God & Country

Every Sunday morning for the past six years, a church pennant with a blue cross on a white field has fluttered above the U. S. flag on the flagpole of the Baptist Church in Queens Village, L. I. Local patriots have complained repeatedly but the church's minister, Rev. J. Earle Ed wards, felt justified. For nearly a century the U. S. Navy has done the same thing, running up a pennant during shipboard church services. Minister Edwards grew vexed last week when a D. A. R. pamphlet was sent him, citing a flag code promulgated in 1923 by 68 patriotic societies which agreed that no emblem may fly above the U. S. flag. Minister Edwards got his local ministerial association to appeal to the Federal Council of Churches. Welcoming such a test case the Federal Council began to make inquiries.

No Federal law deals with displaying the U. S. flag, but the U. S. War Department has publicized the societies' code of 1923. In this the U. S. Navy practice is not mentioned. During the War many a church adopted the Navy pennant, for use indoors alongside the U. S. flag. Because few churches hoisted pennants outdoors the question of propriety bothered no one until last week. Then the Navy Department was asked for an opinion. It shied away, saying that it could make no ruling about inland churches. While the Federal Council's Secretary Samuel McCrea Cavert went on investigating, last Sunday Queens Village Baptist Church continued to put God above Country.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.