Since early 2006 I have been in a limbo state. As a United Methodist pastor, I have always been sent to the church where I attend. I don’t have to decide where to go, where to live, who to live among, and other sticky choices we humans normally have to make. Since 2006, though, when I chose to pursue filmmaking as a full-time answer to a heartfelt calling, I have been in something of an in-between state. I cannot return to the church where I grew up and then served for seven years (a matter of United Methodist policy). So, we have been attending another, somewhat smaller, and much more laid-back, church in town. Today I just heard of another reason to settle there.

I heard from a neighbor who is a longtime member of this church today. He told me how someone came to the church council and asked that a “huge, I mean really huge” American flag be hung on the wall in the Family Life Center. He said a hearty debate took place in the council, and that finally the council voted to NOT allow the flag to be hung in such a manner. Wow.

He told me that he referenced our study of “Theologians Under Hitler” in the discussion. I told him that when I completed the film three years ago I had one modest goal: if the film caused one single person to think twice about the place of the flag in a church sanctuary, then I had done my job. The news he brought me, then, fulfilled this wish!

There’s nothing wrong with the American flag. I fly it proudly at my home on certain occasions. But my neighbor is right: the flag can be confusing when flown too prominently in church. It takes a great deal of theological clarity for a church council in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, home of the Little Boy and Fat Man bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to deny someone’s wish to hang a large flag on the wall. It’s a step in the right direction, one the church should be proud of. I have found this church to be healthy, hospitable, and truly loving. Now I can add one more reason to join this congregation, Kern Memorial United Methodist Church.