The Flag Folding Ceremony

Today my wife attended a luncheon that included a Flag Folding Ceremony. While my wife does keep up with politics, and is in many ways smarter than I, she rarely provides inspiration for my blog. Today was an exception. She was quite impressed with the Flag Folding Ceremony. While talking to me about it, she said, “Anyone who doesn’t believe religion played a large part in our countries foundation is simply wrong.”

I tend to agree with her. Many of our documents our country was founded on contain references to God and to a Judeo-Christian creed. I will concede that there were important figures in our history that were either openly atheist, or questioned God’s existence. I think the ability to do either in our society is one of the things that makes our nation great.

My wife encouraged me to go look for the Ceremony online. I did a quick Google search for “Flag Folding Ceremony” and found many links. The rest of my information is taken from the USA Patriotism website. I encourage everyone to read the link to the meaning of the 13 folds of our flag. It is a very solemn and religious ceremony. Every website I looked at today had a disclaimer that this ceremony (while performed by an assortment of military units at different times) was not official military policy. This ceremony respects and honors life, God, veterans, mothers, fathers, and others. If the military if going to have policies like “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” would it be such a terrible thing if we adopted this ceremony as an official ceremony?

The Ceremony honors and glorifies the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. My understanding is that Islam honors Abraham and Issac, Christianity and Judaism honor all three. The Ceremony reminds us of those who have gone before to protect our rights. I encourage everyone to take a few minutes and read through the ceremony. I would especially like to point out what the fifth fold represents (taken from USA Patriotism):

“The fifth fold is a tribute to our country, for in the words of Stephen Decatur, ‘Our country, in dealing with other countries, may she always be right; but it is still our country, right or wrong.’”

If we as Democrats, Republicans, and all others can agree on this, maybe we can solve many of the issues facing our nation today. May God bless America.