Should a Mississippi Town Have to Remove a Christian Flag?

by / on February 9, 2017 at 6:18 am /

The United States Code refers to the Declaration of Independence as the “organic law” of the United States.  And the Declaration clearly claims that there is an Almighty Creator God, that our rights come from Him, and that the purpose of civil government is to protect and defend the God-given rights of the people. The Declaration makes reference to the Bible, God’s Word, as the source of earthly, legal authority.

Civil government includes federal, state, and local city governments like the town of Rienzi, Mississippi, where this past weekend more than 1/3 of the town’s population showed up to a rally in defense of a Christian flag flying over their Veterans Memorial Park.

It seems the Freedom from Religion organization wrote a letter that threatened a half-million-dollar lawsuit against the small town of 300 people if the flag wasn’t taken down.

Some folks like organizer Kevin Nelms responded like Americans, declaring, “We’re not gonna let other people, or a foundation, or anybody else up in Wisconsin tell us that we can’t fly our flag! You’re gonna take one down; we’re gonna put a hundred back up.”

Unfortunately there were city government leaders showing a bit more bewilderment and naiveté.  Believing that he had no choice in the matter, Rienzi Mayor Walter Williams pulled the flag down, saying, “I never dreamed that something like this would have happened in a town this small, but it happened.”

I am sure this mayor is shocked that the First Amendment, which states, “Congress shall make no Law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” would be used as a legal threat by an assailing organization that hates God.

Woodrow Wilcox

ADVERTISEMENT

So, the legal question I present to you is whether the city has broken the law by flying a Christian flag, among others, at a Veterans memorial?  In other words, does flying a flag equate to Congress making a law, the effect of which is to establish an official United States religion?

Well, the answer seems to clearly be “NO” for at least two very simple reasons:

WoodrowWilcox.com

ADVERTISEMENT

  1. The city of Renzi is NOT “Congress”
  2. A flag being hung is not a “law”

In order to find that a flag hung in Mississippi (or anywhere else) is a violation of the Establishment Clause, the first thing you have to conclude is that the city of Renzi is, in legal contemplation, the Congress of the United States.

Crazy, you say?

I agree.  But this is exactly the conclusion that some maintain through a “legal fiction” the courts call the “Incorporation Doctrine.”

George Washington, our First President, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces that won the war for our independence, and the President of the Congress that gave us our Constitution and the First Amendment, insisted:

“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labour to subvert these great Pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and citizens.”

In other words, George Washington would have called dysfunctional organizations like the Freedom from Religion “un-Patriotic” and therefore “un-American”! So along with the city of Renzi, let’s be Patriots and hang our Christian flags!

Learn more about your Constitution with Jake MacAulay and the Institute on the Constitution and receive your free gift.

This article is printed with the permission of the author(s). Opinions expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the article’s author(s), or of the person(s) or organization(s) quoted therein, and do not necessarily represent those of American Clarion or Dakota Voice LLC.

Comment Rules: Please confine comments to salient ones that add to the topic; Profanity is not allowed and will be deleted; Spam, copied statements and other material not comprised of the reader’s own opinion will be deleted.


Jake MacAulay serves as the Chief Operating Officer of the Institute on the Constitution (IOTC), an educational outreach that presents the founders’ “American View” of law and government. The former co-host of the syndicated talk show, The Sons of Liberty, he is an ordained minister and has spoken to audiences nation-wide, and has established the American Club, a constitutional study group in public and private schools.
Jake MacAulay
View all posts by Jake MacAulay
Jakes website
  • Thisoldspouse

    The “progression” of this ideology is stupifying:
    – from “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,”
    to
    – “Government shall establish no religion”
    to
    – “Government shall remain neutral on all expressions of religion”
    to
    – “Government, including schools, shall allow no voluntary expression of religion on its property”
    to
    – “Government shall punish the voluntary religious expression of those of religious faith involved in government”
    to
    – “All expression shall enjoy the unfettered restrictions prohibited by the First Amendment EXCEPT religious expression.”

  • George T

    What you aren’t considering is The Bill of Rights (amendments 1 to 10) being modified by The 14th Amendment. All rights are equally recognized for all citizens and all prohibitions are equally applied to all parts of US government. Thus the prohibition applied to Congress now applies to all parts of US government.

    • The Fourteenth Amendment was created to stop Democrats from denying basic liberties to black Americans. It was not created to sanitize the recognition of our nation’s Christian heritage from the public square. It has no authority whatsoever to do such a thing. The federal government has no authority over a small town in Mississippi’s acknowledgement of the worldview from which our unique American system of government stems, i.e. the Christian worldview which recognizes that our rights come from our Creator, NOT from government or people who possess power.