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[OBW]

Originally Posted by awareness

Considering what Matthew(?) has Jesus saying on the mount, concerning taking oaths : not to 'heaven, earth, or even Jerusalem,' I don't know if we should take our patriotism that far. The JW's take it literally, so they won't salute the flag.

Like most of us, I grew up saying the pledge of allegiance, hand on heart. But I grew up and found it silly. I was born on the earth, not Mars, so why pledge to just a small section of geography? I resented that I was made to do it.

Now I don't. But at least I can quote Jesus.

While we typically compel the young to recite the pledge at least periodically (it was not daily in my youth, but at times), we require it somewhat as part of the oath an alien must recite to become a citizen. As long as we consider it as a lesser love, devotion, etc., to that of Christ, it is not a problem.

On a related issue — the US invovlement in various military conflicts around the world — some go so far as to be pacifist due to their understanding of the command not to kill. Others follow a "just war" theory. And others have no particular thought on the matter as long as the country is involved. I probably tend toward the latter, but with reservations, especially when the "war" is not strongly supported and declared by Congress rather than just the Administration. And remote financial interests are hard to use as justification, though there are arguably other justifications in the recent undertakings.

But I do think that the status of the US as the global police force is a bit beyond what our role should be. NATO and the UN are not our rubber stamps for what we want. If they don't want to get involved in every conflict, we should listen, not just force ourselves. We need a balance between global involvement and isolationism and I think we are too far to the global involvement side at the present.