How Meaningful Are Our Symbols?

It saddens and frustrates me to see how religion and patriotism in America have created so much confusion and division in the last many years.

The late 1970s brought us the Moral Majority, a loosely held crowd of extremely conservative believers led mainly by the Rev. Jerry Falwell, the wealthy and powerful fundamentalist minister reigning then in Lynchburg, Virginia. He became the voice of the Moral Majority and he masterminded the idea that conservative Christians should take over the government in all aspects of its leadership and influence. From the president and his cabinet to all of Congress, to state governors and state legislatures, all the way down to local school boards and polling captains.

It took years, but it worked. Today, our government—national, state, and local—is heavily influenced by far-right, powerful politicians and other leaders who use highly conservative, in some instances, incendiary, religious propaganda in order to convince voters and donors to both elect and keep them in public office.

It is one of the most cynical and destructive uses of religion in history and it is destroying our nation, all in the name of Jesus Christ and God.

The fact that a bizarrely radical, fundamentalist rabble-rouser and law breaker like disgraced judge Roy Moore, could win the Republican nomination in Alabama for the Senate, is a sign that Falwell’s warped idea of total Christian dominance remains fully in play.

In addition to that, we have this whole bruhaha about the American flag. Which, in the minds of many people, goes right along with religion. People want to believe the two go together.

We have become a nation obsessed with symbols. But a nation that puts the value of symbols over the value of human beings, as we all know from history (Nazi Germany), wanders into extremely dangerous acts of intolerance, viciousness, violence, and inhumanity.

The American flag. The Bible. The Ten Commandments. The police badge. The military uniform. The states flag. The Christian flag. These are all symbols. Yes, they represent ideals, values, honor, courage, patriotism and other acts of heroism and character. But they are only symbols.

Hitler ingeniously knew how easily people gravitate to symbols. He saw how quickly they can get caught up in some brightly colored flag, how they didn’t even question a broken cross as an emblem of their nation; how thousands of soldiers in darkly pressed uniforms marching to stirring music kept the citizens blinded from the hideousness and brutality of their leaders. And, even though many Germans saw with their own eyes the ferocity and savagery of their leaders against Jews, gays, gypsies, and others, they still held allegiance to their flag; they happily sang the songs of their nation; they ignored the cruelty hiding behind some thinly layered justification of patriotism. Country first, and all of that.

But what about human lives? What about real, actual people? What about the unarmed black men killed by police who are never held accountable, which is what Colin Kaepernick’s quiet refusal to stand and salute the flag was all about.

Symbols mean absolutely nothing if what they represent are tainted with acts of hypocrisy, cruelty, corruption, and betrayal.

Beware of any leader who elevates above human beings, the American flag, the Bible, or any highly charged symbol.

History alarmingly shows that civilizations err dramatically and disastrously when their symbols become more important than their people so that at last, they represent nothing but an excess of greed, corruption, and ruthlessness.

A growing majority of Americans want the flag and the Bible to be our abiding symbols. But they may very well be losing their significance. What we need more than anything, is to stand in respect of one another.

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The Unclad Soul

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