Facebook Friend,
It is your subjective belief that kneeling to the American flag is idolatrous. Under our Constitution, no civilian has an obligation to share that subjective belief. It smacks of something that arises from sources of obligation, like the Koran or Sharia Law.
Regardless of whether you stand, sit, kneel, prostrate, or stand on your head before the U.S. flag – and whether you cross your arms, salute, put your left or right hand over your heart, bow, wink, or snarl – it is, still, just a ritual. Ritual is endowed with meaning, due to subjective belief. There is no objective meaning of any ritual over another.
Now, I'm not saying that ritual has no place or purpose. When I, and all the soldiers with whom I served, honored the flag in the manner you indicated, it represented a subjective public commitment that we were all making, to each other and to our country, to serve as a unified force to defend not only the principles for which the flag symbolizes in our Constitution, but to our command structure. That's why you stand, salute, and give reverence. Whether or not you worship it is a matter for your own heart and mind to know.
The outward, superficial stance and action can be, and sometimes is, incongruous or non-representative of one's inner thoughts and beliefs. Certainly you recognize that even the most despicable terrorist could, as a guise, pretend to honor the flag. Even the most patriotic, honorable U.S. citizen could, for many honorable and praiseworthy reasons, decline to participate in such a ritual and could still be, in his or her action, heart, and mind, as worthy a patriot as you.
Furthermore, being "idolatrous," as far as my understanding of its religious meaning, indicates that the symbol, to you, represents thoughts and actions that are excessive, depraved, and seek to dominate others, and that the symbol and ritual become subjectively more important to worship than anything else. You, then, lose sight and balance about what is sacred, meaningful, and right.
Loren M. Lambert © September 28, 2017
It is your subjective belief that kneeling to the American flag is idolatrous. Under our Constitution, no civilian has an obligation to share that subjective belief. It smacks of something that arises from sources of obligation, like the Koran or Sharia Law.
Regardless of whether you stand, sit, kneel, prostrate, or stand on your head before the U.S. flag – and whether you cross your arms, salute, put your left or right hand over your heart, bow, wink, or snarl – it is, still, just a ritual. Ritual is endowed with meaning, due to subjective belief. There is no objective meaning of any ritual over another.
Now, I'm not saying that ritual has no place or purpose. When I, and all the soldiers with whom I served, honored the flag in the manner you indicated, it represented a subjective public commitment that we were all making, to each other and to our country, to serve as a unified force to defend not only the principles for which the flag symbolizes in our Constitution, but to our command structure. That's why you stand, salute, and give reverence. Whether or not you worship it is a matter for your own heart and mind to know.
The outward, superficial stance and action can be, and sometimes is, incongruous or non-representative of one's inner thoughts and beliefs. Certainly you recognize that even the most despicable terrorist could, as a guise, pretend to honor the flag. Even the most patriotic, honorable U.S. citizen could, for many honorable and praiseworthy reasons, decline to participate in such a ritual and could still be, in his or her action, heart, and mind, as worthy a patriot as you.
Furthermore, being "idolatrous," as far as my understanding of its religious meaning, indicates that the symbol, to you, represents thoughts and actions that are excessive, depraved, and seek to dominate others, and that the symbol and ritual become subjectively more important to worship than anything else. You, then, lose sight and balance about what is sacred, meaningful, and right.
Loren M. Lambert © September 28, 2017
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