My hits have skyrocketed today after "reddit.com" and the Tour de France blog linked to my post this morning about Floyd Landis and the national anthem. A reader sent me a link to this photo of Landis riding on the Champs Elysees carrying the American flag, asking if this action doesn’t contradict my point this morning about Floyd’s Mennonite principles.
Actually, carrying the flag on a bicycle and refusing to place the hand over the heart during the national anthem are both quite consistent with Mennonite principles. To be a Mennonite, classically, is to believe that citizenship in the Kingdom trumps national allegiances. In practice, that means refusing to swear oaths of obedience to any temporal authority; it means refusing to salute flags or to genuflect before earthly kings. But there’s an important difference between saluting or pledging allegiance to the flag on the one hand, and waving it on the other!
One can be a radical Christian (a phrase many Mennonites apply to themselves) and love America! It is one thing to love America, another to pledge solemn allegiance to it. To wave the flag can be an expression of affection for one’s native land, akin to waving the banner of one’s university or favorite football team. (I once had a very large Cal banner that I waved with great enthusiasm.) Floyd Landis may be a Mennonite, but America is the nation of his birth — there is nothing in Anabaptist theology that suggests he can’t be fond of, even proud of, his country.
When Italian football fans the world over waved the red, white, and green after their World Cup triumph, they did so to celebrate a sports victory that made them proud. They did not do so to express any particular loyalty to the modern nation-state known as Italy. (Many Italian-Americans who madly waved that flag — and there were lots of ‘em in Los Angeles two weeks ago — probably have never heard of Romano Prodi, the current prime minister. They had no intention of promising loyalty to his government.) Theirs was a celebration of cultural pride, not a promise of fealty or patriotic commitment. Without knowing his mind, but knowing his upbringing, I am fairly sure that Landis carried the Stars and Stripes around Paris in that spirit.
Though I have left the Mennonite Church, I retain the Anabaptist commitment to refuse to swear loyalty to nation-states. (I am a dual national with a UK passport, but with all respect to Elizabeth Regina, I am not her majesty’s subject. "No king but Jesus"…) When the national anthem is played at sporting events (and I go to lots of sporting events) I stand respectfully. I don’t draw attention to myself by remaining sitting — that would be ostentatious. I don’t put my hand over my heart, however, and I don’t sing. When they say the pledge of allegiance at faculty senate meetings, I stand with my hands clasped; my head lowered, my lips closed. I try to be as inconspicuous as possible, not wishing to give offense, but unwilling to pledge allegiance to anything other than Christ my king. Only once have I been quietly asked by a colleague about my stance, and I gave her a simple and respectful answer which she accepted.
I have a sincere affection for this, the land of my birth, and I honor the lawful authorities who wield temporal power within it. This is a country of great physical beauty, filled with people for whom I have an easy and genuine affection. I will give my taxes to Caesar, obey his traffic laws, even vote in his elections. It is possible to be a Christian and an American, but it is not possible to swear fealty to both Christ and Caesar unless one believes that the demands of each are always congruent. Knowing that they aren’t always compatible, I choose to pledge loyalty only to the one I intend not to betray should conflict arise.
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