The History of National Flags in Churches | Miles Smith | First Things

There may be prudential reasons to refrain from displaying national flags in churches. But the point stands that non-American and non-Western ministers do not see the presence of the national standard in their churches as inherently idolatrous or even particularly nationalistic. But in the United States, the hand-wringing over flags has gone from prudential consideration over something that is ultimately adiaphora to anathematizing anyone who places the flag in a church as a “Christian nationalist”—a term increasingly so imprecise as to be useless for any purpose other than to designate some socio-religious outgroup. Unfortunately, the plea to remove national symbols from religious spaces (and vice versa) is often a gnostic attempt to make Christianity a merely spiritual practice shorn of its outworkings in civil society.

Source: The History of National Flags in Churches | Miles Smith | First Things