Flagjackers
I can’t celebrate the Union Jacks in Chipping Sodbury High St. I drove through on Friday night as the lads boldly clambered and hoisted. Their most prominent message was a large (pre-printed) placard decrying the prime minister as a w@nker. I don’t have a problem with opposition or dissent. I am a non-conformist Christian, so I’m generally a supporter of underdogs, outsiders and also-rans. But I cannot salute a flag being touted as a symbol of national pride and unity hoisted by men stoking disrespect and disunity. I did not pull over and ask their opinion on asylum seekers.
I like the Union Jack. I have grown up with it as a symbol of belonging and home. I know it papers over the divisions and misdoings of the past. I might not feel so warmly about it if I’d been born in Belfast or Bala but I’m committed to the idea of sharing peace and prosperity in our nation now. I can’t really see the benefit of moving the borders. I’m content to keep the flag as a symbol of national pride and unity in the same way that I’m glad to have a benign constitutional monarchy.
The cross is a weird choice of base symbol for a national flag though. Jesus repeatedly foretold his death on a cross and described it as a ransom paid for others. He told his followers to put their swords away and publicly rejected the idea that his kingdom was geo-political in the conventional sense. So the use of the cross on any national flag is a perversion of its meaning as a symbol of Christ. It’s probably also worth noting here that Jesus was a young, single middle-eastern man living in an occupied land when he died – like those chaps on the boats.
Jesus’ voluntary death on the cross was a subversion of human militarism. Death by crucifixion was abject humiliation and absolute suffering. On that first Good Friday Jesus bore the worst of all imperial, religio-nationalistic, satanic violence in addition to the weight of the sins of the world. And on Sunday he overcame them all. The cross is indeed a symbol of victory, but only through self-sacrificial suffering. It is the polar opposite of a sign of nationalistic conquest or military strength.
The flag-jackers subverted my flag for their right wing antics. My flag subverted the self-sacrificial symbolism of the cross of Christ. The cross of Christ subverted and overcame all national and personal evil once for all.
I don’t envy town councillors weighing up what to do with these flags which mean very different things to different people, but I am not going to get my knickers in a twist about them. I am going to keep on following Jesus, which means worshipping him above any flag, living a cross (and resurrection) shaped life, welcoming the stranger and working for the good of my neighbour.