into the worship service. To be frank, I find attending such worship services difficult—even painful—to sit through. The more I learn about the United States’ empirical histories and present realities of racism, oppression, and militarization while I simultaneously learn about Jesus and early Christianity’s commitment to love so radical it challenges empire’s very existence, the harder it is to sing “America” or pledge allegiance to a nation which claims its superiority over others all in the name of a supposed freedom.
We romanticize (and I think rightfully so, give thanks) for the plains of Texas and rolling hills of Tennessee but often fail to acknowledge the ways in which we individually and collectively decimate the natural world.
We proclaim—as the children’s minister did—the right and necessity of soldiers to bring the “beacon of freedom” to other places when we ourselves are not as free as we think we are.
But let us also say together, drawing from a patriotic song precious to so many:
America, may God mend our every flaw.
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