Faith Works 5-5-23

Faith Works 5-5-23
Jeff Gill

Allegiance is a word I have to look up
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While I am pretty sure I know what it means, allegiance is a word I have to think through before I type it. I don't use it often in print.

The "Pledge of Allegiance" I know quite well, even if I don't write it out much. I'm in school buildings of a morning fairly often, and it is still said by standing students every morning in pretty much every district of this county that I know of.

Even if you're there for a meeting that started early and you're in a conference room, when the voice on a PA starts the Pledge, everyone stands up, puts a hand over their heart, and looks around for a flag that isn't always in evidence, but we all say it, then sit down as the announcer goes on to tell us what today's lunch menu is.

This has been true since my earliest days in school, which to be fair only goes back to the middle 1960s, but I think it's been the case for quite a while. Which is why I was as surprised by Joyce Carol Oates tweeting her shock at learning this was true as quite a few other Twitter followers of hers.

I mean no disrespect to her; she's a fine novelist, short story author, reviewer and essayist, and has been a hoot on social media. But she's just enough older than me (I won't say how much, but enough) and clearly has not been around public or parochial schools below the post-graduate level much to not know the "Pledge of Allegiance" is a common feature of the educational morning.

With deep respect to Jehovah's Witnesses and other freethinkers who sadly have suffered to achieve this freedom, I acknowledge that there's a Supreme Court precedent that clearly states no student has to participate, and I've seen a fair number choose to do so, or rather not do so. It's a tricky thing, that: if almost every other student and the teacher is putting a hand over their heart and saying the Pledge, it's very hard to not do so. And again, I acknowledge that there are people who have a principled reason to not say that public affirmation, and support them in not saying it even as I do so. There's a school of thought that says a better solution is to not have everyone say it, to which I reply, and where does that end? I'm more interested in helping everyone allow exceptions rather than ensuring no one ever has to be one.

This has become an issue for the coronation, which you are welcome to not care about, but is in the news more than a bit. May 6, 2023, Westminster Abbey, King Charles III is anointed and crowned and formally installed, and the monarch in Great Britain is for them what the flag of the United States is for us. This means a pledge of allegiance to the new king, which has traditionally been delivered by the peers (dukes and lords and such) but is being opened up this time to, well, anyone.

Since I agree with George Washington that we don't need a king, this is not technically my event, but as an English speaking Protestant, and as a Christian in general, I'm interested. Trust me, I don't plan to "swear that I will pay true allegiance to Your Majesty" but the debate over who can or should is of interest.

Psalms, prophets, so much of Biblical religion uses imagery of kings and monarchs to communicate something of who God is, and how God reigns (such as, "reigns"). This symbolic language needs interpreting, which means work for preachers. This preacher will be watching, and reflecting, and making notes.


Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he's taught the Pledge and flag folding to Cub Scouts for years. Tell him how you understand allegiance at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.