Caught with their flags down

When Stanley Hauerwas, the Duke University professor dubbed by Time as "America's best theologian" ("A playful mind," March 17, 2007), gave a commencement speech at a Mennonite college a while back, he said he was glad that no American flag was in evidence, for "the power of the flag is, by necessity, violent."

Hauerwas added, "Because there is no flag here, Goshen College is potentially a more truthful, and thus academically interesting, educational institution than those that serve such flags."

Two questions for asking on June 14, Flag Day: Is a flagless institution likely to be more academically interesting than one that displays a flag? And does showing a flag that represents government's power of the sword detract from the primary allegiance of Christians to Christ?

I don't doubt that Goshen is a fine college, and that its reasons for not showing a flag, couched as they are in Mennonite tradition, are far deeper than the anti-flag sentiments of the secular campus left. But even though flags may be on display in front of college administration buildings and at football stadiums, most major American universities these days are essentially flagless.

These days many professors sneer at patriotism. Many don't want students to become defenders of the flag, so they kick ROTC off campus. Some prefer the president of Iran to the president of the United States.

Does such conduct make a flagless institution potentially more truthful and interesting than one that displays a flag?

I suspect not. At some intellectually flagless institutions masses of individualists line up and take orders from the Noam Chomskys of the world. Flag-flying institutions are likely to have a broader diversity of thought. They may even welcome some professors who are neither liberal nor radical.

But the second question remains: Does allegiance to the United States detract from our allegiance to God? After all, the U.S. Constitution does not refer to God, so maybe this is a godless America from the get go. Sure, the Declaration of Independence does display faith in God, and the Constitution assumes God, but wouldn't it be nice to have that constitutionally explicit?

Well, surprise: It is explicit in U.S. constitutions-not once but 50 times. Every state constitution refers to God. Here are five examples from the preambles of Revolutionary War constitutions:

And here are five later examples:

Notice how often the state constitution writers link God and liberty. They did not equate expressions of biblical faith with graspings for theocracy. They knew that an understanding that all have sinned and fall short of God's glory leads to a separation-of-powers system of checks and balances, the opposite of a dictatorship.

They also knew that if we stopped invoking God's guidance we would look to our own wisdom or to that of a Supreme Court grasping for supremacy, and we'd be in trouble-as we now are.