Should We Have a U.S. Flag in Our Sanctuary?
Our worship committee has been thoughtfully discussing this question, "Should we have a U.S. flag in our sanctuary?" for the last few months. And we have not arrived at a final conclusion yet. We have, however, done a few things:
- Asked members of the church for their opinions,
- Read articles from other denominations and individuals,
- Talked to individual churches about their policies,
- And talked to UU ministers about their beliefs.
I believe this is an important question, with strong feelings on both sides, and needs to be approached slowly, deliberately, and thorougly.
And I believe that emotions are too strong right now on the issue. I, personally, would like to see any decision delayed until at least a month after the upcoming presidential election, so that the political feelings that have reached a fever-pitch have some time to die down first.
However, we do, in the mean time, intend to do a couple of things:
- We'd like to continue to hear feelings and impressions on an individual basis.
- We're planning a congregational discussion to occur sometime after church during the month of October. I'll post the date here when we have it, but it should be in the newsletter, as well. This will be a time to state your opinions, but, much more importantly, it is a time to hear opinions as well. As always, it is respectful listening to opinions that differ with our own that makes us a caring community of UUs.
If you'd like to read up on this issue, here's a few articles I found through a quick Google search. I do not endorse any, nor do I pretend they represent an unbiased sample.
Comments