The Cult of the American Flag?

Sun: 28'Gemini
Moon: 00'Scorpio
Sun Trine Moon - Waxing Gibbous

I will make no friends with this post, I am sure.  It is a mix of both theological thought and politics, fair warning, but it should be said despite the common convention.  (After all, you came here, and it's your choice to keep reading or not.)  And there's no better time to explore the deep-seated psychological thoughts and urges than under a Scorpio Moon.

What defines "sacred?"

This question came to my mind after noting the incident in which rapper Lil' Wayne stepped on, or was perceived to be stepping on, the American flag. 

Now, I normally don't give a flying rat's ass about what goes on in popular culture, and the rap "scene" is just really not my thing at all.  However, this caught my eye as both a Pagan and an active servicemember.  And my thoughts are not precisely what one might expect from either perspective. 
Desecration: a term commonly used to imply acts like Lil' Wayne's, or flag-burning (though flag-burning is also protected as free speech under the Constitution), right along with trampling on the cross or spitting on a Torah, or letting a pig loose in a mosque.  What does that word mean?

Dictionary.com: 

verb (used with object), des·e·crat·ed, des·e·crat·ing.

1.  to divest of sacred or hallowed character or office.

2.  to divert from a sacred to a profane use or purpose.

3.  to treat with sacrilege; profane.

Or, for a different take, the Catholic Encyclopedia:

"Desecration is the loss of that peculiar quality of sacredness, which inheres in places and things in virtue of the constitutive blessing of the Church. When material objects are destined for purposes of Divine worship they are set aside with a view to this end by the solemn form of consecration or by the simpler formula of a blessing, so that they assume a sacred and inviolable character which renders unlawful their employment for profane uses. Now when they lose this stamp or character of sacredness they are said to become desecrated. As a general principle it may be set down that places and things, which have been either consecrated or blessed, retain their consecration and blessing so long as they remain, morally speaking, the same as they were in the beginning, and consequently, so long as they continue fit to serve the purposes for which they were originally destined." 

In order for it to be possible to desecrate something, it must first be consecrated.  Simply building a church, constructing a table with the intent of it becoming an altar, or forging a brass cross is not enough for the Catholic Church to consider it holy: it must undergo certain carefully prescribed rituals.  Even Pagans will usually (though not always) cleanse, consecrate and bless their altars, shrines and/or most prized ritual items.  I know of no American flag which has gone through a specific ritual of consecration - nor would I agree with the idea that what goes for one representation of the flag goes for all.  My athame is not an original piece, but the fact that mine is consecrated has no bearing on the sanctity or lack thereof of any of its sister copies out there.  (Otherwise, if the flag is sacred, those Americana-themed napkins and plastic serviceware items that get trotted out every Fourth of July would be quite outrageous...)

It's interesting that, while other countries do have laws, sometimes even strict laws (e.g. Saudi Arabia) governing the treatment of their flags, the US is the only country in the world to my knowledge that treats its (secular) flag as a (religious) cult object.  (The Saudi flag is an exception here, as it physically bears the inscription of the shahada, the Islamic declaration of faith, and therefore actually does qualify as a religious object in and of itself.)  The Stars and Stripes weren't even a big deal until after the Civil War - but the US is hardly the only country on the planet which has endured a crisis so divisive.

As was fairly well established above, the term "desecration" is normally reserved for items or places of religious significance to one person or group of people, which are appropriated, misused and/or destroyed beyond reclamation by another person or group.  So now we must turn to the idea of whether or not is appropriate to use a term of religious connotation to an secular item.

It must be questioned what it might be about the American flag - or that which it symbolizes - that makes it any greater, holier or more deserving of reverence as an item or symbol than the Canadian Maple Leaf, the British Union Jack or the French Tricolor. In fact, looking through American history reveals chapters which are just as dark and brutal as anything to be found on the European continent.  Burning Times?  We had our echo of that in Salem, and it's still going on today, motivated by a few bigoted Christians' fear and hatred of Pagans, Muslims, Jews, gays... anyone different than them.  Holocaust?  Inspired by what was done to the Native Americans.  The Crusades?  Bush the Second declared the military action in Afghanistan to be a "crusade" within days of 9/11.  Ask the Deep South how they feel today about slavery and lynching blacks: depending on the skin color of the person you're asking, you may get some very unsettling answers.
 
But these things cannot be put aside when considering America, or the values which American life is supposedly founded on - especially not now, with the Constitution under direct assault.  Every inch of American land was stolen from the First Nations, sometimes openly, sometimes under pretext, often in direct violation of treaties which were, by our own Constitution, "the binding law of the land."

If Americans treat their flag as an item of cult significance and make something close to a religion out of the handling and treatment of the flag, it makes me wonder why Americans do not value and treasure their history and their Constitution more.  Why was it not more of an outrage in 2005, when a sitting President of the United States went on record calling the governing document from which his office derived (and continues to derive) its power a "goddamned piece of paper?"  Why are current flagrant violations of the Constitution not being protested in the streets?  Surely, if the flag is the symbol of the secular cult, the Constitution is the Supreme Being which should be at the center of that cult?  For without that, there IS no America.  All legally-derived powers of office or service in this country come from that document: to set it aside or to ignore the responsibilities given in that document is to effectively abrogate the right to any powers it grants.  The history - the story of what has been done in service to the Constitution and under the flag in its various incarnations - is what gives the flag its symbolism.

You see, without that understanding, any American talk of "desecration," or of "dishonoring the service of our fallen soldiers" is pure and empty lip service: what was it they died for, if not the values represented by the flag, as enshrined in the Constitution here in the US?

But can we lump the service of ALL the fallen military of America into one category?  I certainly do not view the heroism of a Medal of Honor recipient in the same light as that of a Confederate soldier who helped split the country because he wanted black people kept in chains.  I do not see the soldiers who willingly participated in the massacre at Wounded Knee to be any more deserving of respect than those who would electrocute a helpless prisoner's genitals.  Even many Vietnam veterans, though proud of their own service during that conflict, are shamed by the spectre of My Lai to this day.  Be careful in how you word that "service," for not all of it has been honorable at all.

I cannot throw stones at the Constitution itself, even in the inherently flawed form that came out of the Continental Congress (though Jefferson certainly foresaw the agony that the three-fifths compromise would throw the nation into).  I don't blame Jesus for the sins or crimes of those who claim to follow Him despite their actions, or Allah for the deplorable actions taken in His name.  Nor will I blame the Constitution for the sins or crimes of those who claim to serve it despite their actions.  But I also do not think it appropriate to place reverence on a physical object, no matter the symbolism.  Respect - yes.  There have been heroic acts and much honorable service done under the American flag, but.  Even the respect must be tempered with the understanding of, not just what it represents, but what has been done in its service and name.  All of it.  And, stepping outside of nationalistic ideologies (the tendency to consider one's own nation "better" than all others - of which Americans are notoriously and perennially guilty), there is no reason whatsoever to grant one flag more respect than another.

Sanctity is in the eye of the beholder.  A cross is sacred to a Christian, but to a Rosicrucian it is simply a dead stick, and what a Catholic views as the depiction of Jesus' ultimate sacrifice may well be viewed by that same Rosicrucian as a reinforcement of the imagery of death: it takes the Rose to bring the Cross to life.  The Torah scrolls that Jews hold sacred were taken by the Nazis and used as lampshades, among other common household items.  American soldiers are alleged to this day to have flushed copies of the Qu'ran down the shitter - whether the soldiers implicated in this desecration know it or not, that is an act of spiritual warfare, as was the 2001 destruction of the Bamyan Buddhas by the Taliban (as "idolatrous images."  And idolatry, or the perception of it, is a subject for another post.)  Too many people across multiple ideologies continue to consider the pentacle - one of the holiest symbols around to a Wiccan - to be a symbol of their greatest personification of evil.  (And the Satanists continue to be just as indignant over the misappropriation as the Wiccans are.)

We Pagans can pick up a rock or a seashell, and call those "sacred" within our traditions and beliefs.  That act, assuming something wasn't making its home under that rock or in that seashell, harms nothing - which is not what can be said for the American flag which flew over some of the bloodiest acts in our nationalist history.  We can cut a branch from a tree, with a need behind the request, permission from the tree to take a living part of its being, and offerings before and after as thanks for the gift and apology for the pain inflicted - and that, too, is sacred to us. 

The sword Excalibur is described in Marion Zimmer Bradley's fictional work The Mists of Avalon as having been forged of iron that fell from the stars "and therefore twice holy, for it was never ripped from the Mother's body" - yet later in the story, Arthur takes the sword that belongs to the the Goddess (in Her form as the Lady of the Lake), inverts it, and uses it as a Calvary Cross to bless in the name of Jesus.  On another occasion, he uses the Chalice of the Goddess - the Holy Grail, according to the book - as the vessel in which to contain the Christian Eucharist.  (As the lead priestess of that Goddess, Morgana is of course both furious and deeply troubled by the question of whether or not such a profanity of tools so sacred to her Goddess could ever be set right again.) 

So tell me - what defines "sacred" to you?  What would make the Constitution, and the flag it symbolizes, "sacred objects?"  And, with an honest and critical eye towards American history and what was destroyed in service to the "values" that the flag represents - is it truly "sacred?"  Does it deserve the reverence Americans place on it, or is that a bit out-of-proportion?  And why do other countries not treat their own flags with the same religious reverence, even if they have laws governing how it may or may not be handled?