Patriotic churches?

Alright, if you are strongly patriotic, then I suggest that you don't read today's blog. With Memorial Day coming up, I know that it is inevitable that I'll end up driving by a church or two that are flying the American flag up high, so I thought today I'd share an opinion I've had for years.

As many people know, I don't attend a church right now. Mark and I tried a couple of years ago, and the church we went to, had me in shock by the time we left there. It kind of made me realize that my search for a church was going to be harder than I thought. In my opinion, it is NOT ok for a church to be patriotic!

I DON'T know everything about the Bible or God's word, but I DO know that it is a commandment from God, to not idolize false idols. People have given the flag a persona. They salute and worship it. How is this any different than the people who worshipped the golden calf? It too had a meaning...it symbolized their victory, wealth and power. Yet it was strongly against God. Now, I have no problem with people saluting whatever they want, I'm open minded. BUT I do believe that a church above anything else, should follow God's word and not set a bad example.

Also, in the house of God, they should say "God bless EVERYONE"......NOT "God bless our troops". We are ALL equal in God's eyes, and as far as I know, America is no better than any other country to him. Also, there are a lot of innocent people - Christian or not, dying over in the other countries because of our troops. I'm patriotic to a point, but for some reason, the thought of the innocent dying, doesn't appeal to me as something God would be ok with, no matter what the reason (and war is always a greedy reason). It just doesn't seem right that they'd ask us to only pray for our people. I pray for everyone involved, including those who fight in other nations.
Maybe I should just stay home on Memorial Day!