In 2010, two years ago, the World Cup theme was a song by my favorite Somali rapper, a Canadian-residing rapper named K’Naan, who I especially love for his work with Keane (one of my favorite bands). The song, which hit number #1 in many countries around the world but barely scraped the Top 100 in the United States [1, was called “Wavin’ Flag.” I never heard of the song until my search of Keane and K’Naan’s duet “Stop For A Minute” led me to other videos by the rapper. It was sad that the pestilential vuvuzuela [2] was far more well-known in the United States than the pleasant pop song that served as the theme for South Africa’s World Cup.

The chorus of this catchy and optimistic song goes like this: “When I am older, I will be stronger. They’ll call me freedom, just like a wavin’ flag [3].” K’Naan deserved his hit success with this record, and it is appropriate for the World Cup finals, where the 32 nations who have survived lengthy and grueling preliminary rounds in their continental regions get to wave their flag and cheer on their national team. For many teams, showing up is a victory, and most countries (aside from the United States) passionately care about “the beautiful game” as it is called by most of the world (though it is a fairly dull game to many Americans).

Today I would like to muse a little bit about the significance of the flag, though. Flags have symbolized nations for a long time. We know from Numbers 2 that flags and standards and emblems were very common. Not only were there four main standards, one for each grouping of tribes around the tabernacle, but there were even emblems for each father’s house within the twelve tribes of Israel (see Numbers 2:2-3, 10, 18, 25), the main standards being for the tribes of Judah (a lion, presumably), Reuben, Ephraim, and Dan. The fact that each father’s house had its own emblem and standard suggests that the scene was more like the Civil War, where each regiment had a flag in addition to the national flag.

Human beings are deeply symbolic beings. We attach a great deal of significance to things that literally don’t mean very much, and the fabric of a flag symbolizes freedom for a Somali-born rapper who became a refugee in Canada as much as it did for an Israeli delivered from freedom and fighting in the army of God, and as much as it does for those of us who are patriotic citizens of our nations. As we see the flag as symbolic of ourselves and all of our fellow citizens, a flag is a suitable symbol that helps us all to remember what side we are on. When someone attacks those symbols, they are attacking us and marking themselves as our enemies, and a patriotic person acts accordingly.

Although the context of the World Cup is a competition in which there can only be one champion, that is not so when it comes to identities. One of the reasons why the flag waving of the Israelites was acceptable to God is that an identity does not mean competition with other identities. Males are not in competition with females–they were both created in the image and likeness of God. The same is true for all of the peoples of the earth, in whatever shape or size or color we come in. We may compete for power and land and resources and bragging rights, but we are not inherently in competition with each other. We could share and cooperate and live and trade peacefully with each other if we wanted to. But it is not identity itself that is a threat, for under God’s regime there is unity in diversity–one law, many personalities and many peoples and many tongues praising Him.

It is not different identities that cause competition between people. Rather, it is when people are favored or oppressed because of identity. When certain people use identities, especially in the misguided attempt to right past wrongs, to play favorites in a society and to unjustly distribute rewards and scarce resources by identity rather than through merit, then identity becomes a club to beat others wit, and a flag of war rather than a friendly mutual recognition of difference without controversy. It is the perversion and misuse of identity that leads to conflict, rather than its existence.

When identity becomes misused as a weapon against others, then demarcation of that identity becomes important, and people are vigilant to ensure that only “suitable” people are able to claim such an identity. Often people can claim multiple identities at the same time. For example, because of my background and upbringing I can claim identities like white, Native American (Cherokee), Jew, Christian, Scot-Irish, English, German, and many others (even Basque, though sadly I can’t play jai-alai because I’m left-handed), Appalachian and Yankee and Southerner, and those are only the ethnic and cultural identities. Many of the students I teach here can claim identities as Black, Red, or Yellow Lahu as well as Thai and Christian. As human beings we are fond of collecting identities, and using different identities in different contexts–and there is nothing wrong with it, it just makes us more complicated.

And the fact that we wave our flags proudly does not in the least mean that the misuse of identity discredits the existence of identity, and neither does the fact that some identities may themselves be morally blameworthy. We are all under the same moral standard, and so long as our identities are within that moral standard they are like different flavors of ice cream–some of us prefer flavors like vanilla and strawberry and cheesecake, others like chocolate and mint. Let us neither forget the moral absolute which guides proper identities and proper behavior nor the fact that within that moral standard there are no better or worse flavors, only ones we prefer. And the same is true for identities–some may better suit us, but so long as our behavior (and the behavior of others) is moral and godly, there are no better or worse ones, for we all share a common identity due to our common origin and common authority. The rest is simply ornamentation, which makes life more beautiful and varied.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K’naan_discography

[2] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/giving-credit-where-credit-is-due-the-vuvuzela/

[3] http://www.metrolyrics.com/wavin-flag-lyrics-knaan.html