New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees criticized his NFL colleague, saying he respects Kaepernick’s right to protest whatever he wants, but drawing the line at this form of protest. Brees calls the American flag “sacred.”
.. 2. On the other hand, Drew Brees is wrong: the American flag is not sacred. I mean, I understand why he believes that it is, and I am sure it is sacred to him, as it is to tens of millions of Americans. But should it be? Do we worship the nation and its symbols? At what point does loving one’s country — patriotism — become an idolatrous form of nationalism?
.. 3. What if the United States government, as well as American culture, began to oppress Christians in a serious, deliberate way? How would I feel about standing up for the National Anthem myself? I would be hard pressed to do so, precisely because the state would be violating the one thing I do hold sacred: the Sacred.
.. Most people will see Kaepernick’s stunt as just that: a stunt. But the day may come when things like this have more power than mere shock value. Though Kaepernick’s action is wholly political, with no discernible religious content to it, it ought to make Christians think about our own relationship with the nation and its symbols.
How the Rebel Flag Rose Again—and Is Helping Trump
A year after the Charleston shootings, bigotry has found some new allies in the South.
In the six months after the Charleston shooting, the Southern Poverty Law Center documented 364 Confederate flag rallies around the South. That doesn’t include a spurt of growth in the number of flags on private lawns and on bumper stickers.
.. many of those in the bizarre coalition of racists, anti-government radicals and states’ rights activists who’ve led the battle charge for restoration of the rebel flag believe the GOP presumptive nominee is dog-whistling encouragement to them.
.. “The reason I’ll vote for Trump is probably the reason I feel most of the country is going to vote for him: They’re sick of the political correctness. We’re so worried about the minority getting their feelings hurt, with the flag, with transgender bathrooms and all that. Sometimes, the minority has to understand that their feelings get hurt too, and majority rules most of the time.”
.. At the University of Mississippi, the newly reconstituted student NAACP chapter began pressing administrators to remove the state flag, which also incorporates Confederate iconography. When they organized a protest in front of the administration building, the Ku Klux Klan showed up.
“We wanted to draw a relationship between that flag and white supremacy, to demonstrate that you’re either on the side of white supremacy or on the side of justice,” says James Thomas, assistant professor of sociology and the chapter’s faculty adviser. “So when the KKK showed up, it was perfect. When they were yelling at our students ‘black lives don’t matter,’ and ‘Go back to Africa,’ it made it very easy for us to draw the lines and make that contrast.”
.. I think what has happened is that for groups on the radical right, the Confederate battle flag has become a symbol of resistance to the federal government, which is their key issue. If you think about the Civil War, it makes sense; it was a battle fought by the South against the federal government.”