Wisconsin residents are familiar with flag-lowering conflicts. Only last December, the state was whipped into a political frenzy as Packer fans sought a respectful way to honor both beloved defensive end Reggie White and codes of conduct regarding our nation’s most prominent symbol. The deaths of former Packer Vice President Mark Hatley and Brett Favre’s father Irv Favre were acknowledged with the same half-mast honor, but also marked with the similar flag etiquette controversies. Then, Wisconsinites struggled with whether or not these public figures should be granted the ultimate symbolic honor, despite the fact that they did not serve the country in military or government positions.
This experience in much smaller scale flag-lowering dispute may provide Wisconsites with additional insight as they face another symbolic battle that has broken out in religious and political circles across the country — this time involving the death of Pope John Paul II.
After all, in Wisconsin, football is practically religion and fan-support borders on worship. But what happens when the state and national flags are lowered to honor a truly religious figure? Answer: tempers flare and borders get blurred.
President Bush issued an executive order on April 2 asking that all flags on federal buildings be lowered to half-mast in honor of “His Holiness Pope John Paul II.” Because the flag is typically lowered to honor past presidents, Supreme Court justices and Congressmen, it’s not surprising that President Bush and Governor Doyle are under fire for perceived religious endorsement.
Lowering the flag to honor the Pope is not a blatant government endorsement of Catholicism over all other religions, even though it’s unlikely that this symbolic privilege would be granted to the memory of other non-western religious leaders. Although subtle and covert, this government action is tainted by religion and does toe a significant constitutional line.
Although it is legally up to the president to decide how and when to honor fallen political leaders by lowering our flag, this is not a responsibility that President Bush should take lightly, and certainly not one he should be able to exploit for political gains. The flag is a national symbol whose meaning is defined entirely by public perception.
In the United States, Old Glory has traditionally been viewed as a secular symbol, signifying the power and prestige of American government and ideals. It embodies the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and all of the principles our Founding Fathers guarded so jealously when drafting our nation’s blue prints. Lowering the flag then, suggests that the entire country is honoring someone who embodied the qualities for which the flag stands or vice versa. If the flag is lowered for an extremely religious figure, it is a symbolic indication of the government assuming some religious character — an unconstitutional and undesirable development.
President Bush and Governor Doyle correctly argue that the Pope was an influential world leader with significant political clout, but this attempt to secularize John Paul II is unnecessary and a disservice to his memory. The Pope’s primary role is to lead the Catholic Religious community, maintaining and encouraging the faith of millions of religious believers around the globe. This expressly religious purpose is not something that should be incorporated or even acknowledged by our nation’s most secular symbol. The president’s statement and attendance at the funeral were necessary demonstrations of support and sorrow; lowering the physical embodiment of United State’s secular ideals is not.
Backing faith-based initiatives, interfering with Terry Schiavo and closely monitoring the Ten Commandments case developments in the Supreme Court indicate that this administration and religion interact and overlap every day and at every level of our government structure. Clearly, complete and total separation is impossible in a nation whose history includes a substantially religious foundation, but we must respect the secular boundaries that have been established to ensure equality and prevent religious endorsement. Let’s honor Pope John Paul II with voluntary religious prayer and contemplation — not by altering the meaning of our nation’s most treasured secular symbol.
Sarah Howard ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in political science.
