I've heard the recent hullabaloo about Justice Alito flying an upside down United States flag and the Appeal to Heaven flag at his house. Both flags have apparently been co-opted by proponents of the "stolen election" conspiracy theory. Alito, being the good Catholic that he is, pulled an Adam and blamed his wife. As it turns out, she is actually the vexillologist of the family and has even designed an anti-Pride flag (using the Italian word for shame).
But what got me was that the upside down flag and the Appeal to Heaven flag were so thoroughly associated with MAGAts. I mean ... sure, if I see an upside down flag flown from a house these days, I assume they're a certain type of extreme right-winger and that is usually confirmed by other displays around the house. But the Appeal to Heaven flag? I don't ever remember seeing that flown on January 6th. I mean, sure, the Gadsden Flag, which I used to like, has become associated with MAGAts to the point that I wouldn't touch it anymore.
Quick side note. There are a slew of truly amazing parodies of the Gadsden Flag. Here are some of my favorites.
Anyway, I hadn't seen much of the Appeal to Heaven flag outside of history books, so I thought that everyone might be getting their boxers in a twist over nothing. Again, though, Alito's wife confirmed that it meant exactly what everyone thought it meant.
I've pondered of late if, perhaps, the January 6th types aren't so far from their Revolutionary era heroes as some would suggest. I mean ... the Founding Fathers didn't want Black people, poor people or women to participate in government. They did use borderline terrorist tactics to achieve their goals. They did overthrow the legitimate government because it wasn't doing what they wanted. Hell, Timothy McVeigh was literally carrying the writings of John Locke and Thomas Jefferson when he perpetrated the Oklahoma bombing.
There are some who have said point this out confers legitimacy to the modern folks who believe they are the inheritors of the legacy of Revolutionary America. But I'm not. I'm questioning the very foundations of this country and whether or not they are to be lauded.
Which leads me to the point of this post. I wear the following flag as a patch on a hat:
I didn't create the image. It was made by a band called the Psalters (which was formed the year Josiah was born, 1997). It's obviously based on a black and white, upside-down, American flag. Over the stars there is a Chi Rho, the XP or Ch and R that make up for first letters of "Christ" in Greek. Then there are some verses in the stripes:
- My kingdom is not of this world. (John 18:36)
- No one can serve two masters. (Matthew 6:24)
- Woe to you who are rich. (Luke 6:24)
- Blessed are the meek. (Matthew 5:5)
- Blessed are the poor. (Matthew 5:3)
- Love your enemies. (Luke 6:35)
The key to all of this is the upside down flag. In this case, it's not a cry for help or saying that the country is in crisis or has strayed from its roots. Rather, it's stating that the values that define the United States, even at its best, are inverted Biblical values. (That's the case with most nations.) This is further stated by the usage of those specific verses in the bars and the Chi Rho over the stars.
Regarding the verses, I showed this to my dad who said something along the lines of picking and choosing verses to convey a specific meaning which isn't consistent with the whole of Scripture. But he made a FATAL FLAW by having me read the entire Bible at a young age and telling me that it was to be believed and obeyed. These verses convey the CLEAR witness of the Bible in its entirety and ESPECIALLY of the Gospels. If you have an insane amount of time, you might like Jesus Was a Dirty Hippie or, if you have less time, the Top 10 Reasons Jesus Was a Socialist Commie.
What I especially love is this idea of upside-downity. It is one of the most Christian ideas there is. There's a song called The World Turned Upside-Down. People in the United States usually remember it as the song the British army played when Cornwallis surrendered to Washington at the end of the Revolutionary War (according to legend). The idea is that America successfully declaring and defending their independence was unprecedented and had turned the world upside down. But if you ask any American, they'd likely say the world was being made right. Remember that.
The song is actually from the mid 17th century during Cromwellian England when, along with destroying statues and destroying monasteries and various other atrocities, Calvinist/Reformed Parliament banned Christmas. Here's the first verse:
Listen to me and you shall hear, news hath not been this thousand year:
Since Herod, Caesar, and many more, you never heard the like before.
Holy-dayes are despis'd, new fashions are devis'd.
Old Christmas is kickt out of Town.
Yet let's be content, and the times lament, you see the world turn'd upside down.
By the way, what this means is that the War on Christmas was begun by Christians (or, at least, by Calvinists).
Chesterton, who I quote way too much and just can't stop, talked about the upside-downity as it relates to Christmas in his Ballad of the White Horse (about Alfred the Great's victory over the Danes). Here's a brief portion:
The giant laughter of Christian men
That roars through a thousand tales,
Where greed is an ape and pride is an ass,
And Jack's away with his master's lass,
And the miser is banged with all his brass,
The farmer with all his flails;
Tales that tumble and tales that trick,
Yet end not all in scorning--
Of kings and clowns in a merry plight,
And the clock gone wrong and the world gone right,
That the mummers sing upon Christmas night
And Christmas Day in the morning.
He also wrote a Christmas poem focusing on the insanity of the Incarnation. In the title, he turns the hymn of the angels on its head by calling it Gloria in Profundis or "Glory to God in the lowest." You really should read the whole poem, but here's a stanza:
Who is proud when the heavens are humble,
Who mounts if the mountains fall,
If the fixed stars topple and tumble
And a deluge of love drowns all-
Who holds up his will for a warrant,
Who rears up his head for a crown,
Who strives with the starry torrent,
When all that is good goes down?
He says it even more explicitly in Alarms and Discursions where he has a kind of parable or allegory about the building of a temple. The Christians build the following edifice:
And under the new inspiration they planned a gorgeous cathedral in the Gothic manner, with all the animals of the earth crawling all over it, and all the possible ugly things making up one common beauty, because they all appealed to the god. The columns of the temple were carved like necks of giraffes; the dome was like an ugly tortoise; and the highest pinnacle was a monkey standing on his head with his tail pointing at the sun. And yet the whole was beautiful, because it was lifted up in one living and religious gesture as a man lifts his hands in prayer ... And that symbol which was to crown it all, the ape upside down, was really Christian; for man is the ape upside down.
I'm continually horrified at all the values that those who repeat "America First" say are the values of America. They're DEFINITELY not the values of the Bible, unless we're discussing the Assyrians or Philistines. But, if I'm being charitable, I'd say these are the best values of America, the ones we say we believe in:
- Independence
- Equality
- Industry
- Honor
- Individualism
Would you agree with that list as being representative? Ok ... how much does that actually reflect the Bible? I'd say that the opposite of each of these are more Biblical.
- Rather than independence, DEPENDENCE on God and interdependence with our fellow man. The main virtue of independence is the ability to lay it down.
- The problem with equality isn't that equality is itself an evil. We are all equal in the eyes of God, right? But what this actually means is the preservation of MY equality ... MY rights. Not something I see in Scripture.
- When I say "Industry," it's kind of a catch-all for Capitalism and ... you know ... work. But there appears to be, at the root of the Creations story itself, the idea of rest, of a Sabbath. And I DEFINITELY don't see anything that promotes Capitalism. Sell all you have and give it to the poor or give it to the leaders of the Church to distribute to each as he has need. Or, at the very least, render unto Caesar what is Caesar's ... or Washington's. Nothing about representation. And I pretty sure the taxes the Jews suffered were exponentially worse than ours or of Revolutionary America.
- Honor ... or Pride? No, Humility. Philipians 2 says it is the very mind of Christ.
- Definitely not individualism. Where two or more are gathered, right? The cry of Individualism is that of Cain asking if he is his brother's keeper. Yes ... you are.
I'm not saying a secular government is the best institution for enforcing these Christian values any more than I think they should enforce any kind of morality that doesn't involve actions that hurt others. Although ... I mean ... if the Church is going to continually fail in Her obligation to care for the widow, the orphan, the poor and the alien ... who else can I turn to but the Government even if they do it poorly.
My point is this: the Evangelical, Christian Nationalist, America First conception of Christianity and how it is intimately tied with their vision of the United States is DEFINITELY not Biblical at all. But even the very best of what America has been and can be isn't Biblical either.
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