For some reasons flags and militaries go together.  From ancient history (going back to biblical times) armies have used flags as standards to rally behind, as an inspiration in battle.  This connection continues to the present day.  Deceased veterans are honored through the prominent display of the American flag.  Additionally, a refusal to give allegiance to the flag of a nation, or worse, to desecrate such a flag, is popularly considered tantamount to treason.  Indeed, those who disrespect a flag act treasonously because of that close connection between a nation’s flag and its military.

Therefore it should come as little surprise that on the same day in history, on June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress approved the first flag for the United States of America and also approved the Continental Army, the first “national” armed forces in America’s history [1].  The fact that it approved such national measures within a year of declaring independence demonstrates that the practical consequence of declaring independence is providing symbols for that nationhood and the military strength to defend that nationhood.

Nonetheless, despite the obvious symbolism between the flag and the nation of the United States as a whole, the development of a flag day was itself rather slow and gradual within the United States.  Personally, I find the adoration of the flag to be at least borderline idolatrous, for my own allegiance to earthly nations and their laws is contingent on whether those laws square with God’s laws, which have my ultimate allegiance.  Within those limitations, and the fervent desire for God to mend my nation’s every flaw, I am a patriotic citizen of the United States.

It is striking, and ironic, that the observance of flag day was first promoted by President Woodrow Wilson during World War I (in 1916), a war that was marked by very draconian and unconstitutional laws under the presidency of perhaps the most virulent racist to hold that office.  The lack of freedom of those who disagreed with the US involvement in World War I, including draconian and unconstitutional Sedition Acts, a thorough hostility toward conscientious objectors (another connection between flags and the military), the widespread use of anti-German propaganda, as well as the use of racist “intelligence” tests, goes hand in hand with making the flag an idolatrous symbol of adoration, and another “test symbol” to encourage people to brainlessly and unthinkingly support the decisions of America’s political leadership.

Likewise, Congress made Flag Day a nationally recognized day in 1949, during another period of American nationalist paranoia during the early part of the Cold War.  And the first Flag Day ceremony within the United States has been said to be in New England during the opening part of the Civil War (another conflict where loyalty to the flag meant loyalty to the nation and its policies of ridding the United States of rebels and traitors).  The close connection between the veneration of the flag and support of controversial national policies in times of war is something that cannot be denied, whatever one things of justice of the causes the flag was draped in.  Likewise, how we feel about the flag tends to reflect how we feel about the nation it represents.  Symbols are powerful, and flags have remained symbols of armies and nations for thousands of years because that power endures to the present age, and likely for as long as human beings remain motivated by symbol, which is likely as long as human beings exist.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_Day_(United_States)