I’d like to preface this week’s My Two Cents by pointing out that I have been an atheist since the age of 12–and I have no “dog in this fight” when it comes to organized religion. But despite being an outsider, I still like to keep an eye on houses of worship around the area to see what it going on. And one of those trends I am seeing is that more churches are becoming less about Christ-centered worship–and more about modern social posturing.
After being “unchurched” for the better part of two decades, I started attending services with my wife shortly after our wedding as a show of support for her beliefs. (What does an atheist do in a church for an hour? In my case, I played “mental golf” imagining rounds at my favorite courses–or thinking about how I would play some of the greatest courses in the world.) And while the services did not vary much from the Roman Catholic masses I attended in my youth–just with less kneeling, confessing, anointing, and admonishment for sins. One thing that was very different was the obsession the church had with “fellowship”.
Services were invariably followed by members providing cake, muffins, quick breads, brownies, cookies, and coffee. It was an obsession of everyone: Who’s bringing the treats this week? What will they bring? Will there be enough for us to take more than just one of each? And then those responsible for the post-service spread had to slip out early to get everything set up and the coffee on to brew.
I took to calling it the “Church of Cake”–a play on a routine by British comedian Eddie Izzard who mocked the roots of the Church of England and used the line “Cake or Death” as punishment for non-believers. Anyway, I would find out that it was not an outlier at that time. Serving as an administrator for the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University, I led sessions at a church that had a fully-operating coffee shop and a commercial-grade kitchen–just in case you need a little caffeine and a breakfast bagel to get you through the Sunday sermon. I also played Saturday morning hoops at another church that had a full-size gymnasium–and it was not connected to a school. It was just “Hoops for Jesus”–if you ignored the profanity-laden trash talking by players.
So for years, I referred to churches that were more social clubs than places of worship as the “Church of Cake”. But those types of congregations are being replaced by what I’m now calling the “Church of Flags”.
When I was a kid attending a small, rural Catholic church, an American flag flew outside the adjoining grade school. A flag would come inside the church itself for masses on Memorial Day weekend, the 4th of July, and maybe during a veteran’s funeral. But during the rest of the year, the Cross was the focus of attention inside the church.
Now, as I drive around several cities in our area, I notice a lot more flags on churches–and not the Stars and Stripes. Right here in Appleton, there are several houses of worship that have the LGBTQ flag either on their building or flying out near their roadside sign. I have seen one place of worship with the Palestinian flag this spring (I’m not going to give you the exact location–to spare them some potential problems). During the pandemic, there were several churches that put up the Black Lives Matter banner on their buildings as well.
Thanks to social media accounts, we can see inside more churches today–and I’m seeing plenty of flags there too. There’s one account that shows a cross with a rainbow colored cloth draped on it. I’ve also seen pictures of altars adorned in the same color pattern.
I decided to make this the topic of this week’s Two Cents after an internet search for the pronunciation of a person’s name via on-line videos turned up posts from a Unitarian minister with the same last name. In the videos she is wearing a stole depicting the flame of the Holy Spirit in rainbow colors. The minister also posts several of her sermons–including such uplifting topics as “Love in the Age of Fascism” and “Justice and Equity for Every Body”. Usually, I like to use the line “I watch so you don’t have to” when talking about 4-hour school board or county board meetings–but I just couldn’t see dedicating two-hours of my life to this stuff.
I doubt that this minister, her church, and the other churches that fly their various flags and banners with no religious ties are alone. Organized religions are meant to be collections of shared beliefs. And for the first 4000+ years, that was a shared belief in divine powers and spirituality. Now, more and more churches are catering to shared political or social beliefs–less about faith, and more about confirmation of one’s life choices. And they have the flags and banners to prove it.
So I will continue to spend my Sunday mornings at my “cathedral”–where the only flags you will find have the hole numbers on them and tell you where the holes are.
