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I hate going to church during Independence Day weekend. Don't get me wrong, I go to fire works shows.... I'm singing at one Tuesday night. I've signed loyalty oaths without hesitation (because I'm promising to uphold the Constitution and not neccessary kiss a certain presidential moron's a**) and when I teach government classes I tell the kids they need to wake up and pay attention because our government is only as good as our citizens.

But there's a bit about a jealous God that very few Episcopalians seem to get. Every veteren's day and in particular on Independence Day weekend, I have to suffer through such blasphemy as replacing every hymn with the exception of communion hymns with national songs. To be fair, the sequence and the service music were not changed, but they did present the bloody colors before we started the Eucharist Prayer and after church, everyone in the place sang the national anthem (I was to pissed to stay).

Somehow, I feel like I've stepped into the church of the national flag every year on this weekend, and every year I feel like I'm some early Hebrew dancing around a golden calf waiting on Moses to come down from the mountain and break the tablets. I stayed through the service. I didn't sing America and I didn't sing My Country Tis of Thee because I just thought it was... to inappropriate. I felt cheated and beat down when I left, and considering the mood I got there in, that was not a good thing.

Am I the only one who feels this way? Am I crazy? Am I overreacting? Can anybody tell me why it's "Okay" or "right" to sing to the cult of Nationalism instead of Jesus once a year? I mean, why??? Last year, by the way, I was in a great mood until I got to church (not this church, a different one) and I found that the entire service, including the sermon, had been usurped by the national cult. I was inscensed and ashamed.

Is there some part of jealous God people don't understand?

I'm seriously curious about why people think this is okay, I promise, this is NOT a manifesto.

I am Catholic, so only our ending hymn was a patriotic song, but it still bothered me. I don't think we should be singing the praises of the country we live in instead of singing praises to God.

You sound like Mr. 'Screw 'em' Kos, the radical leftist who runs Daily Kos. dramallama

The vestry?

our sect say that our nationality is in the kingdom of god which is above any national allegiance.

that is one main reason why most nations have persecuted us.