I STRONGLY agree with Gerald Schlabach's commentary ("We Pledge Allegiance...") on allegiance and the issue of loyalty—will it be to Jesus or to some political figure? I would simply take his suggestion one step further: An appropriate equivalent of "Lord" (as in the confession "Jesus is Lord") today, in the American context, is not merely "president" but "commander-in-chief." If Jesus is the church's commander-in-chief, we who follow him cannot take our marching orders from any leader whose violent values betray the gospel.
Michael J. Gorman
Baltimore, Maryland
This appears in the May-June 2003 issue of Sojourners
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